Andor (Episodes 1 - 11 so far)
Nov. 18th, 2022 07:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn further Mouse news, I've just finished marathoning the episodes of Andor released so far, and have to say I'm impressed: the Hype did not lie. This is doing something with Star Wars which I hadn't expected Disney to do, given the Sequels backed off from nearly all I really liked in The Last Jedi in The Rise of Skywalker, but then it builds on Rogue One, which was already Star Wars Goes Blake's 7, in a way. As a consequence, it massively appeals to my inner John Le Carré type spy fiction afficiniado, but that's not all.
I must admit it took me a while to get into the series - the first two episodes didn't really grab me for some reason, but from episode 3 onwards I was hooked -, though even earlier on, the way this series treats the Empire impressed the hell out of me. By which I mean: without ditching the SW looks and color coding, it creates a believable totalitarian society, which it shows on various levels. And not by letting anyone safely hide in the past with their associations. Sure, the whole "highlands/lowlands" deal with the Aldhani was a bit obvious, but the way the Imperial occupying power behaved didn't just associate 18th century Britain/Scotland. In later episodes, the whole exploitation of prison camps as slave labor plot thread doesn't associate the past, it very much associates the present, and not just in one country. Then there's the whole bureaucratic infighting not preventing ruthless efficiency. Dedra Meero isn't a good person, but she is a smart, ambitious and capable one. I was also reminded of the old Kevin Smith "how many workers were on the Death Star?" joke - the series does show all the various workers, supervisors etc. who are part of the system but here are shown with personalities and without their faces hidden. No killable orcs, and this without in any way lessening the evil. More the contrary, precisely because all the exploitation doesn't associate WW2 footage but very present day news.
Now if you haven't seen the show, at this point you might wonder whether it's solely or mainly about the villains, though the title is a giveaway here that this isn't the case. It very much is about the growing rebellion, but, building up and doubling down on what Rogue One tried, with a Le Carréan slant, without ever getting nihilistic about it. Regarding our titular hero (or is he? It didn't escape me that the last two episodes point out "Andor" is the last name of his adoptive mother, that's how he got it), Cassian going from "the Empire sucks but I just want to be safe somewhere with the few I care about" to realising there is no safe space you can make for yourself in this kind of society works in a very different way than previous storylines like that in the SW universe went. Not least because of the whole prison subplot and the way he ends up as a prisoner NOT because of anything he's actually done (and he did do some anti imperial things already at this point) but in his cover identity as a hapless tourist. That kind of random arrest and prison sentence as part of more slave labor being needed is a very different eye opener than "oh, I've met some heroic types I now care about, I guess I'll join as well". It's exactly the kind of arc beyond personal ties that, say, Finn didn't get, though I thought the casino subplot in the later half of Last Jedi promised something like this.
Since Cassian's fate is fixed, however, I appreciate all the more the series manages to get me emotionally evolved with its OCs - and with Mon Mothma, who started out as a bit part in Return of the Jedi and was already in Rogue One, granted, but was about due to get some serious fleshing out. (Basically the sole female character other than Leia in a rebellion leadership position in the original trilogy, and she really had only a very few lines there.) Early in the series, she says she's learned from Palpatine - meaning how to create a cover identity in the Senate while secretely working for something else entirely -, and Luthen, who is Jack Bristow (from Alias the tv show or, if you like, George Smiley as a Star Wars character), whose Coruscant look evokes Ian McDiarmid's as Senator, then Chancellor Palpatine in the SW Prequels to an eerie degree - it's different when he's off planet, btw - and who is played by Stellan Starsgard, also makes the comparison between himself and the saga's main villain, about adapting his methods to fight him. Both, and all the rebel characters we've seen so far - Vel, Kleya, Cinta mainly - are faced with an ongoing "but how far are you prepared to go with this?" question. Now, again, this doesn't feel like a nihilistic story. Or a Jack Bauer of 24 kind of thing, where one antihero snarls someone needs to get his hands dirty while torturing people. Not least because the big emotional moments so far aren't people becoming their worst selves but discovering their better selves, like the Andy Serkis played prisoner who starts out a seeming bully and ends up in a very different place. But the question keeps being there, and there are no easy replies.
It's also a very present day story in that it keeps using the economic differences - and greed as a key motivation for many of the oppressors - as part of its world building. The majority of characters are from a poor or just getting by background, but Mon Mothma and Vel are not, and that gives them both priviledge and despite all their work for the cause inevitably, while they maintain their old identities as cover, participation in the benefits of exploitation. The first successfull team effort we see the rebels pull off in the series is a heist story, as they manage to steal the pay for the troops for an entire sector, which the show executes in an adrenaline pumping superb actiony way - but it also shows the consequences, which is the Empire doubling and trippling down on the exploitation elsewhere.
As this is so very much a spy story, one primary plot thread is people trying to strategically outthink each other - mainly Dedra Meero on the Imperial Side and Luthen on the growing Rebellion side - , and like I said, this appeals to the part of my which has been spy-show-less since The Americans ended. Like The Americans, the overall conclusion being known does not lessen the suspense for the individual - yes, the rebellion will eventually win, but what the show makes one care for is: who among its characters will still be alive and what will they have given up until then to see it done?
I must admit it took me a while to get into the series - the first two episodes didn't really grab me for some reason, but from episode 3 onwards I was hooked -, though even earlier on, the way this series treats the Empire impressed the hell out of me. By which I mean: without ditching the SW looks and color coding, it creates a believable totalitarian society, which it shows on various levels. And not by letting anyone safely hide in the past with their associations. Sure, the whole "highlands/lowlands" deal with the Aldhani was a bit obvious, but the way the Imperial occupying power behaved didn't just associate 18th century Britain/Scotland. In later episodes, the whole exploitation of prison camps as slave labor plot thread doesn't associate the past, it very much associates the present, and not just in one country. Then there's the whole bureaucratic infighting not preventing ruthless efficiency. Dedra Meero isn't a good person, but she is a smart, ambitious and capable one. I was also reminded of the old Kevin Smith "how many workers were on the Death Star?" joke - the series does show all the various workers, supervisors etc. who are part of the system but here are shown with personalities and without their faces hidden. No killable orcs, and this without in any way lessening the evil. More the contrary, precisely because all the exploitation doesn't associate WW2 footage but very present day news.
Now if you haven't seen the show, at this point you might wonder whether it's solely or mainly about the villains, though the title is a giveaway here that this isn't the case. It very much is about the growing rebellion, but, building up and doubling down on what Rogue One tried, with a Le Carréan slant, without ever getting nihilistic about it. Regarding our titular hero (or is he? It didn't escape me that the last two episodes point out "Andor" is the last name of his adoptive mother, that's how he got it), Cassian going from "the Empire sucks but I just want to be safe somewhere with the few I care about" to realising there is no safe space you can make for yourself in this kind of society works in a very different way than previous storylines like that in the SW universe went. Not least because of the whole prison subplot and the way he ends up as a prisoner NOT because of anything he's actually done (and he did do some anti imperial things already at this point) but in his cover identity as a hapless tourist. That kind of random arrest and prison sentence as part of more slave labor being needed is a very different eye opener than "oh, I've met some heroic types I now care about, I guess I'll join as well". It's exactly the kind of arc beyond personal ties that, say, Finn didn't get, though I thought the casino subplot in the later half of Last Jedi promised something like this.
Since Cassian's fate is fixed, however, I appreciate all the more the series manages to get me emotionally evolved with its OCs - and with Mon Mothma, who started out as a bit part in Return of the Jedi and was already in Rogue One, granted, but was about due to get some serious fleshing out. (Basically the sole female character other than Leia in a rebellion leadership position in the original trilogy, and she really had only a very few lines there.) Early in the series, she says she's learned from Palpatine - meaning how to create a cover identity in the Senate while secretely working for something else entirely -, and Luthen, who is Jack Bristow (from Alias the tv show or, if you like, George Smiley as a Star Wars character), whose Coruscant look evokes Ian McDiarmid's as Senator, then Chancellor Palpatine in the SW Prequels to an eerie degree - it's different when he's off planet, btw - and who is played by Stellan Starsgard, also makes the comparison between himself and the saga's main villain, about adapting his methods to fight him. Both, and all the rebel characters we've seen so far - Vel, Kleya, Cinta mainly - are faced with an ongoing "but how far are you prepared to go with this?" question. Now, again, this doesn't feel like a nihilistic story. Or a Jack Bauer of 24 kind of thing, where one antihero snarls someone needs to get his hands dirty while torturing people. Not least because the big emotional moments so far aren't people becoming their worst selves but discovering their better selves, like the Andy Serkis played prisoner who starts out a seeming bully and ends up in a very different place. But the question keeps being there, and there are no easy replies.
It's also a very present day story in that it keeps using the economic differences - and greed as a key motivation for many of the oppressors - as part of its world building. The majority of characters are from a poor or just getting by background, but Mon Mothma and Vel are not, and that gives them both priviledge and despite all their work for the cause inevitably, while they maintain their old identities as cover, participation in the benefits of exploitation. The first successfull team effort we see the rebels pull off in the series is a heist story, as they manage to steal the pay for the troops for an entire sector, which the show executes in an adrenaline pumping superb actiony way - but it also shows the consequences, which is the Empire doubling and trippling down on the exploitation elsewhere.
As this is so very much a spy story, one primary plot thread is people trying to strategically outthink each other - mainly Dedra Meero on the Imperial Side and Luthen on the growing Rebellion side - , and like I said, this appeals to the part of my which has been spy-show-less since The Americans ended. Like The Americans, the overall conclusion being known does not lessen the suspense for the individual - yes, the rebellion will eventually win, but what the show makes one care for is: who among its characters will still be alive and what will they have given up until then to see it done?
no subject
Date: 2022-11-18 08:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-21 07:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-19 03:11 am (UTC)Less interested in Syril. He's probably my least favorite plot point at the moment.
Mon and Luthen's very different places in Coruscant make for interesting contrasts. I like how that played out in episode ten, in particular. And then in eleven, with Mon apparently choosing to sacrifice her daughter after all! Eeep.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-21 07:12 am (UTC)And then in eleven, with Mon apparently choosing to sacrifice her daughter after all! Eeep.
I think the show is good at making the "what would you sacrifice for the Rebellion?" question really personal for everyone. Mon doesn't mind the money, she believes in the cause and so it's self evident for her to support it financially; the only trouble there is that she needs a way to do so without blowing her cover. But "would you sacrifice your daughter?" is another question altogether, yikes. Though because it's not literally sacrificing the girl to death, but to an arranged marriage Mon herself survived, there's a bit of an emotional out there, so I expect this won't be the last thing demanded of her....
no subject
Date: 2022-11-20 12:43 am (UTC)If you or any random reader here is interested, I wrote some meta about Andor through ep. 7 here.
no subject
Date: 2022-11-20 03:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-20 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-21 07:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-11-21 04:23 pm (UTC)And while I agree that Stellan Skarsgard fills the Jack Bristow role, the series is so much more thoughtful than Alias it's hard for me to think of it like that! He's doing a splendid job with good material, where poor Victor Garber had to elevate some real clunkers