SPOILERS: Star Wars' ANDOR Seasons 1 & 2

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Give the lady her flowers, I know its hard to acknowledge it but she was the one who greenlit the show and appears kept it going even when Gilroy wanted to walk away. Obviously Gilroy and team deserve the most credit, but she has her fingerprints on it too.

So if you're going to credit her with the failures, then you also have to credit her when the successes happen too.

I give her credit for what she is…a good administrator

So I think that’s fine. No business anywhere near “creative” though…not her job. Steven would give her a script and say “we gotta figure out how to pull this off”…and that’s what she did. Next level.

As far as andor goes…R1 was as concept John knoll came up with brainstorming and Edwards was the one true Star Wars fan to get a shot at directing…

She almost publicly called him out/chastised him. The two seasons and the film tied together is BY FAR the best Star Wars material made since 1985….not even a question.

But it’s also a case in point on R1 that the braintrust misread their mandate. This series was not for children. Star Wars hit because the themes were not for children…even if kids liked the Toys. That’s why andor worked. You make it to pull at the strings of the adults and the kids may follow.

I give her full credit for brining in Gilroy…that was a total brilliant administrative move

 

[Disney Irish]

I give her credit for what she is…a good administrator

So I think that’s fine. No business anywhere near “creative” though…not her job. Steven would give her a script and say “we gotta figure out how to pull this off”…and that’s what she did. Next level.

As far as andor goes…R1 was as concept John knoll came up with brainstorming and Edwards was the one true Star Wars fan to get a shot at directing…

She almost publicly called him out/chastised him. The two seasons and the film tied together is BY FAR the best Star Wars material made since 1985….not even a question.

But it’s also a case in point on R1 that the braintrust misread their mandate. This series was not for children. Star Wars hit because the themes were not for children…even if kids liked the Toys. That’s why andor worked. You make it to pull at the strings of the adults and the kids may follow.

I give her full credit for brining in Gilroy…that was a total brilliant administrative move

I guess it really was too much to expect you to just give her some credit for producing a great SW show and moving on.

Oh well, at least even in your backhanded way you still gave her some credit.

SW shouldn't be for one age bracket or another, ie all kids or all adults. It was intended to be for kids originally as stated by George many times. But I think its good that they can branch out and tell more complex stories that include very adult themes that adults can enjoy, and this is a testament to that.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Can we now talk about how it doesn't *quite* seamlessly flow into Rogue One? Which actually surprised me given the creative team.

I rewatched R1 last night to see how it fit and two particular things stood out to me -

One, Cassian saying he'd never been in prison before.
Two, no mention that the Death Star info had been previously delivered.

Now, you can argue that neither of those things fit simply because Andor wasn't made until years later. But given that it was made by the same writer... umm... dude, did you not rewatch the movie beforehand (Tony Gilroy actually admitted in an interview I read that he hadn't rewatched it since making the show)? And if you didn't, why didn't anyone else? Yes, it connects from him leaving to go to the Ring of Kafrene to meet a source, but why would Gilroy set up two very specific things (one minor and one major) to be contradicted by the film? Especially when R1 was made into such a perfect handoff to the OT?

It doesn't take away from the richness of either Andor or R1 - and I still think R1 is the peak of SW greatness even if it is completely reliant on the OT for its emotional resonance - I was just surprised they hadn't worked on making it fit better every time I was thrown out of a scene thinking "but they knew that from Kleya and Luthen's source..."

I also was more disappointed in retrospect that they didn't do the hand-in-glove handoff and instead cut away to the Bix scene at the end of Andor. I understand wanting to end on a moment of hope - and it was - but it cut the flow from series to film.

A criticism, but still SO SO SO loved Andor overall and how it added to the tapestry of the universe in wonderful ways.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

This was a wonderful show that really showed how to tell stories in the Star Wars universe that go beyond action adventure films.

This is the perfect way to put Star Wars on TV. It still has the high production values but a slower character focused drama like this just wouldn't work as a movie.

I do wish they'd stuck to weekly releases. I was seeing minor tidbits on social media last week pretty quickly so it felt like one had to rush to binge every episode quickly.

Of course, this thread is still mostly people complaining about Kennedy ad nauseum. Some people are just never happy. Has she been fired yet? No?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

This was a wonderful show that really showed how to tell stories in the Star Wars universe that go beyond action adventure films.

This is the perfect way to put Star Wars on TV. It still has the high production values but a slower character focused drama like this just wouldn't work as a movie.

I do wish they'd stuck to weekly releases. I was seeing minor tidbits on social media last week pretty quickly so it felt like one had to rush to binge every episode quickly.

Of course, this thread is still mostly people complaining about Kennedy ad nauseum. Some people are just never happy. Has she been fired yet? No?

What stands out to me is by the end when you’re watching you weren’t aware of the races/genders of the characters…not even a thought really

I think that’s a very underrated part of the OT…it gets criticized for being some Cold War relic white male sausage fest…but when you watched it it didn’t really trigger somekind of testerone response…you just followed the struggles going on.

 

[networkpro]

I'm just aghast at how drastically the two different products (Andor and Acolyte) were in terms of character depth, place making, and plot. IMHO it boils down to the skill of the director to tell a story. The unsuccessful one had characters march from place to place (very pretty places, but they just ran up the duration clock without progressing the storyline) just to deploy a soliloquy and everything else including other cast members as set dressing.

 

[Hawkeye_2018]

Just finished this. It was really good. However, S1 was quite a bit better IMO. Plan to watch R1 today now.

 

[FutureCEO]

Sesson 1 was so slow for me but season 2 is excellent

 

[flynnibus]

Two, no mention that the Death Star info had been previously delivered

Can you be more specific? It’s not conflicting imo.

Remember many doubt the info and they are trying to confirm it. The defector needs to share his story unbiased - so they don’t tip their hand with him. Once they have the confirmation via his story… they know galen is key and a top priority because of the info from luthen… and why they are so quick to just be willing to asassinate him

 

[Mike S]

What an amazing show. If I could enter a Time Machine I’d somehow convince Disney to have Tony Gilroy write the Sequels.

Wow. Just, wow.

Edit: also, Elizabeth Dulau, the actress for Kleya. I didn’t hear until now that this was her first ever role. Holy crap.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

What an amazing show. If I could enter a Time Machine I’d somehow convince Disney to have Tony Gilroy write the Sequels.

Wow. Just, wow.

Edit: also, Elizabeth Dulau, the actress for Kleya. I didn’t hear until now that this was her first ever role. Holy crap.

They really did stick this one

I want good Star Wars…period. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.

I say “do better” over and over again.

They did…now go farther

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Can you be more specific? It’s not conflicting imo.

Remember many doubt the info and they are trying to confirm it. The defector needs to share his story unbiased - so they don’t tip their hand with him. Once they have the confirmation via his story… they know galen is key and a top priority because of the info from luthen… and why they are so quick to just be willing to asassinate him

It's not conflicting per se, but it still felt like they're treating it as entirely new info rather than confirmed info when they already literally had all the pieces: Jedha, Kyber, Erso.

Of course, when they made the movie, it was new info. It just got retconned by the show.

 

[sedati]

What an amazing show. If I could enter a Time Machine I’d somehow convince Disney to have Tony Gilroy write the Sequels.

Wow. Just, wow.

Edit: also, Elizabeth Dulau, the actress for Kleya. I didn’t hear until now that this was her first ever role. Holy crap.

Gilroy likely would have devised a fascinating and intelligent thesis told across three films that would be lightly dressed in a Star Wars aesthetic with little to no legacy characters (no trio in falcon cockpit), aliens, etc. The budgets would have been astronomical and yet would offer very little in the way of action set-pieces.

And we would have gotten railings in Imperial facilities.

I very much enjoyed Andor and would like more in that style, but I'd rather have more Star Wars in my Star Wars. Let this be an indulgent side-project that can influence but not overwhelm the franchise.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Gilroy likely would have devised a fascinating and intelligent thesis told across three films that would be lightly dressed in a Star Wars aesthetic with little to no legacy characters (no trio in falcon cockpit), aliens, etc. The budgets would have been astronomical and yet would offer very little in the way of action set-pieces.

And we would have gotten railings in Imperial facilities.

I very much enjoyed Andor and would like more in that style, but I'd rather have more Star Wars in my Star Wars. Let this be an indulgent side-project that can influence but not overwhelm the franchise.

Well it’s a hard thing to do - apparently

What they got with that Abrams/johnson nonsense was “Star Wars looking” that had no guts to it…so it’s unwatchable and does more harm than good.

So until someone says “our goal is to make Star Wars that sticks like the Star Wars genre did”…then it’s gonna be missteps, blown budgets and longterm finger pointing and questions.

The feelz was really the thing…it always was. It won’t work unless they serve that master.

The andor - R1 arc…while far from perfect…served that master

 

[Mike S]

Gilroy likely would have devised a fascinating and intelligent thesis told across three films that would be lightly dressed in a Star Wars aesthetic with little to no legacy characters (no trio in falcon cockpit), aliens, etc. The budgets would have been astronomical and yet would offer very little in the way of action set-pieces.

And we would have gotten railings in Imperial facilities.

I very much enjoyed Andor and would like more in that style, but I'd rather have more Star Wars in my Star Wars. Let this be an indulgent side-project that can influence but not overwhelm the franchise.

Well Gilroy seems to be a master of writing grounded realistic stories and characters so maybe being a co writer with someone that knows the fantastical would’ve worked.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Well Gilroy seems to be a master of writing grounded realistic stories and characters so maybe being a co writer with someone that knows the fantastical would’ve worked.

You mean someone who was a “big fan” of his idol Steven Spielberg’s wallet?

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

It's not conflicting per se, but it still felt like they're treating it as entirely new info rather than confirmed info when they already literally had all the pieces: Jedha, Kyber, Erso.

Of course, when they made the movie, it was new info. It just got retconned by the show.

This is gonna sound really ironic based on my track record…

But I think your expectations might be “a tad” too high

 

[Mike S]

You mean someone who was a “big fan” of his idol Steven Spielberg’s wallet?

No not JJ lol

 

[DKampy]

What stands out to me is by the end when you’re watching you weren’t aware of the races/genders of the characters…not even a thought really

I don’t normally take a tally of the races and genders in a program…. But maybe that’s just me

 

[doctornick]

We got around the finishing it tonight. Got to say that I loved it. They nailed the landing so well and I think Andor Season 2 edges out Skeleton Crew for the best live action Star Wars show since Mandalorian Season 2 (sorry Mando 1 and 2 are still the gold standards for Star Wars TV).

I'm amazed at how much more engaging and entertaining that Season 2 was that the first season of Andor. I don't really get the gripes about the early episodes not being good as I thought the whole season was very captivating and I couldn't wait to watch more episodes (it was only due to scheduling conflicts with getting the whole family together to watch that made it longer to get them all in). I think the year jumps with the 3 episode clusters worked really well. I also - since this is a consistent gripe I have with D+ series - am happy to say that they did a great job actually making the episodes actually episodes with sensible breaks to each one without feeling like a longer movie just arbitrarily chopped into parts to make "episodes".

Maybe I need to revisit it, but I felt like Season 1 was so slow and boring and very little happened. It always felt like a chore getting through it. This season was a lot better with the character development and balancing action and emotional depth. I was actually interested in learning what happens with all the characters (especially those whose fates were uncertain unlike Cassian and Mon, etc).