Andor Season 2 TV Review: The acclaimed Star Wars series delivers one of the best seasons of television of all time

Plot: The second season takes place as the horizon of war draws near and Cassian becomes a key player in the Rebel Alliance. Everyone will be tested and, as the stakes rise, the betrayals, sacrifices and conflicting agendas will become profound. Rife with political intrigue and danger, Andor sets the clock back five years from the events of Rogue One to tell the story of the film’s hero, Cassian Andor, and his transformation from disinterested, cynical nobody into a rebel hero on his way to an epic destiny.

Review: I tend to be very excited every time a new Star Wars series is released. Forgive me, but as a child of the 1980s, I survived with just three movies for most of my life until the release of The Phantom Menace. Even though that film holds a special place in my heart, we live in a wonderland of Star Wars since the Disney acquisition, which has led to countless projects we would never have dreamed of thirty years ago. That being said, my enthusiasm for the series has waned once each season has wrapped, as the promise of Star Wars has sometimes felt underwhelming or diluted in the various Disney+ series bearing the franchise name. Andor debuted three years ago and, while good, did not engage me fully until the finale aired. The epic twelve episode first season of Andor delivered a Star Wars series with a grittier and more mature tone that lived up to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The second season of Andor improves on the first in every way, mainly because it is built as four mini-seasons that play like a quartet of Star Wars films rather than another television series. Not only is the second season of Andor the best Star Wars project since 1980, but it will very likely go down as one of the most impressive television seasons ever.

The first season of Andor occurred five years before the Battle of Yavin, the iconic closing sequence from the original 1977 Star Wars. For season two, showrunner and series creator Tony Gilroy has assembled three-episode arcs, each of which takes place one year closer to the Battle of Yavin and chronicles Cassian Andor’s (Diego Luna) evolution from reluctant spy to Rebel hero. It also gives us glimpses at the growing uprising against the Empire from a Jedi-free perspective. With a finite timeline leading to the events of Rogue One, Gilroy’s challenge was how to satisfactorily give Cassian Andor his due, along with the cast of characters introduced in the first season, while giving the series a reason for existing. Each narrative arc connects to serve the overall trajectory of Andor towards Rogue One, but the limited episode count means some characters get more focus than others. Interestingly, the characters you think would gain prominence may not be who you expected. With the title of the series bearing the name Andor, Diego Luna does take center stage, but there is still a great deal of time spent with the rest of the ensemble while giving substantial universe-building to the Star Wars canon.

Without divulging any spoilers, I can say that anything that the first season did that differentiated it from the rest of the Star Wars franchise, season two does more of. Andor was the first Star Wars series to feature a sex scene, albeit the prelude to one off-screen, but season two features attempted rape, drug use, and more mature material that makes the series more mature than it’s predecessor. Nothing in Andor‘s second season goes beyond the equivalent of a PG-13 rating, but it is far and away the most grown-up Star Wars has ever been. The new season does address every plot thread introduced in the first season, but does not tie everything up in a neat bow. Yes, the series dovetails directly into the start of Rogue One, much as Rogue One ended immediately where A New Hope began. But, where Rogue One killed off the entire main cast to explain their lack of appearance in Star Wars and any sequels, Andor is not nearly as brutal. You will likely be disappointed if you expect the series to neatly put everything together for you. But, if you like the potential for universe-building, Andor has plenty of opportunity to build on this new angle of the saga in future projects. How? You will have to watch and find out.

As each mini-arc will premiere on Disney+ weekly, viewers will experience the whole story from beginning to end without delay. Each three-episode arc does leave things open going into the next, but it works well as a standalone experience. The tangible nature of Andor continues to be a major asset for the series, with minimal sequences looking like CGI creations. The format does eliminate some of the “mission of the week” chapters we saw in the first season, but this is also a credit to experiencing each arc as a slice of Cassian Andor’s life. Diego Luna evolves over the second season into the man we met in Rogue One, while we get a deeper glimpse into how Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) went from rebel collaborator to leader of the Alliance. Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) and Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) also play heavily into the season with the payoff for where they ended up in the first season finale. Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard) gets a lot of attention, but his assistant Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau) is an unexpected highlight of the season. Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay) gets a nice boost this season, while Adria Arjona’s Bix Caleen gets more screen time than in season one with a devastating and surprising arc.

Tony Gilroy could easily have expanded each of these arcs into individual seasons. Still, the condensed running time keeps the pacing brisk and the narrative focused, something the first season of Andor squandered. The lean approach to storytelling means some plot elements are truncated so others can be given focus. Still, it does not mean we lose out on seeing the promised return of Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic, Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera, and Alan Tudyk as K-2SO. There are some additional surprises in store for fans who will learn new angles on Star Wars mythology, but they are subtle and not blatant cameos or fan service. Andor gives us some deep cuts that some may miss on their first watch. Gilroy’s reverence for the saga and attachment, having co-written Rogue One, are paramount to why this season works as well as it does. Gilroy wrote the first arc, which was directed by Ariel Kleiman, while Beau Willimon (House of Cards) wrote the second arc, which Kleiman also directed. The third arc is written by Tony Gilroy and directed by Janus Metz, with the final three episodes scripted by Tom Bissell and directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios. All four arcs represent a stirring and unique experience in both Star Wars and long-form storytelling.

Expectations are incredibly high for season two of Andor, and fans will not be disappointed. There was a moment in the first two episodes where I wondered if this season could live up to the hype, and then I experienced a payoff that helped cement the brilliant approach Dan Gilroy brought to this story. Andor is a top-notch espionage series and a powerful drama that rivals many non-genre shows on the air, but manages to deliver the best Star Wars story in decades without needing a single lightsaber or Force-sensitive character. Andor‘s first season may have worked even better had it been approached in the format of this season, which will easily rank as one of the best Star Wars projects of all time and an equally impressive work of television. Diego Luna has done his character service in ways Solo and Obi-Wan Kenobi tried but failed to do. This is a fantastic season that never panders through fan service but is absolutely worth watching for Star Wars fans and non-fans alike. Andor‘s second season is amazing and only disappointing because it is the last season in this series.

Andor season two premieres with three episodes on April 22nd on Disney+.

Andor

PERFECTO-MUNDO

10

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