Star Wars: Andor - Disney+ - September 21, 2022

[Grebacio]

1 hour ago, Knights of Ren said:

80 on metacritic 👏🏻 

Down to 75
Comps:
Mando S01: 70
Mando S02: 76

Book of Boba Fett: 59

Obi Wan: 73

[Knights of Ren]

15 minutes ago, Grebacio said:

Down to 75
Comps:
Mando S01: 70
Mando S02: 76

Book of Boba Fett: 59

Obi Wan: 73

Obi Wan higher than Mando S1 lolz

[Ozymandias]

 

[Potiki]

Episodes are live! The Rebellion starts again. 

[Porthos]

13 minutes ago, Potiki said:

Episodes are live! The Rebellion starts again. 

Spoiler

First onscreen use of BBY/ABY!!!! 

 

buT I was ToLd ThERe WeRE No EaSTer EgGs!!!

 

Spoiler

For those not in on the joke, there has been fairly hefty resistance on acknowledging/using Before Battle of Yavin/After Battle of Yavin as an in-universe calendar in SW TV/movie media despite a looooooong history of it in print media.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Porthos

[Potiki]

First episode was solid, nothing super enticing but seems like it will be a slow burn and can understand why they released a few episodes as it seems like it will take a bit to get into everything that is happening.

 

Loved the music and Cassian's Droid  

 

Edit: 

 

Episode 2 starts off with a bang 

 

Spoiler

Having the tribe being an indigenous population who's planet becomes a mining sector hits hard, I love that they are doing that! It will for sure piss off certain YouTubers though not that that is a bad thing, in fact it is probably a good thing. 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by Potiki

[Porthos]

May be a "slow burn", but it's a fucking good "slow burn". 👍  👍  👍 

[Potiki]

Possible inadvertent call back to the prequels 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Episode 3 really heats up, seems like a strong episode to finish with both in terms of action and setting up where the series is headed. 

[Porthos]

Semi-facetious comment:

 

Spoiler

*sees all the carnage that happened in Ep 3 because one stuck up cop couldn't let things lie*

 

See... THIS  is why you listen to your corrupt, amoral, supervisors telling you to leave well enough alone. 

 

[Porthos]

Okay, non-spoiler thoughts.

 

I can see why this might have left some cold and calling it "slow paced".   This is a very old-fashioned show in some respect (more on this in a bit) that doesn't give one whit about about having non-stop action scenes or gratuitous fights once per episode.  Fast paced, it wasn't.

 

In a way, it reminded me of an old fashioned 2 hour TV pilot (i.e. 1:30 run time w/commercials).  There was a clear structure to this three-episode arc with mini character arcs laced throughout it.

 

...

 

DAMN DID I LOVE IT!!!! 👍

 

I mentioned earlier today about "buy in" for a setting, and perhaps more than anything, this show was spending time on the setting.  Yes, the characters were explored (with some of the best damn acting that a SW show as seen in a long time [the contrast between two of the cops was exceptional, for instance]) and examined.  But this took time to tell its story in the setting as much as it did with the characters.

 

This was a lived in world with a deep sense of history.  That his, there were hints left and right about Other Stories that were informing character actions.  Not quite in media res, but it was clear that these characters had their own motivations and didn't particularly care in being in our face about them.  TV Tropes calls it "A Hero of Another Story" and while that doesn't quite fit, it is pretty damn clear that many of these characters had their Own Stores that were hinted at/touched on.

 

Now, I do sympathize with the idea/complaint where a TV show should still be a TV show first and foremost and not a Movie-told-over-ten parts.  That is, each individual episode still needs to tell a story of its own, and that might be a danger going forward (this is something Mando excels at and one reason why it is so successful, IMO).  So we'll have to see how that plays out going forward.  

 

Still.

 

...

 

This was my fucking jam.  A LOT.  LIKE GOD DAMN, THIS IS MY FUCKING JAM. 👍 

[Inceptionzq]

Living up to my hype so far. Syril Karn is the best character of the show so far, and I didn’t expect that to be honest. The world building and character development is fantastic. Can’t wait for next week.

[cannastop]

 

[Shanks]

First Episode - Slow but Enticing.
Second Episode - Reaching and Expanding.
Third Episode - Wow. That young Officer reminded me of wannabe Captain America. I can see myself root for him if I didn't know That there are Nine films and tens of other shows showing me that he is working for wrong side.

9/10 ~ 

[cannastop]

 

[cannastop]

 

[Liiviig 1998]

Well when they said this was different from the rest of live action starwars . They weren't kidding,I'm quite surprised how much leeway they gave tony Gilroy.

 

The first two episodes are quite slow and introduce the world pretty well.

 

Vfx and cinematography was great and fanservicy moments are barely in this. Felt like ANH in terms of world building where you just sucking in all the new planets,political system,way of life which was quite refreshing.

 

Only criticism are the character interactions do fall flat quite Abit but by episode 3 it was improving.

 

Really promising start . Pace needs to pick up a little.

 

But i have to admit this show is not gonna be for everyone . 

[Lucas]

Had the first 3 episodes been one 70 minute pilot for the show it would've worked way better. On their own, the first two feel like they just stop for credits at random in a way that isn't satisfying at all. The "one long movie" syndrome for shows needs to die. But it's very good and stupidly better than the other Star Wars shows.

[Porthos]

Some spoiler thoughts now:

 

One of the things I loved about this was its commentary on authoritarian societies, and how the use of power is abused therein.  May not be particularly subtle commentary (though it is in a couple of spots as I'll get to in the spoilered section of this post), but it was very well told.

 

SPOILERS:

Spoiler

The whole plot of the series gets kicked off because two folks decide to abuse the power that the system gives them to shakedown someone whose only crime was to get a bit of attention they felt was deserved to them.  These two jumped up rent-a-cops weren't even stormtroopers or members of a secret police.  They were barely part of the Empire's security apparatus.

 

Yet they felt they could clearly throw their weight around and shake down some random dude over a petty grievance because they knew they would get away with it.

 

Pity for them, they chose the wrong person to shake down.

 

The subtle bits come in where the supervisor (and again, more on him in a bit) points out that those two cops weren't supposed to be at the brothel in the first place!  They were abusing their authority, knowing that they were more or less untouchable.  But it was this very bit of being untouchable which led to Cassian Andor's "fight or flight" choice in the first place.  In a less corrupt society, maybe Andor wouldn't have felt the pressure to give in to the bribe.  Hell, in a less corrupt society there wouldn't have been a shakedown in the first place.  But even if there was, maybe Andor wouldn't have felt the need to murder in the aftermath of the fight.

 

The thing is, that cop who was desperately spinning a story in an attempt to save his skin knew he was lying about what would happen.  Andor knew he was lying.  And the cop knew that Andor knew he was lying.  Yet he was still pleading for his life.  Mostly because of his own choices but also because the fucked up society he was in (and enforcing) didn't give them much of an out.  

 

Then there is the security force chief inspector.  He's a commentary on what type of person needs to be in charge of security forces for there NOT to be uprisings in the first place when the populace is being pushed around to its breaking point.  He was acting mostly for personal self-interested reasons (the attention of the Empire is attention he Does Not Want), but he also was acting in what he saw was the interests of his forces.  He felt, not unjustifiably, that if attention was drawn to this case, then all sorts of uncomfortable questions could start to arise.  He wasn't dealing with fair and impartial bosses.  No, he was dealing with a system that would grind him up and spit him out, if given even a scintilla of a reason.

 

That the story he concocted on the fly was fairly close to the mark (if spinning out a bit toward the end) was just the cherry on top.

 

One of the other bits I liked was how Andor was ratted out.  It was because of a small, human, act of jealousy.  A jealous boyfriend (Timm) who misinterpreted what was going on with his girlfriend (Bix) decided to use the power of the State to get someone out of the picture.  He didn't do it because the guy was wanted in connection of a murder.  He didn't report him because he thought he was a threat to society or any other sort of civic duty.  No, he ratted him out because he thought Andor was bonking his girlfriend, and that couldn't stand.  So he used the State to fuck someone up.

 

The thing is, this was just a fucked up situation all the way around.  Bix didn't tell Timm what was going on because she didn't want to tell him about the illegal stuff she was in (being involved with an forming Rebellion wouldn't have been good for his health).  But she also didn't tell him that she wasn't fucking around behind his back and came up with some fairly feeble, easily disprovable, lies. C'mon Bix, come up with something better than "running a few errands".

 

If Bix had been even a tiny bit more forthcoming about things, then perhaps the jealousy gene wouldn't have kicked in.   She should have known how it might have looked to Timm and tried even a little bit harder to put him at ease.  Relationships are two way streets, after all. Timm massively overreacted and got killed because of it, but it's not like Bix was completely blameless here, either. If there was even a little more trust in the relationship, then Timm would still be alive and Andor wouldn't have been confronted so easily.  Poor Communication Kills indeed.

 

But trust is a very scarce commodity in a society like this one, and the temptation to abuse power much less so.

 

There's a lot more I could say about these three episodes, in particular Kyle Soller's character, Syril Karn, but I think I might save that for another time as this post is already getting long in the tooth.

 

[FilmFincher]

This is leagues better than the last couple of Star Wars shows. Every scene, every shot, every line feels like it has a real driving force behind it and not haphazardly slapped together. 

[Knights of Ren]

Really enjoyed the first three episodes.  It was so refreshing to see quality direction, amazing visuals, and not being on Tatooine.  Its mind boggling how they can put a show this well made out and then a dud like TBOBF.
 

 

Really smart decision releasing these all at once.  They worked well together.