I could go on for so long about how good Andor is. So I will.

Firstly a shout out to @MoreCivilized, essential listening if you want a combination of intelligent and hilarious discussion of the show. They started as a prequels/The Clone Wars podcast but took an interlude to watch Andor and it was well worth it - their Andor episodes start at podcast 43. Here they are watching the trailer.

Spoilers for the whole season follow...


Anyway, here are a lot of things I loved about the show.

  • The passing Rogue One references - Kafrene, Wobani, shore troopers, death troopers, a TIE Reaper, Melshi(!).
  • The repeated themes - "climb", sunrises, polygonal shapes - that are done subtly and not flagged with HEY HEY LOOK AT THE THEME WE'RE DOING A THEME.
  • The complete lack of clean good guy/bad guy tropes, Jedi, Tatooine, and "I've got a bad feeling about this".
  • The writing, particularly the speeches. Oh my god the speeches! Luthen's monologue, Maarva's funeral speech, Nemik's manifesto.
  • The Empire is scary again. A single TIE doing a flyby is terrifying and deafening. When storm troopers arrive after only seeing Imperial Army troopers they're actually intimidating.
  • The creation of a new Star Wars culture on Ferrix that feels real and deep. The sense of community there was amazing.
  • The sly way they get you to root for Meero at first (the underdog in a male-dominated workplace, with new (correct!) ideas about how to run things) and then hit you with "right, but she is still a fascist"
  • The soundtrack, and more specifically the use of silence. Every so often they drop the music to silence (or almost silence) and it's incredibly effective and dramatic. The funeral march was amazing.
  • The sound effects in the battle scenes - Star Wars blasters have punch and impact instead of just being pew pew pew lasers that don't feel dangerous. And that TIE flyby sound again.
  • Luthen's flechette launcher - genius. Love to see an Imperial captain baffled by the capabilities of an unassuming small freighter. Side note: loved the Cantwell-class cruisers and the blink-and-you'll-miss-it inclusion of a TIE boarding shuttle.
  • The episode 12 post-credits scene - wasn't really needed but it was a beautiful shot.
  • The way the writing and character development retroactively adds to the Rogue One story despite Rogue One being written years before this show is amazing. Of course Andor, the guy happy to immediately execute people where it's logical to do so, has trouble pulling the trigger with Galen Erso in his scope - he's spent enough time with Jyn to see the parallels between her and his own upbringing. He tells Jyn at the end that her father would be proud, echoing what a dying Maarva told him.

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