Andor (season 1)

⭐ 10.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

I don't mean to sling around hot takes, but is this the best Star Wars of my lifetime? I will always defend Episode 3, and I love The Mandalorian, but this show fulfills the promise of an adult Star Wars playing in the massive sandbox without feeling like a lightsaber needs to be ignited to be exciting or meaningful. And it completely pulls it off from episode 1 to the finale, with no wasted frame or line of dialogue.

The dialogue here is really what sets this apart. The Obi Wan show feels like it was written by a high school class compared to this. Sure, everyone talks like a philosopher, but it leaves space for silence and reaction as well, with conversations that feel realistic and nuanced.

I love the way this show takes the things we have seen in Star Wars and shows it to us from a different angle. TIE fighters shrieking overhead while you are planning a stealth siege are terrifying. The pure white rooms of Empire authorities seem like cubicle filled jobs for the terrible and ambitious. People with blasters feel dangerous, clones feel oppressive, it just does a perfect job of making a rebellion like we see Luke ultimately finish feel impossible.

I love how this show starts as a dark spy thriller, almost noir, but also features a suspenseful and action packed heist arc, and an emotional prison arc. Seeing the way people are used by the Empire is pretty impactful, and what could have been an excellent show in our world is elevated by being set in this world.

I am no Rogue One truther, and a lot of hot take artists say its the best Star Wars ever. I will never get to that point, but I think its worth a revisit now, given the love I now have for Cassian. That's the crazy thing, I don't think Andor is a tremendous character or anything. Luthen blows him off the screen with his presence, and I love Dedra Meero, who we are trained to love for the first half of the season as a woman working her way up professionally in a male dominated world only to remember at the end that she is evil and works for an evil company. I have similar feelings about Syril Karn, whose life is given so much detail and has an unexpected arc that you would not have foreseen in episode 1. I could go on for days. But my point is that Andor is just a good enough character to completely unlock and open up this world in a way that has not been done on screen.

I can't finish this review without Mon Mothma, a perfect example of how to take a known but minor character and give them depth and importance. Her arc is political, and balances the swashbuckling rebels in the field. Seeing all the sacrifices people make, and the threads that lead them to the rebellion was so satisfying, and gives us stakes apart from planet explosions and force chokes.

In a year with Barry, The Rehearsal, The Bear, Better Call Saul, and House of the Dragon, I think this is the show of the year. It takes a childhood love and makes it feel relevant and adult. If the idea of the guy who wrote the Bourne movies is in any way interesting to you, then this is heaven.