Strong opening from Andor. Wasn't sure about kicking off with a three-episode drop, but now that I've watched it, I understand that it was the clear move. Episode 1 was pretty good, episode 2 was a bit better than episode 1, and then episode 3 blew them both out of the water and left me excited for the coming episodes.

Hearing a lot of good things about Andor so far indeed. Nice….nice.

Bix: hottest female Star Wars character ever?

Only had time to watch the first ep of Andor last night, but really digging it so far. It's a nice slow burn, and it seems like they're finally not trying to hedge their bets with a show that has a little something to appeal to all ages (which means it's not great for any of them). Also it seems like they either upped the budget or spent it way better here, there are a ton of background alien species, lots of interesting sets that didn't cop out by being "desert location #3", "generic forest that's totally not Southern California I swear", etc.

The interesting thing so far, and I won't call it a complaint so much as an observation, is that it wasn't incredibly over-the-top, in-your-face Star Wars-y, if that makes sense. Like if I had never seen Rogue One and you just showed me the first episode without the opening credits or anything, I might have been 2/3 of the way through it and still not totally sure if it was a SW show or just some cool new sci-fi show that was maybe heavily influenced by it. I think ultimately this is a good thing, with the other shows they're constantly trying to shoehorn familiar OT stuff in and it just has that memberberries feel.

Obviously I'm sure we'll soon see plenty of Imperial ships and stormtroopers etc., and that'll be more than welcome, but I really appreciated that they took the time to show other aspects of the galaxy. Just the idea of a planet more or less run by a corporation is a pretty new concept for SW, as is showing a totally primitive society like from Andor's flashbacks. I think the fact is, if they want to keep churning out content, eventually it's good to make the sandbox a little bigger, even if you risk taking away just a bit of the "Star Wars feel".

First ever swear word.

Sxxt.

Get in.

First 3 episodes Andor went from pretty solid, to good, to very good. Great start to the series. I love that it feels a lot more "grown up" than BoB and Kenobi did. None of the over the top cartoonish scenes that were such a turn off in those two shows.

It was also nice seeing new worlds and cities that we aren't familiar with. The opening scene where

Everything I've seen is echoing this pretty much exactly. Slow burn, good, then apprently Episode 3 is a huge wow.

Also, have read that it doesn't have any of the cheap low budget feel of Kenobi, which is great, but a bit surprising.

The prevailing theory is that with Andor, Disney was like "this is our own OC, we can't **** this up". Whereas with the legacy characters they feeling was more "eh just slap their name on it and everyone will tune in, it just has to be watchable."

Gilroy apparently demanded to use real sets instead of the Volume virtual **** and it absolutely shows. Hiring a guy with a track record can pay off!


It is really good, but the entire slow-burn thing is completely self-inflicted. Episode 3 should've been Episode 1, just put the murder from 1 into 3 and ditch the flashbacks. Goddamn filler everywhere these days.

I agree, the first 2 episodes have been dull. I don't feel these characters are interesting or the story has moved forward significantly.

In fact, the most interesting character so far is Stellan Skarsgård, purely because our imagination is filling the gaps in.

Also, we don't constantly need flashbacks to better understand the motives of a character, which seems to be another staple of these shows (and it's purely filler and/or fan service). Han Solo is a perfect example of this - we understand everything we need to know about him in his first 5 mins of screentime. A whole movie based on his early life added nothing.

Disagree entirely, first 2 episodes establish the show and set it apart from other SW content.

They could just race into the shooty bang bang, but I really appreciated the attempt at world building and the building out around the every day experience of life in the Empire etc.

It was brave to show the mundane imo and it payed off also to me as a viewer as I can now believe in the world more fully.

Stuff like the corporate officers being all jobsworths who want to mail it in and being all sigh shrug sideways looks ****s sake when being pushed to do more work by zealous dude is something I am pretty sure has never been shown in Star Wars before.

Its exactly this kind of world building that SW has been skipping and it was especially lacking in the sequels, where the first order and snoke etc are just thrust straight in our face and there is almost no if any attempt to actually establish a global reality or situation.

Also as regards the production values, the droid was not cgi but an actual remote controlled puppet with an on set voice actor.

It's very strange because the actual show very deftly included ALL of the information we got from the flashbacks in the present-day narrative! He has a sister who he hasn't seen in a long time, his mom isn't his real mom and she's got a history of being some sort of criminal type, there aren't a lot of people from Kerrani in the galaxy because of some sort of industrial accident.

All of those are in the text already, what did we learn from the flashbacks? Andor knows how to use a blowgun, I guess.

(I will say, as much as I do enjoy the show, Rogue One already told you everything you needed to know about Andor., too. I would love it if they'd do something with like Mara Jade or some other EU criminal type and make an indefinitely long serial of Star Wars crime stories, it's insanely fertile ground)

Oh no all that stuff was great and definitely it's the best part of the Star Wars universe. The "just some dudes working their crappy jobs" stuff absolutely whips, I absolutely would've been down for another 20 minutes of him getting out of debts he owes to people, the lazy cop boss scene was some of the best dialogue and worldbuilding in the entire franchise.

The flashbacks are what I meant could've been cut.

Yea but to make ep3 ep 1 like you suggested you would have had to cut a ton of the good stuff, flashbacks was about 4 mins of screen time in episode two for example.

Personally did not mind the flashbacks and liked the way it closed out the ending/starting of two chapters of Andors life with the juxta of him flying away with his new mom and flying away with embryonic rebellion recruiter guy, who I guess could represent a dad figure.

Also quite liked the finding of the abandoned quarry scene, but yea flashbacks were a lot weaker than the main content.

They could have shown us Andor actually stealing the box, but maybe that will be flashbacks in ep4/5.

This is probably another scene I can do without. He told us how he did it, and in doing so also told us more about The Empire

Ep.3 was pretty good. As always, my gf is a good benchmark for these things (she couldn't gaf about Star Wars), and she likes it.

I am wondering if the flash backs were introduced along the lines off:

"Guys we have scenes with people moaning about over time, we have to squeeze some kids in there, what about a planet with no adults etc etc?"

This makes perfect sense.

Glad they’re taking this seriously so far with non rushed world building, very little flashiness or cartoony characters constantly making smart ass comments to the camera, etc. After 3 eps, I’m very much in.

Getting better and better. The sets are beautiful…can see some characters developing and am already invested in others. Love how they’ve managed to transmit the feel of how oppressive the Empire is without any Stormtroopers, superlasers or Sith Lords.

Stellan Skarsgard is so ****ing good. The restrained exposition of "let's quickly just show you this guy's double life by having him change outfits and silently rehearse getting in character through facial expressions and hand movements" was such a nice touch.

Just as excited about the dinner party as I am the raid to steal the payroll.

The. Pay. Off.

Show has been tremendous. Setting feels like it allows quite a bit more latitude than many prequels, since canon basically only demands that Cassian and a couple of side characters live to the end of the series. Otherwise it feels like just a ton of free-form play in the SW galaxy.

Andor's been good show. I do appreciate that it's all at some reasonable distance from all the Skywalker and Jedi drama and stands on it's own.

Unfortunately the viewership is supposedly pretty low compared to other Star Wars shows (probably still good though) which I expect means we'll be back to the same old sandbox, looking forward to shows about Kenobi's long-lost brother, the continuing adventures of the [totally not dead] Darth Maul and Boba Fett, more Lando, and of course the Luke Skywalker Chronicles.

"Lower than other Star Wars shows but still good" is my understanding also, but I don't have the same pessimistic takeaway that it will scare Disney off. I have to think they were aware that they wouldn't immediately pop the same ratings with this as they would with a well-known lead character, but we're getting two seasons of it and I expect it to grow with popularity over time because of its quality and reputation, particularly since other popular franchises (GOT, LOTR) are now out of season and it won't be competing for eyeballs in the same way for the rest of this season.

It seems like the primary focus right now is on that post-ROTJ period that The Mandalorian exists in, which remains inside of the Skywalker timeline but doesn't have any significant focus on that overarching Skywalker story. I'm under the impression that Ahsoka is set directly in that Mandalorian timeline, and while she does have Skywalker roots as Anakin's padawan, I'm not expecting her series to be a retread. After that, I think the other live-action show they're putting out is The Acolyte, which is set way before the Skywalker saga. As long as they remain committed to doing that Acolyte show, I don't think there needs to be too much fear that they're going to keep things overly repetitious.

The viewer numbers are estimations but sure I would imagine less 7 year olds are watching.

However I would not be surprised it Andor has a longer burn than other SW shows because it appeals to a much wider adult audience and is getting great critical reviews as TV drama in and of itself independent of being SW.

In 6 months people will just be hearing about Andor through word of mouth etc and watching it just like people do with other good shows.

Goddamn this show is so ****ing good. At this point, I'm only worried about the showrunners tripping up somehow