Andor – Episodes 1-3 Review

In the interest of honest reviewing, I feel that I should start this review of Andor off with the statement that I wasn’t a fan of Rogue One. I certainly didn’t hate it – I appreciated that the story was allowed to go to darker places than most Star Wars properties and I really liked that it opted to go all-in and kill the central characters at the close of the film rather than save them to be brought back in future projects (jokes on me here, as they still managed to do this) – but I found the story thin (an instance where knowing that the mission would succeed dampened a lot of the excitement and tension) and the characters even thinner (a story populated entirely by individual character archetypes doesn’t make it easy to care about the characters when they’re in danger). So, when news broke that Cassian Andor was about to get his own spin-off series on Disney+, I didn’t really care all that much. After all, I didn’t really care all that much about him as he walked to his own death in Rogue One, why should I care about the steps that led him there. But, after three episodes of Andor, I have to say I’m much more interested in this story than I thought I would be – albeit with a caveat.

Now, Diego Luna is a charming and engaging actor. However, at this stage of the game, there’s just not enough of a character developed around Cassian to really let Luna go wild and show us what he’s got. The issue with Cassian, once again, is that even after a film and three television installments, we don’t know much about what makes him tick. We know a bit about his childhood. We know he’s apparently searching for his sister – although we have no idea how or why he believes her to be alive and off their home world. And we know he’s still a smuggler – albeit one very much in debt. A loose cannon who trusts few and loves even fewer. A standard Star Wars archetype if I ever saw one. My hope is that we get to go a bit under his tough façade and see more about his interpersonal make-up as the show goes along. What does he do when faced with a choice between saving a loved one and his mission? What are his hopes, dreams, wants? What moves him? What terrifies him? Without that understanding, I fear we might be in for a very long series.

And here comes my caveat: The series needs to recognize the interesting supporting cast it has at its disposal and utilize them more than I worry they might. Take Fiona Shaw’s Maarva. Three episodes in and my god, I wish the series was about her more than about Cassian. Yes, her surname is also Andor, so perhaps that means we’ll continue to follow her (and Bix) on Ferrix (until one or both get off world and go on an adventure), but that certainly felt like we might only be getting Maarva for a brief interlude (although flashbacks are likely still on the table moving forward – we do need to see how Cassian ended up like this). And Stellan Skarsgård’s Luthen is off to an interesting start (plus, if you have Skarsgard, you’re likely getting a complicated, maybe tortured, performance). But look at the character of Timm (wasting a brilliant performance from great actor James McArdle) – complex, interesting, killed too soon. McArdle managed to turn what could have been a stereotypical jealous boyfriend character into someone who had greater depth than one expected. And I know, we’ve got plenty of runway left on this story, don’t complain about this much this soon. But when the series is more content to keep Cassian a cypher than give us the depth of character development we’ve gotten for several new characters at this stage of the game, it starts to worry me (and Star Wars projects don’t have the greatest track record with creating complex and compelling characters).

Having said that, I enjoyed the look and feel of this series so much more than recent Star Wars projects largely because it’s not beholden nearly as much to established cannon as something like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Nary a lightsaber to be found – or a relative of the Skywalker clan for that matter. The darker, dirtier feel also goes a long way to signaling that this isn’t a series looking to tread on building hope against the darkness. Yes, several of these characters will go on to do great things in the name of the rebellion (particular Mon Mothma, who we have yet to meet in her younger incarnation), but this isn’t a story of the good guys conquering evil. We know that final victory is still several years in the future. This is, instead, a story of how those who want to enact change lurk and fight in the darkness, waiting for the chance to grow strong enough so that they can, in fact, make their mark against the Empire. There’s political intrigue, black market dealing, and people not always doing the right thing for the right reason. Personally, I like my dramatic tales to offer more morally gray areas for their leads to walk in – it makes things more complicated when they don’t always make the “good” choice. If Andor keeps on the path it’s on, I think I might grow to like this particular story – and Cassian – a great deal more than I thought I would.