Andor is a 2022 space opera espionage series created and written by showrunner Tony Gilroy.

Star Wars is in an awful state.

From three awful movies (yes, I include The Force Awakens–read my review here) to several awful shows (yes, I include all seasons of The Mandalorian). From greatly diminishing box office returns (read my review of the Force Awakens to see the impact of that) to greatly diminishing viewership returns (The Mandalorian Season 3 and Ahsoka topped headlines from last year for their huge drop in amount of viewers).

I’ve been disappointed and hurt for years. Maybe one day I’ll write a review of the Prequel Trilogy, but when you put all that together, Star Wars hasn’t had good content without any reservations or disclaimers since, oh, 1980. Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back are some of the best movies of all time. They deliver with amazing spectacle, wonderful worldbuilding, creative characters, and iconic moments. Return of the Jedi has its flaws, but it’s still an amazing climax and a wild ride.

So when I heard that Andor was actually good–even great–I was skeptical. I was so skeptical that I didn’t check it out until a year later when my family renewed a Disney Plus account and I had some free time.

Boy, was I not disappointed.

Who’s Andor?

Cassian Andor is one of the main characters of the Disney Star Wars spinoff movie, Rogue One. It tells the story of the members of the Rebellion who discover the plans to the Death Star and steal them. (If you don’t know, the Death Star is a moon-sized space station that can destroy planets. It’s the “final boss” of the first Star Wars movie from 1977).

Many people adore the movie, hailing it as the best of Disney Star Wars. I wouldn’t deny that (before Andor, the show, it was my pick for sure), but I wouldn’t say it’s a good movie. There are tons of flaws with its construction and pacing. There are a lot of plot holes, too. In addition, there are unnecessary ham-fisted cameos that just try to say, “SEE? You like STAR WARS, don’t you???”

But this isn’t a Rogue One review.

What matters here is that Cassian Andor was a completely uneventful character in Rogue One. He’s got a sassy robot companion. He’s hardened, killing someone in cold blood to prevent his capture by the enemy, but beyond that there isn’t much to his character. He dies at the end from a test shot by the Death Star on the planet he’s on.

Why make a show based on that guy, a spinoff of a spinoff that no one really needed? The original Star Wars does plenty well on its own. Do I really need another reference-filled supposedly “hardened” show that won’t deliver on its promises?

Well, Andor delivers. Yes. it has some weaknesses, but it is… well, there’s no other word but great.

The Weaknesses

Yes, Andor has some weaknesses.

The show is 12 episodes long. It’s structured into 4 “arcs.” The first is in episodes 1, 2, and 3. The second is in episodes 4, 5, and 6. Then, 7 serves as a transition into the arc of 8, 9, and 10. Then 11 and 12 are a two-part finale.

The connective tissue of the arcs is pretty weak. For example, Andor is using a false identity, hiding comfortably in a resort town to evade the law in episode 7. However, during an altercation between some troopers and some local residents, one of the soldiers says. “Hey you! You look shifty! You’re under arrest!” And Andor is like, “Oh no don’t arrest me that’s not fair” and then he’s arrested.

It gets across the message the writers wanted to get across (“See how the Empire is getting more and more oppressive!”). However, it isn’t strong plot. “Plot” is driven by cause and effect; one action leads to another leads to another. When random things happen, a plot no longer feels satisfying. It is more disjointed. The more a plot is driven by cause and effect rather than happenstance, the stronger it is.

There are several more instances of happenstance that connect the larger “arcs” of the plot together. It’s by far the weakest element of the show.

In addition, the show begins with Andor asking about his missing sister. However, the show never once mentions her again. It’s not bad, per say, but I wish he brought it up at least somewhere, how he hated being stolen from home or how he’s still looking for her. If that gets the whole series rolling, you’d hope he care for it more.

But if the weakest part of the show is a few instances where the show relies on chance? That’s not bad.

That’s not bad at all. In fact, it’s great.

The Strong, Strong Strengths

I have been disenfranchised from Star Wars for several years. I didn’t even see Solo and Rise of Skywalker in theaters, only watching Rise of Skywalker two years after it came out on Disney Plus.

Andor made me remember my love of Star Wars all over again. For that, and that alone, it deserves the highest praise.

What stands out the most is the characters.

An ambitious, career-orientated woman works hard to rise the ranks, fixing corruption and mismanagement along the way. Only, she does it in the Imperial Security Bureau, the Empire’s CIA that tortures and interrogates and bullies and genocides its way to control. Her name is Deedra.

An activist tries to carve out a small piece within the ever-tightening empire. She’s being surveyed every day. Good, because her slight-annoyance is a cover up for real activities. She is actually the main funder of multiple rebellion movements across the Empire. Yet the Empire is beginning to look into how she uses her family fortune, and she has to cover her tracks before things get worse. Her name is Mon Mothma.

A man is the floor lead of a prison. The prison doubly serves as a factory, and the prisoners supervise themselves. Their counters tick down on their amount of shifts left in the factory. Yet when a mistake in the system happens and an entire floor is killed for realizing that when they’re “released” they’re sent right back to prison, he decides to lead a revolt overthrow the prison guards. His name is Kino Loy.

A man is the owner of an antiques shop, traveling across the galaxy to find rare artifacts he sells to the elites of the capital of the Empire. But secretly, he is a primary instigator of rebellion, working behind the scenes to coordinate several disparate movements that have all sprung up against the Empire. His name is Luthen Rael.

All of these characters are fascinating. They’re played brilliantly by A-list actors like Stellan Skarsgård and Andy Serkis, as well as lesser-known actors like Kyle Soller and Denise Gough. We get a window into this world of Star Wars from points of view we haven’t really gotten before. Not from noble Jedi, not from rebellion heroes, not from evil Sith: instead, we have an up-and-coming officer, an average prisoner, a minor Senator, a behind-the-scenes rebel instigator. We also have Andor, a minor thief who gets on the bad side of local government police force that snowballs into so much more.

The characters – their points of view, their ideas, their strengths and weaknesses and roles – are by far the most interesting part of Andor.

However, there’s more to praise than that. This show, if you couldn’t tell, is full of big ideas. It’s about how totalitarian, authoritative, colonizing governments operate. It’s about how rebellions form as oppressive measures increase. It’s about the inner workings of a world so unlike our own, yet so more alike than we could realize. It’s about freedom, and what that means. It’s about making horrible choices for the sake of a greater good. It’s about being cursed to use the tools of your enemy against him, to force them to become more oppressive so you get more to your side. It’s about how cultures lose their identity in the face of regimes that tolerate differences by wiping them out. There is so much going on here. Yes, you could watch it and enjoy the drama and fights. But you can also enjoy the greatest of pondering that Sci-Fi has to offer.

But those action scenes, though. They’re not common, but they are explosive when they do occur. There are always consequences to each violent action; characters get demoted, hurt, killed, or have to make hard ethical choices. It feels almost like Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon (read my review of that show here!) in that there are always side effects: no one gets off scot-free. The build up to these scenes is amazing. The nature of these 3-episode arcs means that usually the third episode of the three is the action scene, and those action scenes more than deliver. The escape from Ferrix, the raid at Aldhani, the breakout at Narkina-5, and the final battle at Ferrix are now some of my favorite Star Wars action scenes. They are visually stunning, unique, and character-focused in a way only the best action scenes in A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi are. The raid on Aldhani stands out in particular. Just wait for the scene with “The Eye.” It’s so unique and well-executed; you know what’s going on every second even as you get one of the most unique visual spectacles in all of Star Wars.

And the speeches, man. Oh, the speeches.

This show has So. Many. Good. Speeches. Kino Loy’s speech to rev up the prisoners, Partigaz’s speech about the ISB to his gathered officers, Karis Nemik’s rebellion manifesto for Andor, Maarva Andor’s speech to the people of Ferrix. The dialogue in this show is sometimes poetic, sometimes harsh; but it’s always memorable. If you’re not convinced, listen to Luthen Rael’s speech to one of his rebellion comrades: it is so good and it was what convinced me to watch the show.

Oh, and you’ll want to stick around at the final episode for the end-credits scene.

That’s the thing: this show delivers on all points. Gritty character drama? You got it. Action-packed? You got it. Some of the best of Sci-Fi? It’s here. You want big ideas? You want espionage? You want small-town drama? You got it. It’s such a unique combination of elements, all within the Star Wars universe.

I Like Star Wars Again

And that is by far this show’s greatest, greatest strength.

Are you disenfranchised with Star Wars? Are you, like me, turned off from Disney and its corporate practices? Did you even know they made an Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show taking place between Episode 3 and 4, and it was awful?

This show can make you forget all of that.

This show can make you fall in love with Star Wars all over again, discovering that wonder you had as a kid but with the thoughts and ideas of an adult taking this world of kids’ dreams and using it both for escaping, and for pondering the wonders of our own world. It’s the best of Sci-Fi. It’s the best of fantasy. It’s the best Star Wars since Return of the Jedi.