Wow. The first two episodes of this were unexpectedly excellent. Starting the third now.

Definitely a distinctly new flavor of Star Wars. Still trying to decide if it's the 'right' flavor. Having trouble describing the vibe... it's like a Blade Runner / Mandalorian fusion with a hint of espionage and I like it a lot.

Diego Luna also just eats up every scene.

Edit:
Someone on Twitter said it was the closest thing we've ever gotten to a live-action version of a Star Wars novel, and yes that is exactly the vibe. It's like reading the old X-Wing / Squadron novels.

 

Watched the first 2 episodes, am incredibly bored and not sure if I can be bothered to watch the third. This is not at all the show that the trailers promised. I was expecting Coruscant, political intrigue, subterfuge, senators, infiltrating the Imperial elite, etc. Instead I got... Star Wars does Breaking Bad? Some hick town on a hick planet with hick villains focusing on a random murder of no consequence. And not only is the plot and setting deadly dull, there aren't any interesting characters to redeem it. The only character whose name I remember is Cassian himself because all the side characters are just set dressing.

A lot of people will be happy simply because it's Star Wars with high production value that respects the lore (see: Mando) but just like Mando, the plot, characters and setting are the entertainment equivalent of watching paint dry.

 

@Taure

Is it set on a desert planet?

 

Imperial scrap yard planet. But they leave at the end of episode 3 so I'm sure we'll make our way to Tatooine 5.0 eventually. -_-

 

I wasn't going to watch this, but with such high praise I'll have to give it a go.

 

Agreeing with Taure that a lot of the side characters felt like background material. It's a "we'll give you enough to recognize them and understand them but it's very clear to all of us that these people are not important". The exceptions here were Stellan Skarsgaard and two rent-a-cops, who clearly are important. I think they did enough with the other characters to make it work, it's just that there's a lot of NPC energy out there. So that was a bit disappointing, even if Bix (girl, rebel contact), Timm (her boyfriend), and Brasso (friend who covered for Cassian) got good moments in Episode 3. Though I did have to go double check those names.

The general production value is excellent. There's a little bit of a Star Wars vibe that's missing, I think from the cinematography and sound design side of things, but the sets and costumes are on point. I don't mind it too much though. Like, I could definitely buy it if this was actually the first three episodes to a show in an entirely original universe, but it's not like I'm in disbelief that this is Star Wars either. The droid speaking english was weird. I'm used to non-humanoid Star Wars droids speaking in beeps and whistles, not words. Also, really good action in the third episode. Strong sense of tension. Third episode overall was just well made.

Main other complaint is that their decisions on when to cut between episodes here was garbage. Like, I know we're all used to the "write an X hour movie and cut it up" formula a lot of these shows use (often badly), but at least try a little dammit. At least they made this a three episode premiere and likely planned it that way, but House of the Dragon has made me realize just how bad a lot of streamers have gotten at making an episode feel like an episode. I expect that to get better as we move into weekly releases.

I've been pretty burnt out on Disney Plus mediocrity. Boba Fett and Moon Knight killed it. Still haven't watched Kenobi. But people with opinions I really respect have been supporting Andor and while I'm not, like, completely blown away, I am intrigued. Here's hoping they don't drop the ball going forward.

 

I enjoyed every single second of this new series.

It was absolutely refreshing to watch a disney + show that respected my intelligence and treated me like an adult.

The first 2 episodes were a great way to introduce us to Andor's world. The episodes spent along time showing us and not telling us about his relationships and the overall story

I loved how they established our main antognist.
Basically a guy how takes his job waay to seriously ends up causing our protagonist so much trouble

And..shockingly, the antagonists are treated as intelligent human beings.

They form intelligent plans. They actually work hard to find Andor's identity. They come up with a pretty good plan to capture him.

On any other day, it would have been a simple arrest.

8/10 for me.

I know how Andor is, and at no point did the story ever stop and give us clumsy expositional dialogue.


What a show.

 

You'll enjoy episode 4 if you get to it then.

 

I am really enjoying the world building in the show right now.

Its pretty rare for Disney Star Wars to world build, and show the audience what the day to day life in the Galactic empire feels like.

 

I saw the the Starkiller armor and the Rebels references in the antiquities shop, but I completely missed that they name dropped the Rakatan Empire in this episode when Luthen gives Cassian the kyber crystal. Like... damn... that's a huge piece of Legends made canon.

If we can slowly get all the non-conflicting bits of Legends back, that would be pretty great.

 

Rakatan Empire is Star Forge so Revan confirmed?

 

Revan was also canonized by RoS. One of the final Orders legions was the Revan legion.

They seem to be leaving it open to do whatever they want with him if they wish.

 

Love this show, great worldbuilding, incredible set-design, fantastic characters and an amazing cast. A slow-burn heist/spy thriller is just what star wars needed without the silly marvel-style "humor" that's infected their movies. The Rakata are canon! The ISB is canon! I hope they will introduce Ysanne Isard at some point, she'd make for a disgustingly great future villain either as a lackey or rival for Thrawn. Stellan Skarsgård is the standout of this show, the man completely owns any scene he's in, he doesn't know the meaning of the phrase 'phoning it in', the transformation from a shrewd covert operative to whimsical dandy art-dealer is just *chefs kiss*.

So many threads and plot-points all moving together in one perfect machine, the heist itself and the animosity in the team, Syril's hunt for Andor, the preparation for rebellion, the politics of the ISB and Deedra's investigation and Mothma's tight-rope act of masterminding the rebellion while schmoozing the fascist empire. Fuck statecraft, this is galaxycraft.

 

Ep 6 - "The Eye" was incredible. That's it. That is my post.

 

I genuinely hate to say this but man can you imagine how good the Kenobi series would have been if it was even a 1/4 as good as Andor.

Kenobi was a live action saturday morning cartoon.

Andor feels like a show written by adults for adults. Everything about the heist was amazing and so tense.

The imperials being depicted as actual human beings and not faceless grunts for an evil empire makes the show so much more textured.

My one and only gripe is that they killed of the 2 black rebels first.

Its still a trope I don't quite understand in Hollywood.

However, I fully understand that the surviving members had important roles to play in the aftermath. Nemik needed to pass on his ideals to Casian. Skeen needed to reinforce Andors belief in the cause and Vel needed to be the one to give him chance.

I don't think Gorn or Taramyn would have served any function.

 

Wow. It's a good thing they released first 3 episodes together because episode 1 is absolutely empty. In a way, it's actually sort of impressive how in 40 minutes they established no hook at all. Out of, what, 8 characters of some significance to the episode, only one besides Cassian stood out (the tryhard corpo security guy) and Cassian himself was as bland as overboiled pasta. What an incredible snoozefest of a pilot episode.

 

Keep watching it gets better.

Also, its not entirely empty.

The first episode establishes what pushes Cassian in the direction of the rebellion.

His bland personality is also, imo, deliberate. Cassian isn't in the business of drawing attention to himself. Like most of the downtrodden people in the empire, he just wants to survive to the next day and possibly find his sister.

The episode also establishes the type of relationships Cassian has. Most of them seem to based on trust and loyalty.

This sets a foundation for his role in the rebellion.

But yes, its a slow episode.

I think one of the reasons I got through it was because I went in with absolutely no expectations.

 

Episode 2: Stellan Skarsgard Takes the Bus

Who wrote this shit

 

In ep3 it goes from a borefest to rival the worst of the Mandalorian to a show where things actually happen. I didn't think Disney had it in them.

The heist was fun.

 

Yup I agree, slow burn show.

Maybe that’s ok? Maybe we have been conditioned to need action from day one. This will probably be a show better binge watched.