If you listen to the end of “Andor” Section Credits, you will hear the well -known melody from John Williams Original “Star Wars” do. Relatively few people come so far, partly for streaming platforms like Disney+ encourages viewers to skip the credits and move on to what is next in their queue (and also to “”Andor“Credits are run in a patience testing five minutes, with half of the names shown in a font so minuscule that it is illegible to the limit).
But those who capture the rising theme can be surprised; As if they were reminded of something they did not realize they had forgotten. “Oh yes,” maybe they think. “‘Andor’ is aStar Wars“Story.”
After suffering too many trips to galaxies far, far away that was either frustrating limited to previous visions or otherwise unsuccessful to flourish, Tony Gilroy’s two -season Limited Series differs from it, even though it acts as a puzzle piece. Yes, “Andor” is a prequel series for a prequel film for a trilogy that first debuted almost five decades ago, but instead of getting stuck in the past (like so many similar IP plays), these characters see steadily forward; Their urgent purpose that is properly rooted in the present, their gripping perspective bound to their medium.
When you look at it is easy to forget that this is the same world where Jedis has power forces and Jar Jar Binks once treated the Galactic Senate. But for the most part is to forget the exact point.
And a ringing approval. Like many inheritance prequels, “Andor” season 2 can fight from time to time under the burden to build their own fulfilling arch as the bridge for a three-act story. Fans long for a richer resolution when the twelfth section will have to queue “rogue one” and hope for the best (a dodgy endeavor, depending on your determination to see the past certain defects). But Gilroy’s decision to create a serious tribute to the unspoken heroes who built the uprising is only surpassed by his ability to deliver a “Star Wars” story as a painful and soulful, tragic and persistent like this. “Andor” stands out, even when you fit in, and it does so with style and urgent felt rarely felt in our conformist era of boring IP
Season 2 picks up a year after the uprising on FerrixWhere Maarva (Fiona Shaw) turned her own funeral into a public revolt against the Empire. Now Bix (Adria Arjona) is low. Her time to torture lives on in her nightmares-of which some send her sleep walk to the sadistic doctor whom her dreams tell her has returned. During the day she fixes agricultural equipment together with Brasso (Joplin Sibtain) and Wilmon (Muhannad Bhaier), whose later has become quite Tooley (alias a mechanic) and fallen hard for a local farmers. Wilmon, as Bix, has found his true love at a time of war and forced him to balance his obligation to the cause of his personal happiness. How much of himself does he have to give in order to earn the uprising? How much can you choose to save for yourself?
The answers are not simple or the same, nor are they intended to be. Gilroy’s story does not avoid an all-or-nothing-ethos, which becomes sharp, hard clear in Cassian’s season 2 trip. When we first greet our protagonist, played with a breathless charisma and prolonged grief of Diego LunaHe has linked the enemy uniform. As is to steal a tie fighter, he does not know how to fly, Cassian soon – and often – is pretending to be on one side to better serve the other. The spy life is lonely, and that’s not what Liv Cassian wants. He plans to flee with Bix when the time is right, but as long as the empire controls the bells, when would it be? Can he quote his many hours with dangerous service and file for an early, if well deserved, pension? Or, as his season 1 prison, there is only one way out When you live under oppression?
When it comes to their oppressors, “Andor” throws them into the serious light of fear obedience. Ben Mendelsohn sinks his teeth, again, to the imperialist director Orson Krennic, and reduced his officers with Curt -Taunts and long calls, depending on how much time he can spare against excoria. Krennic’s constant debris makes it easy to understand why each ISB official (Imperial Security Bureau) performs its orders, no matter how illogical or double. When the consequence of asking questions is his cruel brand of discipline, an officer does not choose death over an exit interview.
What Little Empathy is expanded to the dark side is seen in Dedra (Denise Gough) and Syril (Kyle Soller), the fascist business climbers that are now a wannabe power pair. During Season 2, Dedra serves a place in a selected advisory advice that monitors a project involving the planet Ghorman, which has minerals that are integrated in completing Death Star. Syril benefits from his partner’s proximity to power, eager to feel that he contributes to the master plan however he can, but their relationship becomes darker and more complicated despite their connection to the rulebook. .
“Andor’s” blunt disdain for tyrants and colonialists make it the easier to see the series as Modern metaphor. The emperor Palpatine is still held, technically, in control of the Galactic Senate, but his executive overreaction seems almost shy compared to President Trump’s daily regulations. There are scenes of state media that frames peaceful protests such as illegal attacks and dialogue that bravely describes genocide as exactly that, contrary to a cacophony of Boos. All the time, disconnected rebel groups are striving to overcome disinformation campaigns, mass story and general independence to form a resistance that can affect changes-not only in the long term, but here and now.
“We are struggling to win,” says Luthen (Stellen Skarsgård) to a young apprentice. “That means we lose and lose and lose – until we’re ready.” Getting an end to oppression requires sacrifice, and if it involves sacrificing your individual dreams or sacrificing your life yourself, “Andor” commisses these losses almost as much as it gathers their characters around the reasons to accept them.
Season 2 offers a number of exciting episodes built on action and espionage. There are huge, shiny sets and narrow, temporary reductions. Big speech makes the hair on your neck standing up (screaming out to my favorite psycho, Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera), and the actor composed by Nina Gold and Martin Ware is sterling all over the world. (Elizabeth Dulu as Luthen’s assistant, Kleya, may be the outbreak of the season.) All from the obsessive “Star Wars” fan to the relaxed TV The viewer should find something to squeeze on. (Not for nothing, the Disney+ roll -out is designed to best fit the structure of the season, not the strategy’s strategy: released every week in three sections on board, every little trilogy has its own thematic bow, and they are best appreciated accordingly).)
But I am still most unpleasant of “Andor’s” unique consideration for an undeniable result. The end of the “Rogue One” and the beginning of “A New Hope” informs more than the action; They form the temperament and ideology of the series. Cassian, Bix, Luthen and the rest of the rebels know what they are registering for, and rather than going through the movements up to their inevitable end – as if their duty against the uprising explains every decision they make – they fight. They argue over each election, every assignment, every information. They quarrel each other, and they stand up for each other, all the time, at every turn.
The struggle gives them life, even when they know that the fight will also be what removes it. One can claim that there has always been part of “Star Wars.” But how “Andor” raises anxiety in a lost life and excitement of a life that is a well-groomed victim that is worth it-is what makes it a “Star Wars” story that is at once a remarkable deviation and symbol of the franchise. Something tells me Next fairy tale will not be able to match it.
Rating: A-
“Andor” Season 2 premieres Tuesday April 22 at Disney+ with three episodes. The season with 12 episodes will be released in three episodes on Tuesday to May 13.
