Maybe you’ve heard people talk about it Andor in increasingly superlative terms. There’s universal praise for being among the best Star Wars stories out there, for being a conspicuously angry show, for being a super grounded show that has little fanservice and lots of politics, and so on and so forth. This can be a lot to digest, especially if you’ve been burned by Disney Plus’ recent Star Wars TV shows and aren’t that hot for the future of that galaxy far, far away. This is fair! There are some people (hi, I’ve written a lot of these articles) who went from zero to sixty on the prequel to a prequel, Challenging that everyone takes it seriously. but AndorThere’s more going on than heady politics and rebellious self-sacrifice.
So first, allow me to corroborate all that has been written (I’ve worked very hard on it) and say this Andor will really surprise you how much serious consideration it is worth. Second, I also want to highlight something that might get lost in all this big talk: Andor is also good at all that funny Star Wars shit.
Check out this week’s episode Daughter of Ferrix, which takes some time after last week’s dramatic prison break to show Cassian Andor trapped in a snot web by aliens Dewi and Freedi Pamular. The Pamulars, like all good Star Wars aliens, are full of grumpy cheekiness and literally a breath of fresh air after the claustrophobic sterility of the Narkina 5 working prison. They have fun web traps, a happy camaraderie, and are just as mad at the Empire as we are. It’s a great time.
This isn’t an anomaly either – there are plenty of silly and exciting moments everywhere Andorfrom Keef Girgo aka Cassian, whom he adopted while he was at Space Florida (where the DJs kick ass), to cute space battles, hilariously pushy moms and B2EMO, the adorable droid of the Andor family and the first in Star Wars who behaves like this he is older than the ground beneath his steps.
Even the series’ approach to Easter eggs – something that has been watered down into mere “references” in many other franchises – is refreshing. You’ll need to pay close attention to find some of the deep cuts, and pausing to peruse the wares at Luthen’s Antique Shop is a huge bonus for those who live for that sort of thing.
what does Andor what’s refreshing is the casual way it shows that both Good Star Wars and Fun Star Wars can be the same thing. Because it’s a show about downright normal people caught up in the epic combat of Star Wars, it lets these normal people have all sorts of experiences — committing themselves as much to the disruptive politics of the revolution as they do to the details of those snot-nets.
