“Andor,” starring Diego Luna, has 12 total episodes; the last one will be released Nov. 23.
photo from Disney+ Informer
Disney+ series “Andor” released Sept. 21, initially piqued the interest of Star Wars fans. However, the series fails to stand out and be inventive; the storyline is predictable and slow.
The series acts as a prequel to the 2016 Star Wars movie “Rogue One,” which tracks the story of Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso’s mission to steal the blueprints of the Death Star. “Andor” follows Cassian’s earlier life. It has a slow beginning, yet the characters in the show are creative and original.
“It’s definitely a higher-quality show, but amongst the higher-quality shows, it’s [in the] middle,” said junior Rylan Larson, a lifelong Star Wars fan. “It’s better than some of the Marvel shows that have been made but compared to the Mandalorian, it isn’t that good.”
However, pacing becomes an issue later in the story when some episodes fail to deliver any impact to the overall storyline. Additionally, as the showrunner admitted, the cast for the series is massive. The pacing is rushed, and the audience is not given enough time to bond with each character, especially the minor ones introduced
halfway through the season.
“I think the episodes aren’t building up fast enough,” said Larson. “There’s some great-quality payoffs, but it’s just taking a while to get there. They had two episodes, four and five, where nothing happened.”
Despite its issues, the series does have its moments, especially for fans of the franchise. It does an excellent job with many of its main characters. One such character is Syril Karn, an incredibly unique and complex man introduced as a security guard; it entirely avoids every popular cliché and stereotype of the genre. The fight scenes make sense, the graphics are impressive and the writers succeeded in making a reasonable backstory for Cassian Andor that matches what we see in the other Star Wars movies and shows, both thematically and visually.
“I like how real it feels, that’s it’s not as fantastical as some of the other Star Wars shows. You have a reason for everyone being where they are and doing what they’re doing,” said Larson. “I think there’s a lot of cool Star Wars [references] and fun tidbits. It’s a really good, immersive show for Star Wars fans.”
The series is neither terrible nor exceedingly well-made. The characters are a part of a franchise that is known and loved, yet they themselves are relatively unimportant within that universe. The series would have greatly benefited from having less side characters to distract from those who are integral to the story. Ultimately, “Andor” is an average show and nothing more: worth watching, but barely.
“I don’t think it’s as good as a lot of the other shows they have made,” said sophomore Caleb Bain. “The storyline isn’t that interesting; they spent a lot of time building up to something that didn’t really matter.”
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