I am by no means a Star Wars fangirl – at least not ever since George Lucas sold his soul to Disney. I do love the original trilogy, with Empire Strikes Back being my unrivaled favorite of the Star Wars saga. However, I stopped following most Star Wars content that Disney continues to throw at us after The Last Jedi. I actually enjoyed the latter—it was very funny, perhaps too funny—but I did not even watch The Rise of Skywalker after I heard that it basically retcons all of Last Jedi and seems to overall have made bad plot decisions. I tried to watch the first live action TV show of the Star Wars franchise, The Mandalorian when it came out, but I was so bored by it that I stopped halfway through. I did, however, really enjoy Rogue One, which leads me to the topic of this post: Andor. Andor tells the back story of one of the main characters of Rogue One and his journey to join the rebellion in its early days.

Initially I didn’t have this show on my radar at all, due to my aforementioned lack of interest in all things that are new to the Star Wars universe. However, I kept hearing how great it is, with people even comparing it to The Expanse (one of my favorite shows), so I finally gave it a chance. It was a rough start, because the first two episodes of Andor were a bit of a drag and I had trouble following what’s going on with all of these various different plot lines and characters. I almost gave up on it after watching those first two episodes. However, eventually I continued to watch, and the show finally became interesting in the third episode with the appearance of Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen, who appears to be one of the driving forces behind the rebellion. From there on onwards, the show finally started to unfold its true nature and all of those plot lines started to converge.

Andor tells its stories in a perhaps more unconventional way from what we’re used to in modern TV shows. It showcases the story of one person, Cassian Andor, and his journey towards joining the rebellion through different phases in different places, as well as the stories of characters directly or indirectly related to his journey. His journey takes him away from his home world Ferrix, to several different worlds, all with a different cast of characters (who may or may not reappear later in the show). And that’s one of the things that makes the show so great: its characters. Every place that Cassian Andor goes to it full of interesting, three-dimensional characters that you as a viewer grow to love (or hate). Some of them appear only in a handful of episodes, but by the time Cassian moves on from wherever he encountered them, their fate will hit you right in the feels —most notably perhaps the fate of Kino Loy, played by Andy Serkis in one of the best performances of the entire show (and perhaps his entire career). By the time I watched the final episode of the first season, I had empathy even for the droid, that’s how great the characters in this show are1. And let’s not forget the amazing bell tower guy, who seems to have had the time of his life bashing that anvil.

Andor is a show about ordinary people like you and me, who are facing the threat of an increasingly oppressive regime. It doesn’t have the Force or Jedi or other supernatural stuff. It doesn’t have many outlandish alien creatures. It doesn’t have the epic Star Wars theme music. It feels like the least Star Wars show that you could imagine2, and honestly, that’s why it’s so great. It takes you to a universe that you are somewhat familiar with, but it’s completely and utterly human.

Needless to say, I can highly recommend this show. I loved it so much that I actually already watched the whole first season twice, something I very, very rarely do. It needs a few episodes to get going, but once you’re halfway through the season, all of these amazing characters will start to grow on you, and then once you’ll reach the final episode, you’ll be weeping. This is a brilliant show with outstanding writing, and I can only hope that the second and final season will be just as great as the first.