A list of small things I loved as I rewatched Andor season 1 in anticipation for the second season’s launch:
- Setting the tone with a double homicide outside a brothel in the first scene.
- Three episode mini-movies.1
- The density of the storytelling. Complex characters are fully formed within 2-3 scenes.
- Restraint and subtlety in the dialogue mixed with maximilist action set pieces.
- Anvil bell tower guy.2
- Timm’s arc. His betrayal of Cassian is tightly executed with ~5 lines of dialogue over ~4 scenes. Then he is killed before Bix can hold him accountable for his actions. The Empire consumes everything in this world: even its citizens’ personal grievances and reconciliations.
- Syril’s desire for justice, corrupted by hubris and ambition, as a believably banal origin story for a ruthless Imperial functionary.3
- Deedra as Syril’s future. All complexity has been squeezed out of her character, leaving only the hubris and ambition.
- Just enough comic relief: Mosk and Syril, B2EMO’s nervous personality, Major Partagaz’s dry wit in staff meetings.
- The ambiguous fate of Cinta’s hostages.4
- Why does Cassian kill Skeen? Is it because Nemik and Luthen made him sympathetic to the rebels’ cause? Perhaps it reveals that Cassian is a man of his word? Or maybe it was simple self interest because he can no longer trust Skeen? The moment is rich because these are all reasonable explanations given the story up to that point. The “truth” is likely a complex combination of them all. My personal theory? Skeen was a mirror, and Andor murdered him to quiet the self-loathing realization that they were the same.
- “I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them.”
- A throwaway line that the human prisoners are “cheaper than droids” both as a way to preempt a plot hole and to reinforce how indifferent the Imperial government is towards its people.
- Zero exposition dumps about Chandrilan culture.
- No forced conflict between Marva and Cassian because she separated him from his sister.5
- As Luthen watches Marva’s hologram speech, his lip turns up into the smallest possible smile as he realizes that the Aldhani heist has accomplished its true purpose: to embolden resistance across the galaxy.6
-
These don’t count as small things, but I’m in awe that they stuffed an all-timer heist movie and an all-timer prison break movie into the middle of an all-timer political espionage thriller. ↩
-
Emblematic of both the incredible set design and detailed worldbuilding. ↩
-
I love that Syril was never made into a sympathetic figure. ↩
-
It’s not important to know whether the Rebellion murdered this particular family. But it is important to realize that they would. ↩
-
This rhymes with Timm’s character. Most shows would lean into these personal conflicts, but Andor isn’t interested in becoming a soap opera. ↩
-
Stellan Skarsgård’s physical acting empowers the parcity of exposition throughout the season. ↩