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Online Series: Star Wars Andor on D+

93/100 on Metacritic after 24 critic reviews. Think that might be the highest rated Star Wars anything on the site.

Edit: technically no. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic holds a 94 rating. A New Hope has a 90.
 
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how many hours left until the premiere of andor s2?

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First arc of S2 wasn't on the level of S1, but it's still the best Star Wars thing in quite a while.

The switch away from all the real sets they used in season 1 to the usage of the volume in season 2 takes some time to get used to. Hopefully it was just necessary for some of the more fantastic settings in this first arc (if you can call endless wheat fields fantastic), and we'll see more of the interior shots and real sets as we progress further.

I like how they're showing us the dysfunction between multiple different rebel groups who aren't really working together, and how that lack of communication and differing styles can breed conflict. However, I don't like how they turned Maya Pei's rebels into basically just comic relief. Why were they all so inept? How did a group of such idiots manage to become notorious Rebels who had evaded the ISB? I get that they wanted them to be "kids" who were in over their heads, but it felt off in terms of tone and the otherwise grounded realism of Andor.

Most of the stuff with the tie fighter, especially in episode 1, felt like it was foisted into the show by executives who heard the complaint that season 1 was "too slow." It felt like a cookie cutter action sequence jammed into a show that usually only relies on those action sequences at a moment of plot turbulence and climax. They even had the "zoom in on a ship escaping a dust cloud" trope.

Speaking of the tie fighter, how did Andor go from "I don't know how to pilot this thing, it's not what I was trained to pilot, I've been stuck upside down for 2 days" to immediately jumping into hyperspace towards his friends and gunning down Imperials in the blink of an eye?

Not really sure why Syril is still in the series, and his relationship with Dedra seems like a cop out for both of their characters. However, the scenes with his mother were outright hilarious.

I'm genuinely not sure if the farmer did turn in Brasso, or if Brasso was making a big display to take the fall and spare someone else. That particular scene was confusing to me.

The Chandrila arc was definitely the highlight so far, even if it was a bit predictable.

I enjoyed the callback to the Niamos music during the last part of the wedding scene.

So much of season 1 centered around the banality of evil and oppression. Yet episode 1 has scenes with a secret group of Imperials mustache-twirling and plotting a conspiracy. That was a big miss, in my book. I wish they had found a different way to provide the exposition dumps regarding Ghorman, Dedra's assigment to that project, and the connection to Krennec. I get the plot convenience of those scenes to align those pieces on the board and let us know who/what/where/why things are going to focus on Ghorman, but having its downfall be by a deliberate conspiracy of evil-doers undercuts a lot of the themes of Andor season 1. Last season, it was the structures of power itself that led to events unfolding the way they did, not by direct manipulation. It was people just doing their job, whether it be the Morlana security, the Aldhani garrison, or the cut-throat ISB agents.

To their credit, I think the Imperial census scenes in episodes 2 and 3 did a much better job of showing how deliberate abuses of power fit within the banality of the Imperial oppression.
 
Hivemind said:
First arc of S2 wasn't on the level of S1, but it's still the best Star Wars thing in quite a while.

The switch away from all the real sets they used in season 1 to the usage of the volume in season 2 takes some time to get used to. Hopefully it was just necessary for some of the more fantastic settings in this first arc (if you can call endless wheat fields fantastic), and we'll see more of the interior shots and real sets as we progress further.

I like how they're showing us the dysfunction between multiple different rebel groups who aren't really working together, and how that lack of communication and differing styles can breed conflict. However, I don't like how they turned Maya Pei's rebels into basically just comic relief. Why were they all so inept? How did a group of such idiots manage to become notorious Rebels who had evaded the ISB? I get that they wanted them to be "kids" who were in over their heads, but it felt off in terms of tone and the otherwise grounded realism of Andor.

Most of the stuff with the tie fighter, especially in episode 1, felt like it was foisted into the show by executives who heard the complaint that season 1 was "too slow." It felt like a cookie cutter action sequence jammed into a show that usually only relies on those action sequences at a moment of plot turbulence and climax. They even had the "zoom in on a ship escaping a dust cloud" trope.

Speaking of the tie fighter, how did Andor go from "I don't know how to pilot this thing, it's not what I was trained to pilot, I've been stuck upside down for 2 days" to immediately jumping into hyperspace towards his friends and gunning down Imperials in the blink of an eye?

Not really sure why Syril is still in the series, and his relationship with Dedra seems like a cop out for both of their characters. However, the scenes with his mother were outright hilarious.

I'm genuinely not sure if the farmer did turn in Brasso, or if Brasso was making a big display to take the fall and spare someone else. That particular scene was confusing to me.

The Chandrila arc was definitely the highlight so far, even if it was a bit predictable.

I enjoyed the callback to the Niamos music during the last part of the wedding scene.

So much of season 1 centered around the banality of evil and oppression. Yet episode 1 has scenes with a secret group of Imperials mustache-twirling and plotting a conspiracy. That was a big miss, in my book. I wish they had found a different way to provide the exposition dumps regarding Ghorman, Dedra's assigment to that project, and the connection to Krennec. I get the plot convenience of those scenes to align those pieces on the board and let us know who/what/where/why things are going to focus on Ghorman, but having its downfall be by a deliberate conspiracy of evil-doers undercuts a lot of the themes of Andor season 1. Last season, it was the structures of power itself that led to events unfolding the way they did, not by direct manipulation. It was people just doing their job, whether it be the Morlana security, the Aldhani garrison, or the cut-throat ISB agents.

To their credit, I think the Imperial census scenes in episodes 2 and 3 did a much better job of showing how deliberate abuses of power fit within the banality of the Imperial oppression.
Click to expand...
I’m sure the conference was based on Wannsee
 
I watched the first episode. It certainly won't please the people who thought that Season 1 was boring and didn't feel like Star Wars. :laugh: I enjoyed it, though, and am so happy to again have Star Wars that feels made for me.
 
Five seasons the quality of S1 would be a daunting task, so I get scaling back. I don’t know how fleshed out Gilroy’s road map is, but I hope Disney let’s him be the Fellini of the Andor fiefdom and lend guidance to some comics, novels or (the Force willing!) animation.
 
Hasbro said:
Five seasons the quality of S1 would be a daunting task, so I get scaling back. I don’t know how fleshed out Gilroy’s road map is, but I hope Disney let’s him be the Fellini of the Andor fiefdom and lend guidance to some comics, novels or (the Force willing!) animation.
Click to expand...

Doubt it, dude says he's done with Star Wars
 
Hasbro said:
I’m sure the conference was based on Wannsee
Click to expand...
I get that (and the end outcome of the conference has a ton of parallels to Cold War-era CIA actions), but I just don't think it worked well as a scene. It made the villainous actions feel more cartoonish than they had typically felt in Andor. Much more of "we're being intentionally evil because we want space coal" than the evils created by a fractured bureaucratic system where individuals simply trying to exist within or further their careers end up creating injustice.
 
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Just finished. I'd say this or the first arc of season 1 are the weakest arcs for me. This probably being my least favorite. It was still pretty good but it didn't have the same suspense, keep me on the edge, type feelings I had with the first season 1 arc.

The rebel group stuff was pretty meh. Felt very marvel esque with bad humor put into what could've been a good serious scene. Glad to be done with that group.

Mon Mothma actress nails it per usual. Her scenes never have any action in that sense, but are always so well done.

I enjoyed the farm stuff. I'd die for Bee. The first arc of season 1 I also struggled to get into initially but once it picked up a bit I enjoyed it a lot more. Although I don't know if I'd enjoy this arc nearly as much as that one on a rewatch.

I'm not sure if I have this in a post anywhere, but I've been saying to some friends that Dedra is going to be Andor's sister, Kerri. Different eye color and hair but that's not difficult to change in the Star Wars universe. Drives home the humanization of the villains theme. Her confirming she has no family has me really high on this theory.

A lot of people don't like Syril but I actually enjoy his character. The scenes with his mom always kill me.

Overall, I'd call this first arc good but not great. I think it'll only get better from here though and I can't wait to see more.
 
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