The initial film, Star Wars: The Force Awakens took a lot of criticism for hewing so closely to tropes from the original film trilogy. I felt then - and now - that considering it was the first film without George Lucas, Disney had to prove they could produce something which felt 'authentically' like a Star Wars movie, but not like the 2nd poorly-received trilogy Lucas had made. The film did a decent job of setting up a new cast of characters and introducing hooks for future stories.
Then came the baffling decision to make Star Wars: The Last Jedi which attempted to deconstruct the entire franchise and kill just about every hook the previous film had set up. It is fantastically odd that Disney allowed the film to be made as the 2nd episode in a new franchise. As a stand-alone film it might've worked (though I question the wisdom of Star Wars deconstructing itself - it's not deep enough to survive close scrutiny) but as the middle part of a trilogy it was a major speedbump.
And everyone knows the Last Jedi doomed the finale of the trilogy, the Rise of Skywalker which stumbled, stammered and fumbled its way into theaters to no particular acclaim. Lucas' 2nd trilogy and the Last Jedi at least had their fans; no one cared much for the Rise of Skywalker. In fact, it inspired a whole host of online thinkpieces asking, "the 2nd trilogy doesn't look so bad now, does it?"
It's surprising that television has become the medium where Star Wars thrives. It's supposed to be a franchise built on spectacle, and spectacle doesn't come cheap. And yet, the first season of the Mandalorian proved that by tackling a more modestly-budgeted sphere of the Star Wars universe they could produce an 'authentic' Star Wars product. Besides all that, it was quite good.
The 2nd season of the Mandalorian struggled (in ways that I'll contrast against Andor). Despite the lead character having a goal that should have been propelling the story forward, Mando seemed to be always backtracking so that he could interact with his supporting cast. It's also odd that the hero's quest - to bring Grogu to the Jedi - leads him straight to the living, breathing Jedi Ahsoka - and she refuses to take custody of Grogu. But heck, the season ends with Mando and Grogu parting ways as Luke takes custody of Grogu. But clearly the creators weren't married to that climax.
The Book of Boba Fett is basically the third season of the Mandalorian. In fact, there's an episode without any appearance by Boba which is instead carried by Mando and plays like one of his episodes. This is an odd show that serves mainly to prove Boba's status as a cool character has been permanently usurped by the much-cooler Mando. It also serves to undo the finale of the Mandalorian's 2nd season, suggesting that the series will be pretty static.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was an oddity, one that exists in the barest margins of continuity, trying carefully to tell a story without infringing on the original Star Wars film. It was at least interesting to see the in-fighting among the show's Inquisitors which illustrates how wasteful and incompetant the franchise's villains are (and always have been).
But then came Andor. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of Andor. Friends of mine rushed to call it great, but I held off rendering a verdict until the 12th episode aired (I was a little surprised it ran 12 episodes, I expected it to be as brief as the other shows). Still, the show did basically run 4 3-part stories - every 3 episodes was a good place to pause and take stock of where the show had been and where it was going.
Viewing it as a complete season, I'm very impressed. Unlike the Mandalorian - where the lead character has to constantly run back to find his supporting cast - the makers of Andor don't care whether their cast share any scenes in each episode - or even all season! There are several characters in the show who have never shared a set together. The way in which the cast is split up in various places, each with their own running subplots creates a sense of vastness that Star Wars has mostly lacked. The universe feels bigger simply because although lead character Cassian Andor's decisions affect the rest of the cast, he doesn't command the cast. He's swept up by events as much as anyone.
It's all the more impressive that this is a prequel to the Disney film Rogue One, itself a prequel to the original Star Wars. Yet unlike Obi-Wan Kenobi there's no sense that the characters are keeping to the margins to avoid intruding on subsequent works. Andor feels like its own story; it benefits from the audience's knowledge of what is coming in the future (in fact the series logo hints at it) but the series has its own rules, its own sense of place.
Andor is surely not what everyone wants from Star Wars - the spaceship battles and comical droids are there, but at a minimum; there are no Jedi. Even though it's playing into stories which have terrific stakes, the stakes in Andor are smaller and as much concerned with people's emotional and psychological journeys as it is the rise of the Rebel Alliance.
It's telling, I think to look back at Star Wars: The Force Awakens' role for Andy Serkis and compare it to his recent role on Andor. In the former role, Serkis' fine skills were mostly squandered and his character an afterthought. In Andor, he's there for just a quarter of the series yet delivered one of the season's most memorable characters.
Disney probably won't capitalize on Andor in any real way (given that the aforementioned extraneous Jedi Ahsoka is their next intended series) but Andor stands apart and demonstrates there's still life in the franchise.
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