It took a long time to get where we were going, but we finally got there.
This episode finally gave me what I wanted out of the series. It was 52 minutes long (a bit shorter sans credits), and from the jump our rebel cell is putting their plan into motion. The tension during this episode ratchets up at a constant pace. The nature of heist plots is that the plan never goes off without a hitch, and that is true in this one as well. As before, I don’t want to give anything away with this episode, so I’ll just place a collection of thoughts below:
Andor so far has the most fully realized characters out of any Star Wars production. What I mean by this is that the people in the show act like real people, and not archetypes. New Imperial characters are introduced this week, and while they have all the prejudices we’ve come to expect from Imperials, they aren’t cartoon cut-outs. They have families, and problems within those families. Though they work within an evil empire, they can be selfless and brave when defending their own.
More than that, they don’t fall into the “lazy/stupid” trap that mars much Star Wars storytelling. The Imperials in this show can’t be hoodwinked just because they’re the bad guys who are too lazy to notice what is going on right under their noses. Instead, a technician who could have easily accepted that radio interference was being caused by a celestial event continued to investigate when he realized that not ALL frequencies were blocked – and was thus able to mount a defense against an attack. This raises the threat level against the heroes, and forces them to overcome.
My hope for future episodes is that we get some stormtroopers with deadly aim!
The money for this show continues to be put on the screen. I expected fireworks for the celestial event depicted during the heist, but I actually let out an “Ooooh” when the storm began. Likewise, the sets and locations are beautiful, and I was thrilled to see not only TIE Fighters launching from racks at an Imperial airbase, but also some additional shots of TIE Fighter Interiors. (These didn’t look *quite* as good as I would’ve hoped, and they weren’t onscreen for as much as I would’ve liked – but I’ll take what I can get!) The character relationships and dynamics that were fleshed out in earlier episodes paid off at the climax of this one. While I would’ve preferred getting some action last week, I think the sacrifices made in this week paid off all the sweeter for taking the time to get to know the characters a little more.
Finally, this episode surprised me more than once. I had made a few predictions based on previous episodes, and it’s fair to say that I only got about half of them right. Not only is it refreshing to not be able to guess what’s going to happen next, but when the unexpected happens, it feels like a true gut punch. I understand why Andor isn’t for everybody. There are elements of the show that I don’t like – there are hints of “the message” in this and other episodes, but they’re handled so lightly that I can’t take offense. The show is definitely slower paced than most Star Wars fans are expecting – and there is a contingent of fans that insist that Jedi must appear in every show.
After this week’s episode, I feel like there are great opportunities for character growth for Cassian – for the first time, I’m excited to see what HIS character is going to be doing after what just happened – especially when Dedra Meero and Syril Karn team up to try and track down the conspirators. My greatest fear for the show now is that the showrunners may have alienated too much of the audience by taking too long to get somewhere. It would be a shame if a show with the technical quality that has been put into it performed poorly ratings-wise, and Disney took the wrong lesson.
I think there IS a place for a more adult, grounded, gritty Star Wars – I just hope it will be a quiet grower.
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