Spies, secrets, espionage and rebellion. Andor is a series that puts its characters first and shines the spotlight on the growing rebellion. This second and final season is tasked with pushing the galaxy closer to A New Hope, bridging the gap between season one and Rogue One in a way that changes the impact of the 2016 prequel.
This season is a perfect example of a tale of two halves. The score at the bottom of this review doesn’t accurately reflect the first nor the latter half of the season. To put it simply, I couldn’t latch onto the narrative of the first seven episodes. I didn’t care much for the political drama being focused on and many of the arcs were too detached from Cassian to hold my attention. Why did we have to go through a Chandrilan wedding? Beats me. While those episodes average a 5/10, the last five episodes average a 9/10 and contain some of the best, most-thrilling content the Star Wars universe has seen. It’s frustrating that the tension, excitement and genuine thrill of the last few episodes isn’t present earlier in the season. The issue with structuring your season with a sequence of 3-episode arcs is that if one of those arcs doesn’t hit, that’s an entire quarter of your season that ends up derailed. It happened in the first season and it’s happened here.
The first two arcs of the season are focused on building up both Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and Mon Mothma’s (Genevieve O’Reilly) corners of the universe while touching base with Cassian (Diego Luna), Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård), Syril (Kyle Soller) and more of this era’s main players. These episodes are by no means empty or void of any sort of enjoyment, but any highlights are isolated to individual scenes. There’s no real throughline of tension carried through the season’s early episodes and I found myself not really caring about the development of those arcs. For a show called Andor, the titular character felt more like a guest star in his own series. The issue isn’t the pacing – the entire series has maintained a consistent pace – the issue is with the content not building on any meaningful stakes. It’s unfortunate that there’s a lack of suspense early on, because once episode eight hits, it’s like a completely different show.
The run home is riveting from start to finish – each episode is ripe with tension, exceptional writing and unexpected turns in the story. For a series that’s heading towards a point in the universe we’re all too familiar with, there’s a great number of surprises in store with how the links to Rogue One and other Star Wars entries are handled. The dialogue alone in these final episodes is some of the best content the universe has seen to date. Everyone from Cassian to Mon Mothma and even Dedra (Denise Gough) have huge moments with captivating monologues. There’s a phenomenal balance of action, drama, dialogue and tension that had me hooked every single step of the way. When people talk about Andor being the best Star Wars has to offer, it’s these last few episodes that they’re talking about. My one minor gripe with the run home is the lack of Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO. His presence isn’t as prominent as it seemed it would be, but the rest of the content is so stellar that it’s hardly a sticking point.
The writing is one thing, but it’s the performances that take the series to the next level. Diego Luna has made the most of this series and turned a decent character in Cassian Andor into one of the most complex and well-developed in the galaxy. His performance is enhanced with each passing episode as he gets increasingly better at selling the emotion. Stellan Skarsgård was wonderful in season one and he’s just as captivating here, but it’s Elizabeth Dulau as Kleya who steals the show in that corner of the series. Kleya is a character who has largely been a support to Luthen, but this season builds her up and Dulau is phenomenal in every moment. My favourite episode of the season is actually one in which she features quite heavily, carrying the episode with an emotionally complex performance. To mention everyone would be overkill, but the ensemble as a whole deliver where sometimes the narrative cannot.
In the end, Andor will go down as a memorable part of the Star Wars universe despite some of its arcs not quite delivering thrills as expected. Its dedication to character and storytelling has made an immediate impact on the resonance of Rogue One’s story and as a result the rest of the original trilogy. While the first chunk of the season didn’t resonate with me and failed to keep me engaged beyond a couple of key scenes, the back end does a tonne of heavy lifting. The dramatic tension, edge-of-seat suspense and wonderful character development make the run home utterly mesmerising. There’s a lot to love in here with its slow-burn storytelling regardless of whether you’re deep in the universe or not.
6.6/10
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