Star Wars: Andor


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Dioltach

Legend
Yup, the voices of children, no less.

This is the most evil we've seen the Empire. It felt suffocating just watching this episode. I think anyone watching this show, and then watching the OT, will have an even more cathartic experience than we did back in the day. Back then, the Empire was something we loved to hate. Now, it's just something to hate.
 

embee

Lawyer by day. Rules lawyer by night.
This show has gone from tense to taut to gripping to exciting to terrifying.

Every actor is delivering an epic tour de force of barely restrained emotions. Syril's mother steals every scene she's in, though Syril steals many of his own. Dedra Meero is bone-chillingly ruthless. Dr. Gorst is a somewhat generic depiction of a Mengele-style villain but scary in his own right. Even Ulad, a minor part, evokes a bit of pathos reminiscent of Brooks from Shawshank Redemption.

My only regret is that this production team hasn't done more for Star Wars earlier. This is Star Wars at its full potential.
 

MarkB

Legend
Yup, the voices of children, no less.

This is the most evil we've seen the Empire. It felt suffocating just watching this episode. I think anyone watching this show, and then watching the OT, will have an even more cathartic experience than we did back in the day. Back then, the Empire was something we loved to hate. Now, it's just something to hate.
It's like high-functioning sociopathy as a societal trait. To understand those sounds, to know how and why they would cause unbearable distress, yet to have no emotional reaction to the choice to deliberately apply that distress to another being.

I was left shaken for a good half-hour after watching the episode. Still feeling it as I recall the details.
 


MarkB

Legend
I'll be interested to see this not-a-banker Mon Mothma is about to be indebted to. Are we thinking independent gangster, or a member of one of the Star Wars galaxy's known criminal syndicates?
 

I'm not disliking the show, but it is starting to drag its feet again. The whole "we torture you with dying children" comes across as mustache twirling evil, but without the humor. It's just over the top ridiculousness, but played totally straight.
 

embee

Lawyer by day. Rules lawyer by night.
I'm not disliking the show, but it is starting to drag its feet again. The whole "we torture you with dying children" comes across as mustache twirling evil, but without the humor. It's just over the top ridiculousness, but played totally straight.
I feel like that's the sort of thing that they certainly would have used on Leia in Star Wars and Han in Empire Strikes Back.
 

Celebrim

Legend
I'm not disliking the show, but it is starting to drag its feet again. The whole "we torture you with dying children" comes across as mustache twirling evil, but without the humor. It's just over the top ridiculousness, but played totally straight.

I agree that was one of the weaker moments. The show is too gritty to insert that sort of magic in here and then imagine it can be bottled by a machine.

Still, the actress nailed it.

I'm likewise not necessarily liking where they are going with Syril. He's obviously lost his marbles at this point, which is no way to win the girl. I was looking forward to those two being a team and maybe attracting the jealousy of Heert.

I rank this probably as one of my bottom 2 episodes, just because it was short, predictable and we got too many viewpoints where not a lot is going on. However, Diego Luna continues to shine and his plot line managed to carry the episode. We also see that Deedra is not far behind "Axis", as she's learned of the plot he's trying to get Saw in on to provide air cover.
 




Hussar

Legend
Have we ever seen an example of torture not working in Star Wars? It's not like anyone resisted it. At most, Leia gives up an older Rebel base, but, then again, she's got Force resistances to draw from. Which means you can wave away most plot points.

That being said though, this is probably one of the best SF series I've seen in a long time. This goes right up there with The Expanse for me. I'll cop to not being totally on board with the first couple of episodes - too much flashback and waaaay to plodding for me. But since then? Oh yeah. Even the last three episodes, where there's been pretty much no action to speak of, just people talking to each other, have been edge of the seat watching for me.

Very, very different tone from standard Star Wars. Much more nuanced and mature and, as someone said earlier, this would make a terrible entry point into Star Wars, but, as a different view of Star Wars? More please.

Funny thing about viewership though, I wonder if I'm a weird one. See, with streaming shows, I don't watch them when they come out. I wait until there are two or three episodes and then watch them all - it helps me to follow the story better. I lose details when I watch week on week, particularly in a show that has this many characters.

I think I'll wait out a bit for the season finale to see what the viewership statistics are. It might catch back up. I really hope so. And I really hope this writing team gets another crack at a Star Wars series. They've very certainly got what I want.
 


Rabulias

the Incomparably Shrewd and Clever
How do you know the interrogation droids don't incorporate it?
Fair point. Maybe the droid does not incorporate it, but uses something newer, that is faster/more evil?

Also, we don't know yet how this whole thing works out for Meero. We know Andor does not get caught, but if her investigation becomes some embarrassing debacle for the Empire, her and her methods may all become tainted in the future.
 



reelo

Hero
This. They really need to avoid episodes in which nothing happens. It's self-indulgent.
Au contraire, mon ami! this is some of the best Star Wars I've ever seen because it's a slow-burn. It's refreshingly different. Though I can see how a generation of ppl who are used to MCU movies might think it's boring.
 



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