"That was exhilarating!" I said to my wife after the 6th episode of ANDOR. And I don't say stuff like that out loud. It was also my version of a thank you, which I don't say nearly enough.

Credit to her. It was my wife who dragged me kicking and screaming back into the Star Wars galaxy after I childishly swore off the Disney+ produced shows forever after barely being able to choke down the Obi-Wan Kenobi debacle and giving up entirely on The Book of Boba Fett. She had patiently reminded me that Cassian Andor was the guy in Rogue One, "which is your favorite Star Wars movie, you know." No disrespect to Empire Strikes Back, of course.

Yep. It was the breathtaking chase near the end of the 6th that cemented it for me. The gripping half-way marker that could have been a season finale. The TIE fighters screaming into the multi-colored meteor shower that gave cover to a dramatic escape. The cockpit cam live look-in on pilots in shiny black helmets connected to long black hoses fiddling with their dials. Blasters! Just enough of those classic Star Wars sound effects. A grievously injured insurgent frantically calculating a thin route to safety. The brass horns that hit those deep notes right at the height of the drama. All of the buildup and character work that led to that payoff.

This. I decided right then and there on the couch. This will be my very first review ever on my website and I will finally color in a square on the Wormhole part of my little game board there.

And it's because I genuinely want people to watch it. Dagnabbit! As my wife would say. So Disney renews ANDOR the series for many seasons *pound the table*. So they make more Disney Star Wars shows like it. Grown up. Well-written. Not just mass-produced fan service.

I heard it was lagging in the ratings somehow. Possibly because snobby fans like me didn't want to give it a chance after the most recent string of Disney (in my, uh, "expert" opinion) disappointments. And not everyone has a supportive wife like mine. Or, on the other side of the table, some fans just want the lightsaber battles and the big heroes and cameos and don't think shows like Rogue One feel enough like Star Wars. That's nonsense, of course, but it's a reason I've heard.

Also, who's Andor again? Even I had to remind myself.

Who is Cassian Andor? Well, I will tell you. Only the cog in the complex series of every little thing that had to go right for the fledgling Rebellion and wrong for the Empire in order to even begin to think about exploding the first Death Star in the first Star Wars, that's who. And ANDOR, the show, brilliantly catalogues the spy-versus-spy of an Empire drunk on its own supreme power against a loose network trying desperately to coalesce into a rebellion against it.

Warning: The following sections may contain a few spoilers...

One of my complaints (to my poor wife) about some of the, eh, other shows is that they feel small. This one, in comparison, actually feels galactic in scope, and it doesn't skimp on the details either. Credit the production, the direction, the acting, the pacing in the script, all of it. Does this make ANDOR a "slow burn" in parts? Probably. Is that a bad thing? Not in the slightest.

I mean, the show spends the better part of Episodes 4,5 and 6 camping and hiking with Andor (Diego Luna) and rest of the six-person rebel infiltration team as they slowly make their way to the big money heist of Episode 6, and I love every minute it.

We're given time and space to breathe the story in here, and we get to enjoy grand vistas of a lush mountain valley while we do it (The series is filmed on location to awe-inspiring effect). We get to learn about the characters and why we should care about what they're about to do. All of it is well acted, so it's not painful at all. It looks like Ebon Moss-Bachrach might have even dropped down to featherweight to play a more realistic Arvel Skeen. I know for a fact Gershwyn Eustache, Jr. (Taramyn Barcona) is rocking a sweet 80s-style mustache to fit in with Empire circa A New Hope. The dialogue is superb. The tension rises along the way. The payoff of the heist and the subsequent chase is, as a result... exhilarating. And, gosh-darnit, if it take this long to get from here to there on a patch of dirt on some random planet, you can just about begin to imagine how impossibly big the galaxy is.


We spend real quality time "on location" on no less than five different planets and moons, each with its own rich flavor and specific use in the story and none of them covered in sand (no offense, Tatooine). Working-class Ferrix (the show's home base), is covered in soot and grime and is technically a desert planet, but that's fine. There's super-scenic Aldhani, site of the heist, of course. Then, there's a vacation escape at seaside Niamos where we get a cameo from Rogue One's K-2SO who helpfully plays a part in sending Andor to the nightmarish prison colonies on Narkina 5 where he's forced to assemble what may or may not be Death Star parts. Finally, there's the galactic capital, Coruscant, where we're treated to the inner intrigue of the administrators of the Empire and the secret financiers of the Rebellion. Sprinkle in a few others and we never overstay our welcome on any one world.

The aliens and droids we meet at each stop only add good flavor instead of being shotgun sprayed at us like candy at a Halloween party in New Mexico (no offense, Tatooine). Four-handed be-goggled Doctor Quadpaw? Of course he's one of the best surgeons in the galaxy. The weird-talking Narkinians on Narkina-5? I'd be pissed too if the Empire poisoned my fisheries. B2EMO? Well, I'll just say, no human being could have better conveyed the cruel emptiness left from the death of Ms. Maarvo Andor (Fiona Shaw), matriarch of Ferrix and mother of the main character.

Characters that need to travel great distances from world to world, whether they have lightspeed at their disposal or not, disappear from the script for several scenes while we catch up on all the other action. I really appreciate that. Lazy plot-convenient character jumps just shrink the story for me. Stretching the story, on the other hand, leaves room for some awesome action en route.

In Episode 11, resistance mastermind Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), fresh off a key meeting with partisan extremist Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and supposedly on his way to a Season Finale melee on Ferrix, finds himself in the tractor beam of an Arrestor Cruiser (think mini-destroyer) making a routine traffic stop. After exchanging license and registration info and a bit of banter, the captain of the cruiser is left stunned and comically shaking his head when Rael suddenly shatters the dish of the tractor beam, buzzes the bridge and cuts down the responding TIE fighter air wing before jumping to lightspeed. It's a swift sequence that left me shaking my head. What just happened? Did I just see spaceship lightsabers?

This show doesn't just lean on Star Wars spectacle, though. It actually shows remarkable restraint in using that great power, making it all the more effective when the action happens. No, so much of this story--and therefore the fate of the entire galaxy--hinges instead on intimate interactions between compelling characters and a carefully placed word or two.

Consider the meeting Rael had just come from with Gerrera. The fate of galaxy clearly hangs in the balance as Rael master crafts his argument on the spot. You can see the wheels turning on Gerrera's face as he decides whether or not to sacrifice a significant score and betray a fellow faction of freedom fighters for the good of a greater Rebellion as Rael suggests. We actually feel the weight of his decision.


I'm not good enough at writing, myself, to explain exactly how this kind of storytelling is done. I just know that these particular writers took the time to put really good words in the mouths of great actors playing characters with believable motives based on their individual struggles. And their decisions lead to consequences that move the plot along, not the other way around. The audience is made to feel those consequences along with the characters, because we can relate to them.

The result is characters of all stripes that you want to root for. I found myself pulling for some of the bad guys in their personal struggle to climb the Imperial corporate ladder because of it. I know. That's sacrilege in the good versus evil world of Star Wars. Yet, who among us hasn't been in the shoes of disgraced and depressed Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) as he bickers with his mother over soggy cereal about his wasted potential? Who wouldn't then grasp desperately for redemption at the coattails of the Imperial Security Bureau's fast-rising supervisor, Dedra Meero (Denise Gough), who herself only recently shattered a glass ceiling there. Funny thing is, his desire to clear his good name and her desire to finally get the recognition she deserves is the thing that nudges the Empire into inadvertently playing right into Rael's larger plan. It's just great story-telling. Even I can see that.

One more thing. This show just nails the Empire of this era. I'm completely biased as a child of the 1980s, of course, but there will never be anything on screen quite as imposing as the Empire of the original trilogy, and it's so great to get an extended look at the gears of that evil machine. All of the officers seem to be channeling their inner late Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin), the props and set designs are spot on, and the ships have hardly looked better.

I'm sensing a pattern, here. Disney Star Wars seems to be at its best when it goes Rogue (or Mandelorian) with lesser-known characters that just happen to be swept up in the sweet spots of the Skywalker Saga. Maybe the lack of extreme pressure to pay homage to the big characters in the big hero shows is better for story telling. I don't know. Maybe Tony Gilroy and Co. are just that good. Whatever it is, keep this coming please.

The Finale of Season 1 of ANDOR on Disney+ drops tomorrow.

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