I’ve been enjoying “Andor” so far. It’s original, it’s interesting, and it has fantastic characters. However, I think that this first season is too long. There isn’t a lot happening, and the episodes could easily be explained in 10 or 20 minutes rather than a whole hour. A lot of this show is simply a bunch of noise. It’s characters waiting for things to happen so they can do something about it. It’s annoying, and there should have been fewer episodes to make up this season.
The Prison Story
The prison story could be interesting if the pace picked up a bit more. I love what they did with it here. The mystery surrounding level two is fantastic, and it makes all the setups in the previous episode worth it. We know what normal looks like in the factory. We know when something is out of place, and something is definitely out of place here.
While the night shift is going to work and the day shift is leaving, they wait on a bridge until the doors open. While waiting, people are signing to other shifts in other bridges. While they wait, the power suddenly goes out and comes back on. We’ve never seen this happen in the factory before, so we know something is not right. One of the shifts on the lower levels begins frantically signing to the other shifts, and the communicator in Cassian’s shift begins translating, saying that a whole shift has been killed.
This is terrifying since we don’t know why they were killed or if they even were killed. It is only a rumor. It brings tension to the following scenes in the factory, and I loved it.
Later, we see Cassian talking to Andy Serkis’ character, asking if he had ever thought about breaking out of the factory. Andy Serkis’ character denies such dreams, but he is obviously hiding something. The tension between his character and Cassian is interesting and exciting.
The next day, Cassian and his shift continue their work as usual. But an older man at Cassian’s table, who had been struggling earlier, begins to struggle even more. He slows down significantly and ends up being in the way of his table rather than helping them. However, instead of getting angry at the old man, the table encourages him, and we learn that he only has a few more days until he is released. They want him to get out. But after the shift, they must drag him out of the room because he can’t stand alone.
The man collapses on the bridge, and Andy Serkis’ character calls for a medic. The medic comes and analyzes the old man’s condition. It turns out that he had a massive stroke and cannot be saved. The only thing the medic can do is terminate him. The medic says something about him getting lucky and that Serkis’ character and Cassian will soon be begging for the old man’s fate. They ask what the medic means, and the medic says that no one leaves the factory. After someone serves their sentence, they aren’t freed. They are sent to level 2, where they suffer a much worse fate than what they had before the end of their sentence. On their way back to their cells, Andy Serkis’ character and Cassian begin to plan their escape.
This is an exciting point in their story, and I enjoyed it very much. It adds a lot of tension and higher stakes to the prison story than it had previously. It gives the characters a ticking time bomb they must actively work against. It makes the story much better, and I am glad it was added.
Everything Else
The rest of the episode was mediocre. We learn that Vel is Mon Mothma’s cousin, which is interesting but doesn’t add much yet. Seeing Mon Mothma in the senate was fantastic as we see what the Republic has fallen to. The Senate is now the Imperial Senate, filled with greedy politicians who do not care about the people they are supposed to serve. They ignored Mon Mothma entirely when she was trying to get a point across about Imperial overreach, but they did not care because overreach gives those politicians the wealth and power they want.
We get Syril’s story continued as he tries to ally with Dedra Meero. Syril’s approach is strange because he is stalking Dedra, but ok.
Verdict
Overall, this is a good show. I like the concepts, and I adore the characters. I don’t have a problem with slow stories, but this show is beginning to feel unnecessarily slow. I hope they figure out the pace to make this a better show, but for the moment, it is not as great as it could be.
Also, I wanted to point out that the theme music changes with each episode. I think it’s a cool little detail, but I’m probably the only one.
Thanks for reading! Have a great day.