Andor series: observations

Hmm... I dunno... This episode was a bit, ah... underwhelming?

I hope this isn't a case of history repeating itself (maybe I'm getting Covid again). I became disenchanted with "Obi-Wan" half-way through its run, and I really don't want that happening with "Andor", but it might be. Solid craftmanship, but something oppressively mundane about the whole thing might now be taking hold.

Episode highlights:

- The drab concrete Imperial base aesthetic. You push that drab concrete Imperial base aesthetic to the max. More. Until it hurts, daddy!

- I think I heard someone saying "Move!" in this episode. I think.

- Oh, noes. They fridged the black rebels. Diversity!

- So that monorail train thing is a rocket ship? Okay.

- The meteor shower sure was subtle.

- Planetary locals localing in locally local ways. That's two sets of "primitives" this show has now depicted in its first six episodes; not all that convincingly.

And a few more focused thoughts concerning the big base-storming climax and the epilogue:

- Lots of shaky cam and rather agitated editing in this stretch. Not sure it quite connected for me.

- The conveyance of the action had a rather anonymous character to it; like a drowsier version of a set-piece from "Quantum Of Solace".

- It wasn't some extended espionage/sneaking thing (like a Mission Impossible-esque scenario). Once the rebels were inside, they quickly drew their weapons and started shouting their heads off and bossing everyone around. Kinda boring.

- It's a small thing, but a particular detail that really stuck out was those Imperials running down that stairwell to get to the vault. The stairs were actually shaking. Didn't have a sci-fi, found future feel to it at all. The Empire apparently likes concrete dams lined with rickety stairs. Incredible worldbuilding.

- Weren't the gawking faces of those Aldhani people as they watched the meteor shower absolutely awe-inspiring? I know I had chills. But that might be because I live in the UK and my heating was off. Bland white person followed by bland diversity person followed by bland white person, all with the same monotone gaze, doesn't really do it for me. 

- Did I mention I think I heard someone shouting "Move!"? Phenomenal scriptwriting in this episode. And let's not forget: "Cover me!!!" Or the guy running out into the open and getting gunned down at the last second as his mate fails to completely cover him. Totally didn't see that one coming.

- I kinda had to LOL at just how fast the train flies out of the station when Cassian hits the gas. And then everyone inside reacting like they'd just gone 100 mph in two seconds, when it seemed more like they achieved Saturn V rocket speeds. Pretty sure they'd all be a tangled mess of bones in the corner somewhere.

- Cool lightshow when Cassian was flying through the clouds being pursued by those TIEs, but unfortunately, this is Star Wars: it's all been seen before. Mash up the escape from Cloud City with the big aerial battle on Exegol, season with a light sprinkling of "Solo" and its Kessel Run sequence, and you have this same sequence done better elsewhere.

- So Vel didn't hear that laser blast outside (when Cassian shoots Skeen)? 

- The butcher-flap door was very distracting, as was that weird four-armed alien doctor. The former, at odds with the general Star Wars "look" (like a few things in this show, which are now starting to become irritating); the latter, tonally jarring with regard to the seriousness of "Andor" and the urgency of this episode's final events.

- Pretty obvious the kid was gonna die. Like. From. His. Very. First. Scene. Of course, this is going to shake Cassian, harden his resolve, yadda yadda. All the usual cliches are appearing behind the fresh paint that is slowly peeling off the walls now.

Also:

- The music in this episode flat-out sucked. Totally generic. Nothing exciting, interesting, uplifting, gut-wrenching -- let alone anything remotely Star Wars -- about it. The whole series just took a massive dump on itself here.

Closing comments:

So, yeah, I don't know where I stand with this whole "Star Wars as television" deal right now. I'm starting to revert to my earlier position and beginning to feel it's a mistake: contrived, silly, a big fat waste of time. Star Wars is big screen sci-fi fantasy: mythic adventure. "Andor" is like dry toast. Perhaps it's time for Cryo to come back down to Earth, then stick his head through the clouds and remember that Star Wars was once visionary, entertaining, epic in scope, colourful, and truly like something that had been beamed to this planet from another world -- A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . . . 

"May you live long enough for the Eye to see the good in you." (or something to that effect)

The eye is certainly looking at Anakin Skywalker.

Flying through the Eye...a time limit that allows you to dance on the edge of time and eternity. Eternity is in love with the productions of time and all that.

One detail I like is the fact that everyone is just going about their humdrum everyday business when the big news rolls in at the end. ALSO, the Imperial base reminds me of Hadrian's Wall. In addition to the British and the Nazis, here they are drawing inspiration from yet another historical Empire. Or at least it would seem so.

It was weird that there are no stormtroopers at the base though.

Padme's eye beat THE EYE to Anakin though...God I love that woman. 

I prefer Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk.

Cryo Smash!!!


Not really. I was just expecting something a tinge more sci-fi. That said, I misspoke: It's technically not concrete, but quarried rock. I think the issue largely comes down to scale. Based on the how fast the freighter blasts out of there (and the fact they were penetrating an Imperial vault), the rebels must have gone a mile or two beneath the surface (the dam atop), but not much internal geography is shown. It's just a few small grey rooms and a convenient elevator and then suddenly they're at the vault. I counted on there being a bit more sneaking and co-ordination. Then again, Cassian does say to Luthen in the third episode: "You just walk in like you belong."





No. But yeah. But no. Good points, certainly. I suppose what I take issue with is the fact that both those characters were quite stern toward Cassian and suspicious of his presence, yet we're deprived of any follow-up between them. I mean, yeah, that's life 'n' all, but maybe one of them could been spared. Then again, it seems they were clearing the board at the end of this episode, leaving just one man and two women alive. I kinda like it. And I guess it's a prelude to all the rebels dying in "Rogue One".


It was, yeah. And, first time watching that previous episode, I initially mistook "payroll" for, well: pay-roll. As in: a document or a ledger. Like they were trying to discover who is on the Imperial payroll and that was valuable information by itself ("And on the payroll of the Federation, I might add"). Of course, payroll can also mean "the pay itself".

I think I was still confused, though, on the train thing initially, going into this episode. Revisit the fifth episode ("The Axe Forgets"). Some complication concerning the train is brought up around thirteen minutes into that episode. Vel and Taramyn are concerned about a particular operational detail. This is what Vel says (per the subtitles): "Obviously, it's a track launch, so there's an adjusted thrust ratio to make it up the ramp." They then press Cassian into revealing how to input the weight of the payload. Cassian subsequently queries them if they're sure the train is "mounted" and "ready to go". They claim to be sure, then Cassian says: "There's a load clutch. It's a big ugly handle just right next to the booster throttle. There's a gauge just below to read the weight." Taramyn is curious why this isn't in the manual, but Cassian assures them it's because "it's a custom job, it's an add-on."

The scene seems primarily designed to show the rebels weren't as prepared as they were making out, and that Cassian is a vital member of the team, who has seen more of the galaxy than they have. But it also suggests they were going to run into difficulties and maybe encounter a surprise or two. However, unless I'm missing something, it doesn't come up in the just-released sixth episode. Perhaps I am missing something. Does Cassian fuck up and inadvertently kill Nemik when he hurriedly gets the train engines up and running and slams the throttle forward? Re-watching the episode, I see that the rebels' greed and inexperience both get the better of them. Maybe this explains the hundred-or-so "move" commands; and, interestingly, all the rebels killed -- even Skeen (indirectly) -- seem to be victims of them taking too long and trying to load every last bar of the payroll (Gorn arrives and tells them to stop and fly off immediately, then the fatal shootout and related events occur). 

If there's an image that sums the episode up, or the series' underlying moral intelligence, you could do worse than this one:



A dead body surrounded by relatively worthless scraps of gold.

Blood and money. Blood money. A ruddy rebellion. 

So, I guess, what I'm saying is: This "Andor" series is actually some smartly-written shit where thought becomes action and actions have consequences. I think, on a first watch last night, I did indeed do the episode a disservice. Some of my issues have melted away on a re-watch this afternoon.


It was kind of the million-and-one slow-moving party-streamer realisation of the shower I had a slight problem with. Mind you, Gorn does describe it in the third episode as "like a curtain being pulled across the sky". Maybe they took a bit of fantasy licence.


I think the human-centric nature of Star Wars under Disney is something of a bummer. It just doesn't have the same exotic flavour that George Lucas gave it. When you see a cohort of humans of varying skin tones all huddled together worshipping the sky, on Scottish Highlands planet, it has a bit too much of an Earth-like, Celtic vibe. 

Mind you, perhaps there was a symbolic link between Cassian's tribe (in the flashbacks in the first three episodes) and the Aldhani equally being mystified by a sky event. With the former, they were watching a piece of technology in free fall; in this episode, the natives had gathered to watch a natural event (in which a ship gets away).


I see what you're saying. It's not a badly done sequence for what it is. On a re-watch, it flowed a bit better. But yeah, it's still a bit choppy-chop. However, if you pay attention to the desperation of the rebels, as they race to get the job done, taking too long and lingering and missing their opportunity to escape without losses, it feels logically constructed; and, unlike the aforementioned "Obi-Wan", not a shrill, chaotic mess or needlessly silly. So fair enough. 


I just wanna tip my hat to them on this one: The run-times of "Andor" are a welcome improvement on the run-times of "The Mandalorian" and "Obi-Wan". So far, every episode has been well-paced (if slow-going), allowing for some respectably robust character development, solid worldbuilding, and the ratcheting up of stakes and tension. "Andor" has a good set of ingredients and the cake is kept in the oven and allowed to bake correctly. I suppose I just wanted one more wrinkle, one more obstacle, one more thing that could have slowed them down, or that they had to engage their brains over (rather than their vocal cords and their busy shoulders). It was admittedly a hardcore moment when poor Commandant Jayhold apparently had a heart attack after being stricken to find that Gorn was a rebel spy and having been worked to death by the rebels. I mean, this shit is pretty dark and mean for Star Wars, really. These aren't the lovely, cuddly rebels of the OT, that's for sure. 


On my re-watch, maybe it wasn't that fast. And, again, Cassian seems to put thrusters at maximum, perhaps skipping over the weight calibration mentioned in the previous episode. Hence the reason they all go flying back. The rest of it can probably be explained as a slight nod to the podrace sequence in Episode I. I think there's even a podracer engine sound in there somewhere. I also liked the sound effect of the train hurtling through the tunnel. Very nice visual effects there, too.


Ha! Well, I think I'm going to skip right over this righteous pounding. I'll give "Andor" points, as you suggest vis-a-vis your passing critique of the Exegol battle, for being short and to-the-point. It's as visually delicious as it needs to be, and before you know it, it's over and done. Another good use of resources (on, obviously, a much more limited budget). Your point of comparison with "The Matrix Revolutions" is interesting. Now that I think about it, it definitely had a kind of TMR/"Interstellar"-ish escaping-the-limited-temporal-world quality about it.  


I was just in a mood there. This episode rightly completed Nemik's arc. He died and went to Polaroid heaven.


It struck me as flatter and more anonymous than in previous episodes. But on my re-watch today, there were actually several parts where the music nicely accentuated one moment or another. I was deliberately paying closer attention. One highlight being the little piece that plays when Cassian is flying through the meteor shower; has a mild and quietly enrapturing celestial feel, contrasting well with all the grim planning and fraught dynamics of everything on the ground preceding it. Why wouldn't an Imperial freighter ascending into the heavenly realm with many bars of gold receive a majestic musical uplift? Also, every time there is something actually strange and neat-looking in Disney Star Wars (hey, it occasionally happens), I am reminded of Han's casual boast to Luke: "Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other, seen a lot of strange stuff..."  


You offer a sober and realistic assessment: of both the show and my own discontentment. 'Tis true that I came a cropper toward "Obi-Wan" on its third episode, then gave it a re-watch and thought better of it. Though, it then slid down in my estimation again, particularly after the next episode. However, compared to that series, "Andor" is already acquitting itself considerably better. If I started off being grouchy toward the new episode, perhaps my earlier cynicism and unease toward the series (see Reply #11 -- my first unfurling of thoughts toward the show premiere) returned in earnest, when I should have been doing more to keep them at bay. I'm obviously the guy that digs "The Rise Of Skywalker". I even think "The Force Awakens" and "The Last Jedi" are pretty okay, dagnabbit. In fact, perhaps my TROS and mainline Saga love clouded my judgement toward "Andor" six episodes in. "Andor" is manifestly not a Saga movie; and some expectations (or habits of thought) need to be lowered a tad. Then its light can shine through. The Eye of Aldhani 'n' all that jazz. 

Ingram



I shudder when I see people watching movies on their phones or laptop.

If the Indian girl took me hostage, tied me up, yelled at me, and bossed me around...I can only conclude that this would be anything but boring.

An indication, then, that the showrunners at Andor are doing something right.

Why, Smitty, my good fellow, whatever do you mean?









We'll see. I tend to think, in the long run, all Star Wars things find the audience they deserve. 


As for the latest episode...



Just finished watching it, and yes: it was an improvement on the last. We were back on solid ground in this one. Good tension and intrigue, a well-managed tone, decent worldbuilding, and some excellent character scenes.


Not weird. I think it's a decent reflection of how the episode skews. However, this latest episode was also keen to remind us that the Empire is a thoroughly nasty organisation: cutthroat within and extremely ruthless without. 

Fixed.