As the three-part premiere of Andor chugs along, it becomes increasingly clear that this was never meant to be split up in this way. Let’s dig in.
1. Another innovation
I find it very interesting that Andor, like putting the ‘5BBY’ designation on screen also, for the first time, is putting a translation of a data screen, in English, on screen. While I agree that this is better than a character just reading the notice aloud, it is strange that here, and not, say, when R2-D2 is speaking to Luke Skywalker in the cockpit of his X-Wing, is when Star Wars decided to do this. This is not me complaining about it; I honestly don’t have an opinion either way, in terms of whether this is a positive or negative development.
But I suppose it makes sense that innovation usually happens at the margins, and this is about as marginal as a live-action enterprise as Star Wars has at the moment. Again, that’s not a knock on it; Andor simply exists in a sector without Jedi, Skywalkers, or too many winks and nods at nostalgia.
2. Requisite cute droid alert
It seems like every Star Wars film or series needs to have a droid to sell at Christmastime, and B2EMO is this year’s model. A boxy droid that got pissed on in “Kassa,” B-2 is as much a part of the Andor family as Cassian and his mother are. It bears mentioning that his mother adopted him at some point, though my initial guess of ‘6 years old,’ based on a line of dialogue in Rogue One, seems a little young, as the Kassa we see on Kenari seems older than 6. Even though Cassian has grown, his mother is still protective of him, and his revealing of his Kenari birth to the brothel madame is leading the authorities directly to him.
We get precious little time with Mama Andor here, but we see a few things that are important. She clearly, deeply, cares about Cassian. She has helped him for some time, having the staff we see him walking with in flashbacks. And, perhaps most importantly, we see that she is where Cassian gets his sense of rebellion, or at least his general distrust of authority from.
Side note: speaking of droids, didn’t it sound like Stellan Skarsgård’s ship had K2SO’s voice?
3. The score
Andor is the Star Wars project most divorced from the scoring work of John Williams, as Rogue One was scored by Michael Giacchino, and used very few cues from Williams’s work in a galaxy far, far away. Giacchino did not score this series, the task of which is left to Nicholas Britell. Britell’s score is almost the antithesis of a Williams work, whether Britell is focused more on tone and mood than sweeping melodies, and so there are times that the score goes unnoticed. This can be considered either a positive – it allows the viewer to focus on the on-screen action – or a negative – it doesn’t enhance the show enough. I’m willing to give it a few more episodes before casting final judgment. When the score has perked my ears, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve heard, and it has truly helped set the tense, nervous tone of the series. But whether it will grow beyond that into something special remains to be seen.
4. Not exactly Tony Robbins
Last time, I complained about Syril Karn as Cassian’s early adversary and how he was a boilerplate imperial. I want to slightly amend that designation. I don’t believe I gave enough credit to his tenacity, which certainly isn’t true of all imperials, many of whom want to keep their heads down and not be noticed at all. But I also want to point out the lovely moment where the show reveals Karn to be an utterly ineffective public speaker and, to a larger degree, not really a great leader. He’s a guy with a job, and if you buy into the need/import of that job, you’ll be sold on it. But otherwise, he’s sort of just a zealot without the chops to deliver a heartfelt speech. His aim may be true, but he can’t convince many of it, and the few that can resent him for it. If given more time and focus, this could turn into an interesting character.
Continued below5. The fridge magnate
If you, like me, ran to IMDB to see who the old man talking to Stellan Skarsgård on that transport was, it was British character actor Ron Cook. While there are dozens of things you may recognize him from, to me, he will always be George Merchant, the gaudy ‘new money’ refrigerator manufacturer from Hot Fuzz who gets killed for his house being tacky. That, surely, is a worse crime than killing two dudes who are trying to shake you down.
The fact that I had to make an entire point about a tiny character points to a bigger problem with Andor so far, and that’s just how arbitrary and slight these first two episodes feel as stand alone episodes. And yes, they were released as a trio for a reason, but for folks who don’t have a ton of time on their hands or who will watch this show in the future, that delivery system is somewhat irrelevant. If this was released as an 100 minute first episode, I think the reactions would be far better than this strange trio.
