Andor isn’t just serious Star Wars — sometimes it has snot aliens too

Perhaps you’ve heard folks talking about Andor It is being described in ever higher praise. There is blanket praise about how it is among the best Star Wars stories out there, how it’s a strikingly angry show, a super grounded show that is light on fan service and big on politics and so on, and so forth. This can be a lot to take in, especially if you have been burned by Disney Plus’ recent run of Star Wars TV shows and aren’t so hot on the future of this galaxy far away. Fair! Some people, (hello! I wrote many of these articles), have gone zero to sixty with the prequel. RequirementsIt is important that everybody takes it seriously. However, Andor’s got more going on than just heady politics and rebellious self-sacrifice.

Permit me to reaffirm what I wrote (I put a lot of effort into it), and then say this: Andor really will surprise you with how much serious consideration it’s worth. Second, let me also highlight an aspect that may be overlooked in all the Big Talk. Andor It’s good for all Star Wars fun too.

Consider this week’s episode “Daughter of Ferrix,” which takes some time in the aftermath of last week’s dramatic prison break to show Cassian Andor captured in a snot net of the aliens Dewi and Freedi Pamular. Like all Star Wars aliens they are full of cheerful sass. They also provide a breath of fresh air after being held in the Narkina 5 labor jail. They have fun web traps, a jovial camaraderie, and they’re as pissed at the Empire as we are. It’s a blast.

This isn’t an anomaly either — there are loads of goofy and thrilling moments throughout AndorFrom Cassian’s Keef Girgo, alias Cassian, to space battles and pushy moms to B2EMO and sweet space battles to the Andor family droid, which is the first Star Wars to act as though he were older than the ground under his feet, to the Keef Girgo, alias Cassian, who Cassian adopted in Space Florida.

Even the show’s approach to Easter eggs — something that has been diluted to be merely “references” in a lot of other franchise works — is refreshing. You have to pay close attention to find some of its deep cuts, and pausing to look over the wares in Luthen’s antiquities shop is a great bonus for those who live for that sort of thing.

How do you make it work? Andor It is refreshing to see that both Good Star Wars as well as Fun Star Wars are possible. In being a show about decidedly normal people caught in the epic struggle of Star Wars, it lets those normal people go through all sorts of experiences — committing just as hard to the wrenching politics of revolution as it does to the detail on those snot nets.