So with anything Star Wars I feel that a little personal history is helpful.
I didn’t grow up with Star Wars. I saw A New Hope when I was a kid, and it didn’t leave an impact. In fact, I watched the prequels and originals around the same time and out of order. Attack of the Clones was my next, then Revenge of the Sith in theaters, then I caught up with the rest of the films (Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi), and finally, The Phantom Menace. Out of all of the films, it was Revenge of the Sith that got me seriously interested in Star Wars and why I decided to catch up with the rest of the movies. But that was the only film I really loved. The darker tone the film takes, seeing the Republic and the Jedi fall, made things feel real in ways the other films did not and made me more curious about this universe.
From that, my desire to learn about the history building to this moment, plus what happened after the movies, ushered me into the expanded universe of the books, video games, and cartoons. Like most things, some really worked for me (Darth Plagueis is a masterpiece of a book in my opinion), while others were hit or miss. But the creativity put into this world was something I really enjoyed. The expanded canon gives the series greater depth to characters than the movies in several cases and shows the Star Wars universe as something really deep and full of possibilities. In the end, the movies were never the big selling point for me about Star Wars, which is a long way of saying I loved Star Wars, but conditionally.
I hadn’t warmed to the Disney-based Star Wars series until this year’s spectacular drama series Andor.
I never saw Rogue One where Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) was introduced as a character was introduced and actually had no idea he was from that movie. (I saw Vader’s rampage on YouTube so I figured I got the best moment.) At the start of the Disney+ show, he seemed very bland, and I had no idea why I was following him. In fact, I thought the show was setting up some very predictable character arcs in the rest of the cast: the former lover that is the future lover, the best friend, worried mother, obsessive cop, etc. Yet, the more I watched, the more these potential clichés were tossed on their head. It started taking on some new exciting ideas.
First and foremost, the show does a fantastic job of showing life under a fascist regime. From the most powerful to those just trying to keep your head down, you never know when the Empire reigns destruction to achieve their ends. The random torturing, killing, and imprisonment of people is slowly exposed to us over the course of the show in big and small ways. We see very clearly why the Empire is bad and is very much a threat to people. Even people who believe in the “cause” are casually thrown away if it serves the ends of people higher up. What Andor does is give me something I haven’t seen from Star Wars since Revenge of the Sith: a sense of dread and real danger. While we know what happens to some of these characters, most of the Andor cast are brand new. That they could actually die at any second feels very real in a big way in how we see the Empire operate. We also see that the nascent rebellion is not just clearly heroes. These are desperate people who have had to turn to working with very shady people to get by and have slowly had to become that as well. We see them making the kind of life and death decisions that you would dread doing, but know you would have to in taking on such an enormous foe.
This also leads to a minor point that was really welcomed for me. We were not only in the slums. I know seeing that the galaxy is a rough place is a major selling point for Star Wars as a series, but after a while I was sick of the lackluster settings the only thing we see in a huge galaxy. Getting onto Coruscant and seeing a city was something I was thankful enough for, but then seeing how the upper crust was living in this world was something new for Star Wars. We see things aren’t that great for them either. Some are just idle rich who could care less as long as the Empire isn’t picking on them, tossing around lines like, “If they haven’t committed a crime, what do they have to fear?” when talking about even more oppressive measures being adapted. Or being in the actual leadership and fearing that your co-worker could take you down with one misstep or just an unpopular opinion even if it is the right thing to do.
Luna’s Cassian Andor serves as our way into all this complexity: a guy who is trying to get by in the galaxy in many different ways and who does morally dubious things but goes through growth about what he is willing to do. He is about himself and some of the people around him and he is willing to be a criminal. He has already suffered under the Empire, but he’s practical about getting by despite the far-removed Empire. It beats him down in different ways, and he is our main way of seeing how the Empire is willing to inflict cruelty to achieve its ends. Luna captures all his inner pain and anger and how that angst causes him to lash out. His is a subdued performance for the most part as, to survive, he has to hide so much. He becomes an everyman who is pushed so far that the idea of directly risking your life to destroy the Empire seems logical.
If you will die anyway, why not go down fighting?
I would be remiss if I didn’t shout out two actors who should both get supporting Emmy nominations. With Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, I vaguely recognized her and was pleasantly surprised that she has been playing Mon Mothma since Revenge of the Sith even the voice work in the animated series. But in this show, she really gets to dig into this character in a way that has never been done. We see her having to play a role within a role, having to be the “annoyance” to the Empire as a Senator within the system as she is also secretly aiding what will become the rebellion. She’s not even able to take comfort in her personal life as tradition tied her to a marriage when she was child to a man who is happy to just live in their status. We see the mental gymnastics she has to employ to survive this world, fearing spies even more than the rebels on the ground fighting.
Then there is Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael, who I swear at moments his facial expressions, hair changes, and clothing are to make him look like Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine. If so, it is a just comparison. He appears to be an urbane and witty friend that you can trust but, like Palpatine, he also carries dark secrets. Though his are about keeping the rebellion going, but that has caused him to have to make the kind of decisions you would not wish on any man. Also, unlike Palpatine, he isn’t psychotic, so we see the toll it is taking. His now famous speech talking about what he has sacrificed is one of the finest written and delivered speeches in television I have ever seen, and this may be the best performance of his career.
What I want to make more clear in all of this is that this is not just a great Star Wars show, this is a great show period. You don’t need to know a great deal about Star Wars to appreciate the series. There are not a lot of famous characters with deep backstories you need to get into to understand what is happening. In fact, not knowing may actually make it better so you do not know who makes it out. This is a story about fascism and how it hurts the world at different levels with fascinating characters navigating it. The brilliance of Andor gives me such great hope for the future of the iconic series.
