Published April 2025
ANDOR:
SEASON 2
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Lorem Ipsum
Creator:
Tony Gilroy
Year:
2025
Genre:
Sci-Fi
Watched:
1x
Lorem Ipsum
SPOILERS
Andor Season 1 was one of my favorite shows in recent memory, and in my review last year I argued that it might be the best production ever to come out the universe.This seemed beyond a one off "lighting in a bottle" moment, but instead a creation from writers and directors who truly understood the Star Wars universe and what so many of us are looking for. The groundwork had been laid for something special, and season two was primed to up the stakes, dive us deep into the formation of the rebellion and show a magnificent rise of Andor into the leader he was born to be…
What I love about this show is the production, the tone,
The first three episodes were a let down. Three slow, uninteresting plot lines are choppily edited together in this longwinded attempt at storytelling, each bringing little clarity as to what Season 2's main story would be and why we should care, and with no insight into what Andor has been doing for the year up until this point. In fact he barely features.
The wedding plot could have been condensed into 20 minutes. It was boring and I didn't care about drama between the friends and family of the Mothmans. The farm arc presented an un-imaginative visa check story, token character death and stock rapey immigration officer, all of which we've seen played out so many times on screen before.
The Jungle scenes, whilst more interesting in theory, also dragged on far too long and required stupid behavior of annoying, poorly acted rebels to force the escalation. The captured tie-fighter had no consquence to the plot anyway. We also get Deedras and Cyrils relationship, which although had some humurous and well acted moments, is just one more thing we don't tune into Andor to see.
At this point I refused to believe this was going to be the level of quality throughout the show. The first season also paced a little too slow at the beggining, but eventually began to reward with the incredible Aldhini Heist episodes spanning from 4 to 6, followed by the unforgettable prison escape episodes after. I kept hope, and patience, waiting in Season 2 to come to life with this level of complex and quality story telling to appear, but it just never came. Yes there were great individual episodes in isolation, but none of the standards of brilliance, complexity and uniqueness set in Season 1 were matched. I challenge anyone to think of something in Season 2 that comes close to Andy Serkis in Season 1.
Some might argue the Ghorman uprising and massacre in episode 8 is where this season shines? I don't see it. Ghorman was essentially Ferrix 2.0, but with less interesting characters and a more confusing path to its climax. I enjoyed the episode, mostly because the production was outstanding (and because finally something interesting was happening), but like the farm arc, it's a rather predictable and overplayed story. We've seen it all before. This is Star Wars, the possibilities open to the writers are endless, they surely can come up with some more unique.
To make matters worse, Andors presence and impact on the plot is paper thin. I was concerned how little he featured in the first three episodes, and this continues up until episode 8, where he is a pointless feature in the Ghorman uprising, who if was to be removed form the plot entirely would leabe no impact on the outcome.
Thankfully Cyril and Deedra fill that space with some phenomonal acting and character development. Deedra is one of the most perfectly casted Empire figureheads in Star Wars, and Cyril, my least favorite character of Season 1, becomes one of the best in S2, to the point where I was dissapointed
But it's just crazy to me how Andor is a sort of secondary character at times. He's the best character by far, his performance is sensational. When lambasts the council in the episode 10 for their dismissal of Luthen its epic. But these moments of pure leadership are few and far between.
Mon Motham speech was not great. "Truth matters and Palps sucks"is all good and true, but I'd like to see her provide evidence (or at least assertions) that the Empire manufactured the Ghorman crisis with agent provocateurs. Throw in a few more Imperial atrocities (some we know, some we don't) and reveal that a coalition of planets and fleets has formed an alliance to oppose the Imperial Navy and the ISB. A declaration of war, basically. I know it's unlikely that she would be allowed to talk that long, but I'm confident the Andor team could come up with a way for the rebels to keep her on the air.
Was it rushed due to the condensing of the seasons? Writers strike?
I would have loved to see more of how the Alliance moves into Yavin and how the disparate factions come together. The show is about the formation of the Rebellion, but the most substantial jump – going from a loose network of Luthen spies to an organized group with a solid base and a fleet – just kind of happens offscreen in the background of the Gorman plotline. Maybe have a side story where a character goes to the Mon Calamari and secures the cruisers, or even just a scene where Luthen and Mon are comparing options for the best place to set up a base and they decide on Yavin.
I have some smaller gripes with those last episodes. The decision to side-line Deedra and replace her with the new ISB member at the culmination of her efforts was strange. Why rob her and the audience of what she's been building towards for 2 seasons. Her and Andor finally coming face to face, even for a moment, would have been amazing. A lot growth was invested into her development but it turned out to be little consequence to the finale.
We did get a cool confrontation with Luthen, but despite the great dialogue, both showed uncharacteristic amateurism that hurt my suspension of belief. She's practically asking Luthen to strike at her, or himself, which of course he does, and thus ruins Deedra's chance at interagation. Were shown her flaws, but it is so sloppy from Deedra. Luthen too, always shown to be in control, has no serious contingency to defend himself or destroy damning rebellion evidence when they find him. His half baked attempt to destroy the communication console nearly leads to Kleya's capture. Where was the detonation of the entire office? Even his choice to end his life via a stab wound is dangerously unreliable by his standards. It's all very careless, and kind of undermines many of those lectures on protocol and caution he was often dishing out.
Now that I think about it, Kleya also acts un-characterstically in her hospital infiltration. She has the knowledge of the Death Star and makes no attempt to preserve or pass it on before risking her own potential capture or death. It also seems very easy to fly in an out of Coruscant. Andor does it just fine when they extract her. Surely she would have had her own getaway ship tucked away that she could have used to leave the planet immediately after the hospital, versus holing herself up helplessly.
I also think its unrealistic that Deedra was kept alive by The Empire. Her failure with Luthen was catastophic, but she knew about the Death Star. There's no way they would imprison her and allow the possibility of her leaking it. An execution would have been more fitting, and helped provide some of that Empire brutality and merciless that I felt was missing from them this season.
All those points seem like nitpicking, and I would agree they are not deal breakers, but I do think its a shame the seasons biggest moments and climactic conclusions are in part built and enabled by some lazy and inconsistent writing that feels like its been written to manufacture drama and push the plot forward, rather than intelligently weaving the cast together in its final moments for a satisfying payoff.
VERDICT
Season 2's worst critic is Season 1. It was the most natural and brilliant expansion of Star Wars since Empire Strikes Back. Taut and clever, and characters were grounded at the same time '70s sci-fi elements somehow kept wowing you.
We could have got the complexities of running the rebellion, but no
RATING BREAKDOWN
Story
58
Directing:
77
Visuals:
94
Acting / Dialogue:
-
Music / Sound
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BONUS
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FINAL
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MOOD
Thanks for reading
