Andor season 2, review: despite a slow start, Star Wars' grittiest spin-off flies high once more
Before season one of Andor (Disney+) came along in 2022, we were already sick of Star Wars spin-off TV shows. While The Mandalorian had landed to great acclaim, The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi were turgid cash-ins. The prospect of watching a 12-part spin-off about a minor character from Rogue One, a spin-off film, was not enticing. Yet Tony Gilroy's series completely defied expectations, giving us a compelling tale of rebel spies and the richest Star Wars world-building experience since the original trilogy.
With season two about to arrive, you'd be forgiven for feeling slightly jaded all over again. While the children-focused Skeleton Crew provided some fun, Ahsoka and The Acolyte were thin gruel, happy to dazzle us with light sabers and little else. Could Andor return to revive the flagging franchise once again? On the evidence of the first three episodes of this second and final season – absolutely not.
The series gets off to a bafflingly terrible start. Beginning one year after the events of the first, in which smuggler and thief Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) reluctantly became part of the Rebel Alliance, the opening three episodes are so lacklustre and slow that you suspect Gilroy has been watching too much of the other spin-offs. After stealing an Imperial TIE fighter, Andor is trapped in a sort-of purgatory with some ragtag bandits straight from central casting. These episodes suffer from something Andor had previously risen above – fantasy-series stock characters.
Start with episode four (and you may as well) and you'll be well-rewarded. Gilroy's genius was in taking the Star Wars universe and asking what would ordinary people do in this situation – aping the original films' drab 1970s aesthetic was a smart move too. Events revolve around Ghorman, a peaceful planet known for its silk-producing spiders and high-end fashion houses. However, inside the planet is a substance that the Empire needs to help them achieve energy independence. Star Wars buffs will know this gets very ugly – and pivotal to the story of the whole franchise.
The plot sucks in the major players from season one, including Debra Meero (Denise Gough) and Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), two Imperial apparatchiks with dead-eyed personal ambition, Genevieve O'Reilly's righteous senator Mon Mothma and, of course, Andor. That Ghorman resembles occupied Paris is entirely deliberate (and not the series' only Nazi reference) and the final nine episodes become a propulsive exploration of what price individuals are willing to pay for freedom. But there is no Skywalker heroism here – this is the desperate, last-ditch resistance of ordinary people left with no choice. Andor is Star Wars' earthiest instalment yet.
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