Andor, the Latest Star Wars Spinoff
Recently Hawk and I started watching Andor, the latest Star Wars spinoff streaming on Disney+.
"Andor, isn't that the planet with all those stupid CareBears™ from Return of the Jedi?" we asked each other.
No. Andor is the name of the title character in this show. (Actually it's his family name. Cassian is his given name.) Endor is the name of a planet. The stupid CareBea Ewoks actually live on one of Endor's moons.
The series gets off to a slow start in the first two episodes. Cass's story is split between three seemingly disjoint threads. In one, in the present day, he's a galactic badass traveling between planets trying to find information about a "girl"- he says she's his sister but then says he doesn't know her name- and ready to murder anyone who gets in his way.
In another thread, also in the present day, Cass is struggling to make ends meet on hardscrabble planet Fennix, where most of his friends work blue-collar jobs at a massive salvage yard. Bix, his not quite a girlfriend maybe an ex he's still friends with, works in a space mechanic/spare parts business and helps him fence things he steals. But apparently this galactic badass is bad at stealing because he owes all his working-class friends money and they're getting increasingly impatient about being repaid.
Then there's the third thread, a series of flashbacks to Cass's younger days. Or so we believe. We don't know because this whole thread where a primitive tribe of children live in the forest with absolutely nobody over the age of about 16 around- serious Lord of the Flies energy here- is performed 100% in an alien language with no subtitles.
At the end of episode 1 Hawk spoke The Seven Deadly Words. ...No, not The Seven Dirty Words from a George Carlin comedy act 50 years ago, but the seven deadly words of scifi fandom: "Why do I care about these characters?" She walked away after the first episode.
I was frustrated, too, with the slow build in the first episode but I was intrigued enough about the mystery of Cass Andor to keep watching. It helped that each episode is short, about 32 minutes between opening and closing credit rolls. Sadly ep. 2 is no better than the first, though the pace picks up a lot better... and that maddening Lord-of-the-Flies-in-an-alien-language bullshit is brought to a conclusion in episodes 3 & 4. I'll write about those subsequently.
"Andor, isn't that the planet with all those stupid CareBears™ from Return of the Jedi?" we asked each other.
No. Andor is the name of the title character in this show. (Actually it's his family name. Cassian is his given name.) Endor is the name of a planet. The stupid CareBea Ewoks actually live on one of Endor's moons.
The series gets off to a slow start in the first two episodes. Cass's story is split between three seemingly disjoint threads. In one, in the present day, he's a galactic badass traveling between planets trying to find information about a "girl"- he says she's his sister but then says he doesn't know her name- and ready to murder anyone who gets in his way.
In another thread, also in the present day, Cass is struggling to make ends meet on hardscrabble planet Fennix, where most of his friends work blue-collar jobs at a massive salvage yard. Bix, his not quite a girlfriend maybe an ex he's still friends with, works in a space mechanic/spare parts business and helps him fence things he steals. But apparently this galactic badass is bad at stealing because he owes all his working-class friends money and they're getting increasingly impatient about being repaid.
Then there's the third thread, a series of flashbacks to Cass's younger days. Or so we believe. We don't know because this whole thread where a primitive tribe of children live in the forest with absolutely nobody over the age of about 16 around- serious Lord of the Flies energy here- is performed 100% in an alien language with no subtitles.
At the end of episode 1 Hawk spoke The Seven Deadly Words. ...No, not The Seven Dirty Words from a George Carlin comedy act 50 years ago, but the seven deadly words of scifi fandom: "Why do I care about these characters?" She walked away after the first episode.
I was frustrated, too, with the slow build in the first episode but I was intrigued enough about the mystery of Cass Andor to keep watching. It helped that each episode is short, about 32 minutes between opening and closing credit rolls. Sadly ep. 2 is no better than the first, though the pace picks up a lot better... and that maddening Lord-of-the-Flies-in-an-alien-language bullshit is brought to a conclusion in episodes 3 & 4. I'll write about those subsequently.