Andor Episode 4 just hit Disney Plus, and since this is the last episode I saw for my Andor review, I’ve been waiting to shout about just how good this show was. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, Andor threw a chessboard in the air, and I love the show even more.
Having said all that, I think Disney is not working properly with Andor. This show should come out in bigger batches – just like the first week where it dropped three episodes. Partly, that’s because I absolutely love Andor, which is so good I wish I had it now.
You’ve mentioned on the record that Netflix’s full season drops are horrible for TV shows. But something about Andor just doesn’t sound like a TV show – and I don’t mean that in a bad way. More on that below.
Either way, Andor The A new TV show you must watch. In a sea of big-name pre-shows, Andor deserves oxygen in the debate. I will say it’s better than The Rings of Power, and close to House of The Dragon.
I wish she got the level of attention for these shows, like parrot analytics (Opens in a new tab) Andor rates where demand is 17.6 times the market average, while House of the Dragon has 54.8x and Rings of Power has 25.9x. With Andor being as good as he is, I’m a little disappointed that he lags behind in cultural awareness. This could be due to Star Wars fatigue – this is the third Star Wars show of the year – or a lack of interest in a character not from the original trilogy.
Either way, I need you all to start watching Andor. Here’s why.
There are light spoilers for Andor (during episode 4) below, but nothing that would spoil the show.
Andor ruled Episode 4 even as its top three characters faded into the background
Shipped to Aldhani, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), is very far from his adoptive mother Maarva (Fiona Shaw), loyal B2EMO robot and edgelord Syril Karn (Kyle Soller). His allies are not in the ring at all, and Karen goes from being a central villain to someone who is barely visible on screen. Three of Andor’s best characters taken off-camera should lead to a lackluster episode.
In a way, Andor avoids that trap completely, giving us his best version yet. Cassian’s banter with Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) is still excellent as they argue aboard Rael’s ship. The hotter the two of them got, and the more we knew Luthen already knew about Cassian, the more interesting the elder became. Next, Rael selects the reward for Andor’s gambit: stealing payroll for an entire imperial sector.
Episode 4 Andor’s casual surprises helped maintain that great atmosphere from the first episodes. For example, the Fondor Droid mod that acts as Alexa for Rael’s ship is a nice surprise for technology I wasn’t expecting, and the TIE fighter flying over the mountainside kept me on my toes.
Andor’s new crew has already proven their worth
Furthermore, a slew of new characters have appeared, most notably Phil (Faye Marsay), who runs Rael’s mission while sitting in the background. She bumps into Marsai as she presents an elephant dialogue, as everyone frustrates her. Cassian, who should call himself Clem, joins her gang and most of them don’t like the idea.
The most amazing part of the cast comes here, as Ebon Moss-Bachrach is pulled from the set of The Bear in Chicago to be furious in a galaxy far, far away. Arvel Skeen begins giving bullshit to young Karis Nemik (Alex Lawther), who looks more than a traditional “team player”.
Moss-Bachrach steals every scene he can, though Skeen isn’t entirely confident (and deservedly), but it’s not comedic rendered, brilliantly bringing his talent for being the subversive element of a set to Andor. Filling in the rest of the team are Taramyn Barcona (Gershwyn Eustache Jnr) and Cintra Kaz (Varada Sethu) as the Doctor I’d like to hear more from.
While Taramyn and Cintra don’t speak as much as their teammates, the rest of the Aldhani squad are already feeling more entertained and excited than the likes of Bix, Brasso and Timm, who are all back at Ferrix. Andor rides the characters in and out when needed, and it works really well for me.
Oh, and can we talk about how Luthen changed his style of meeting the Mon Mothma? Skarsgård brings a little charm to this perfectly cheerful role. The fact that we only get one episode out of this world at a time has me curious to see how episodes 1 through 3 fell together. And that gets to my next point.
Mon Mothma and Grandi give Andor new sides of Star Wars
In a way, Genevieve O’Reilly has made politics in the Star Wars universe very interesting. When Mon Mothma comes home to talk to her husband, and reveals that his party (which was on her calendar) will over-flow with her rivals, their argument over it all feels incredibly real.
While Star Wars is a space opera with a canon full of heroes and villains, Andor continues to piece together the people associated with them within this history. And so, to realize that Moon Muthma, the future leader of the Rebel Alliance, is married to a man who is a friend of those who plot her downfall? It suddenly makes her character more interesting. As if Carmella Soprano has been working undercover the whole time.
Meanwhile, Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) – the other new character we just met (this time one for The Andor Show) – may not have gotten much time, but her role is already proving to be an interesting one. Like Cyril Karen, Dedra brings a little extra sophistication to the imperial forces of evil, in that it doesn’t look sinister.
In fact, she appears to be hitting her head against a glass ceiling in the Empire, which her superiors told her was less ambitious. That you put her papers in order, because we “bring in officers like you” to be qualified and invisible.
Andor’s only drawback is that it doesn’t fit the TV well
Andor model Tony Gilroy said Mashable (Opens in a new tab) That Andor” strives to be a 1,500-page novel by the time it’s finished. He even said “We’ve made four new Star Wars films” when talking about the first season. Diego Luna seems to agree, as quoted by press materials as saying “It seems It’s like we’re making a very long movie.”
Even with these embarrassments, I still find Andor more compelling than The Mandalorian, Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi all in one book.
I don’t know if Gilroy intended to send a message that he doesn’t think of Andor as if it was a show, but that’s how I feel. Especially when some episodes felt like they ended abruptly.
While my Andor review called Andor great – something I stand behind – it still seemed to be way beyond the size limitations of episodic TV. Even with these awkward things, I still find it more compelling than The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi in one.
Outlook: Will Andor continue to amaze?
I absolutely adore Andor as he takes on this huge world that we saw in wide shots throughout the Star Wars movies, and keeps finding new interesting people in it.
While I don’t think Andor fits perfectly into the TV formula, being able to constantly add new and exciting people actually reminds me of one of the best shows ever: The Simpsons (well, at least the early seasons).
And like the way The Simpsons doesn’t make you root for the evil Mr. Burns, it took a few moments to flesh out his character. And I’d love to see Andor do the same, adding complexity and nuance to a world that often doesn’t provide it. Now, Andor has eight episodes left, just under three films, according to Gilroy’s comments. And if the first four episodes are any indication, Andor will continue to improve.
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