ANDOR aka Glum Village : its own thread

Yes. And his bewilderment at the assembly process was brilliant as well, it made me extremely anxious. But as you say possibly not as helpless as he seems - he’s filing things away for the future.

thx for starting a thread tracer!

reposting my thoughts:

new Andor episode great

the prison stuff gave me a “Ghosts…Of The Civil Dead” vibe but honestly it’s prob just bc its an all white future hell-prison

diego luna is so good, the transportation + arrival scenes he looked legitimately physically scared like he was going to puke at any moment, like when you are so afraid you’re involuntarily twitching

xpost I think it's good to remember that at the start of the series he's already been established at someone who stole a high-level Imperial macguffin to begin with as well as searching around for his sister in skeevier/less 'safe' situations. It's not that he's James Bond as such, but someone who has some earned skills to start with; absolutely he's frustrated, overwhelmed and bewildered at being stuck where he is now on top of being scared he but clearly realizes this isn't the place for a vent or a whine. (It helps too that I think the character gets clearly established at only being easily conversational and earnest as such with people he's already known for years, thus the small circle of his Ferrix crew. Everyone else, he talks only when he has to, and usually only when he absolutely has to.)

it was extraordinarily tense

you’re like “why is everyone taking off their shoes??” just pit-of-the-stomach horror vibes

and “why do those guards have such massive boots”?

the insta-pain device

the realisation of just how many poor fucks there are in this place

the gamification of work

this is marxist materialist star wars and i’m here for it

yeah Ned i rewatched the first few scenes of Rogue One last night and i forgot just how much of a “shoot first, talk later” guy he is. he’s from the Han Solo wing of life, in it for himself, ready to blast anything or anybody he needs to, but where Han could talk the ears off a rock, Andor just does his thing with minimal extras.

I think the whole "where is this person they're not at their post" is planting seeds/foreshadowing. . . just think at some point in this show he's gotta BREAK OUT OF THERE

CRAZY

HOW WILL HE DO IT

Through wisecracks and tomfoolery

the food hose was so ._.

We get a heist and a prison break in the same show.

Also thought the guards thing was to show how intense the security around the work is, and how the whole chain runs on fear and bullying. (at a time in the episode where it creates maximum anxiety for us!) Worked for me, as does pretty much everything in this outstanding show. It’s almost too good for Star Wars.

Loved this too the show has fine momentum now after a little too slow of a start imo. Nice to see Saw (arf).

good role for Andy Serkis

the penal factory was all very THX 1138

It sure was!

Watching this i was very * in a crow t robot voice* “dialogue by david mamet”

the characters for once appear to be driven by human-level motivations - misplaced ambition, jealousy, laziness, spur-of-the-moment thoughtlessness. People actually talking like people, instead of just delivering exposition.

I never found storm troopers scary in the originals, they looked slow and awkward in those white plastic suits. What was terrifying was the droid that almost chokes Cas out--how did they make the wrongness and un-human-ness of that badly proportioned robot SO CHILLING?!

The Ferrix wardribes--mwah. Skarsgard's outerwear in his off-planet buyer disguise, basically an American military parka as adopted by rebels everywhere--mwah! Everything being slate blue and orange--double mwah.

Skarsgard's failed negotiation with Forest Whitaker told us a lot about the precarity of the elements he's trying to bring together!! All crazy in their own way and each other's worst enemies...except for the Empire.

I really like it. Everything looks so good and not cheap or shoddy.

I said out loud “I wonder what they’re making” and my kid said “parts for the Death Star”…

― Spencer Chow, Thursday, October 27, 2022 3:57 AM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

YOOOOOO I was like THIS IS ALL PART OF THEIR WAR MACHINE.

I was thinking TIE fighter parts, but Death Star makes more sense. I'm still holding to my assessment that this is 100% based on the discussion from Clerks about all the dead Death Star contractors in ROTJ.

What was terrifying was the droid that almost chokes Cas out--how did they make the wrongness and un-human-ness of that badly proportioned robot SO CHILLING?!

I thought this bit was hilarious, because it deliberately makes you think of the same model Imperial droid that Cas owns (and reprogrammed) in Rogue One, except most definitely not as lovable or funny. kind of the opposite of the fan-servicey moments we usually get when we see a familiar character in these shows.  

show needs more aliens though. what, no twi'leks or rodians in imperial prison?

I hate Cyril's manipulative, grasping mom so much. I think that means she's a great character lol. You can really feel how growing up in her shadow, under her power, would mal-form you into something that would look unremarkable (family, loyalty, paying debts owed) but be so wrong inside.

Happy Andor day everyone!

This was the least remarkable and possibly talkiest episode so far (!) and still quite tense in places.

kind of breaks the whole 3 episode arc model, I was ready for some wild escape action

Still a great episode though. Andy Serkis was excellent and guessing the escape action will all kick off next week

It's worth taking a few episodes to build up the escape. Loved the horrifying sound being described to Bix as something we ourselves are spared - and Cyril's Mom's expression when he told her he'd been promoted to name but two of many things.

Denise geogh smash me in the head w a hammer pls

this was really her episode. i thought she was extraordinary. performance of the series imo.

She's so devious, but Mon Mothma has my heart, and it makes total sense that glammed up Vel is part of the family.

Good stuff once more.

i love the way gough does that snarly-sneer at cyril while putting him in his place, she’s so awesome

and the sound editing when they from bix screaming into the drill in the prison workroom was ~chef’s kiss~ so good

cannot say how much i love the actress playing cyril’s mum, more insidious and unsettling than the manipulative-mum-stock-standard - even her tone is somewhat surprising.

great episode

*when they CUT from bix

How long is the series. I assumed it would be either 8 or 10 episodes judging from other things. So is the next one season finale and filled with cliffhangers or are things working up to a temporary at least denouement.
We do know the eventual end anyway already unless that had a miraculous intercession or something.

12 eps for this season

and according to imdb, 12 episodes for the next :)

you're telling me I might have to work with CRIMINALS?!

the entire scene of Mon Mothma giving an impassioned speech only for someone to cut the mic of anyone agreeing with her followed by her continued reticence was some good character development (or lack thereof)

can't believe the Empire plays people the Tim Treadwell tapes from Grizzly Man--didn't Werner Herzog remind us to never listen to the tapes

http://richardhoefer.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/honestwithme-1024x573.png

Meero is just the best. So believably compromised and desperate. Her expressions are a tour de force at times, just a flicker here and there which hint at what’s hidden.

She's great. Took a while to realize where I'd seen her, she had a small but good role in Under the Banner of Heaven. Very different show than Andor.

how is meero “compromised”? am i forgetting something? in many ways she seems like a successful version of syril - a true believer

Idk how she literally makes one muscle in her cheek twitch when she’s pissed at Syril but it was masterful.

Yeah that was an astounding moment.

i guess the show is called Andor so this can’t happen but it would be so sick if the show just continued right up to the events at the climax of Star Wars ep IV but from the non-Skywalker point of view

xxp Tracer I meant compromised as a human being

I have wondered if Jyn Erso will show up at some point. Maybe we can learn why she was arrested.

I recently rewatched ROGUE ONE from my enthusiasm for this show, and man she is bad for 70-80% of her screen time. The “Stardust” thing made me groan out loud a few times.

matkkkk gotcha

cosine rogue one cringe factor

ha rogue one is probably my fav star wars

i've love to see her again! i thought she was perfect "Star Wars"-typing

the squabbling guerillas was funny af to me idk

xp the first season had Luthen being pulled up by the star destroyer thingy and dogfighting some TIEs, I remember because I was thinking "no we don't need this shit, get back to the story!"

i remember punching the air and going YESSSSS because the tension had built up so meticulously til then

no way, his sleeper fighter ship with the crazy laser cutter was great. it was a good illustration of how deeply held his instinct to fight back was. the obvious thing would be for a spy/saboteur to have just enough countermeasures to flee and live another day. he had enough to wreck an interdictor ship and several fighter craft and comfortably escape!

my partner has just realized she never got to watch this

to say I am looking forward to a full rewatch is understatement of the year perhaps

hell yes

Any excuse is justified!
Yeah the cutter ray was good, I had just reached the point with all the other Star Wars stuff sucking so hard that anything which resembled the usual spacey stuff triggered me into a panic that it was going to nosedive à la the Mandalorian.

ok thru with the next batch. starting to feel it a lot more! the french resistance was great, i had to look up whether or not they were speaking french (they were not but all the actors were french). i like how deedra and luthen have the same plan for ghorman (if it falls, ghorman will burn so very bright...) kind of like horseshoe theory between the star wars far left and far right. sad to see cinta go, but i guess vel gets to Make A Speech. feels like everybody will get to Make A Speech!

forgot to mention one thing that's annoying me about this season are all the macguffins, which i guess are unavoidable with sci fi plots. the planet ghorman... has a rare mineral! cassian is sent on a mission... to steal the secret TIE fighter! what's saw gerrera doing? solving the enigma codebreaker to steal... the rare gasoline! which also makes you high? also i like how the codebreaker guy is always plugging in a 1/4" trs plug into the thing. pass him the aux for sure.

also, probably already mentioned upthread but isb torture guy is totally reviewbrah. makes me wonder who else other than luthen is giving out the missions, and how it was decided that bix got this one? also the space drug that makes you forget trauma is very minority report

jesus the french resistance with their fake french and cosplay berets, i'm getting the shakes just thinking about it. people gave solo a lot of shit but that was a a picture of delicate nuance in comparison

all worth it to see the cuck guy in a beret

poor imperial ginger :(

alright, backtracking a little - was p clear that eps 7-9 had a different writer. the dialogue felt the most star-warsy yet with the force healer, bix, foreshadowing. i think this is where the 3 episode format shows the most strain - i found syril's turn just barely convincing, and it required a lot of coloring between the lines. choking deedra was a little ott for me, felt like there were better ways to convey his angst than that? ghorman in general felt like fennix redux... i liked the hotel porter, i hope he survived that blast? similarly, andor and bix's separation was inevitable but also pretty "poochie returns to his home planet." i get that they were trying to go for 'cassian feels distraught over bix leaving' -> 'cassian buries himself in work to forget' but it all happened in the span of like 90 seconds. and then right into alan tudyk!

are the KX security droids too OP? may be misremembering from rogue one but they seemed even stronger, impervious to blaster fire, no shields, stronger than the droid army in the prequels.

speaking of droids, a sad lack of protocol droids in the ghorman scenes. space french speaking c-3p0 would have been fun!

I've not seen more than the first episode of the first season, months/years ago, but your post leads me to believe this show is far more Star Wars than many have implied/insisted.

It’s a Star Wars show

also was bail organa's "tear the shit out of this place" the first time 'shit' has been said in star wars? i guess that sounds better than 'tear the bantha poodoo out of this place' which would have been canonically acceptable

also lol @ the way current tech gets used to show sci-fi stuff, like the laser engraver making cassians' fake credentials. same as it ever was i guess when you go back to how lightsabers were made out of camera flashes.

Sgt. Mosk drops a shit in S1E3 and Cassian lets one slip in S2E1.

Yeah, I know it's a Star Wars show, but a lot of the praise (iirc) revolved around "if you didn't know you might not recognize it as a Star Wars show" or "it's the least Star Wars show of them all." Which doesn't negate it being a Star Wars show, but I didn't know it had battle droids and the Force and whatnot. Does it have lightsabers?

it does not have lightsabers. the force healer is treated as other tv shows might treat a faith healer - the show's characters don't believe in em

It was truly impressive that one of the main characters in the show is a rare weapons dealer and we never see a lightsaber once

Josh how about you just watch it

imagine that

There are a lot of things I don't watch - most things, even - and having recently cancelled Disney (and this being Star Wars) this automatically drops down in likelihood.

To be more helpful: it’s the only SW thing I have loved without qualification since 1980. It avoids virtually all of the tiresome elements of that legacy while retaining the thrill of its ideas and setting, and the characters are written and acted at a level beyond any of the films.

Exactly! That's why I was surprised to read talk of droids and the force.

there's a droid in the very first episode of Andor, his family's little guy B2EMO

the other droid type that was referenced in the thread was the one who is Andor's sidekick in Rogue One

josh why are you reading spoilers about a show you haven’t seen?

Josh Just Asking Questions

xp he collects unwatched shows like he collects unplayed video games iirc

you don't know the half of it. throw in movies, books, etc.

anyway just general thread perusal when it pops up. If there's any chance of me seeing something, I try my best to avoid plot spoilers, but the presence of droids or whatever, I don't consider that a spoiler. I don't think I know any more about this show than what it is generally about.

and we’re all the richer for it

One of the little bits of performance that really helped solidify how much I liked the show was near the end of S2, when you have the comms tech trying to hack thru some encryption and it is very very obvious that she’s both enjoying it and has respect for whoever put it together. When prompted, she eagerly starts going into a little too detail about it with a smile and her supervisor flashes her a quick look of “Christ, don’t go into this _now_” which makes her shut up immediately.

Just nice little moments.

ok! final batch. again, rip the imperial ginger lonnie jung. bad on dedra for having such bad opsec she let her lonnie steal her gmail password. surprised that luthen/kleya didn't have a better way to burn the evidence. like obviously they know how to set up remote detonation devices, shouldn't the shop have been set up with bombs and a dead man's switch or something? speaking of opsec, i like the breakdown of it - all these final meetings in public places, plenty of curious ears around. again i feel the 3 episode format pushing up against its constraints - would have been nice to get more of luthen/kleya's backstory than the 10 minutes or so that was crammed into the backhalf. i know it's meant to be poignant that kleya ends up cutting off the life support of her adopted father but i needed time to digest all that.

final two episodes, i dunno, pretty perfunctory! everybody is getting so handsy with dedra! did not enjoy that. i wonder who gave the death star files to her?

final bits and bobs:
-so what was the significance of stealing the experimental TIE?
-in the alternate universe where we got five seasons of andor, would have liked to see yavin's evolution from band of squabbling gorillas -> competent rebel base. instead it just sort of happens
-not sure what to make of wilmon's arc, saw initiates him into the pleasures of rhydo and then what?
-speaking of rhydo, i dove right into rogue one afterwards and the implication is that saw is huffing rhydo in the rogue one scenes, right?
-re: kingfish's post, i really liked the isb guy who was sent to arrest partagaz's reaction to partagaz shooting himself - the little upturned hand to let the stormtroopers know it was ok. also lol that of the careerists it's this guy who ends up surviving everything.
-what adventures await cassian and bix's child? "sister...so you have a twin sister." adding to the list of hidden star wars siblings
-poor dedra, sent to the camps!

oh yeah i think i'd really enjoy a mandalorian style show with luthen and young kleya

Or maybe Gilroy just values human actor's faces.

― Alba, Saturday, May 17, 2025 5:02 AM (six months ago)

i mean yeah, this is why cassian never wears the tie pilot helmet, or why the ISB swat team goes in helmet-less, so we can see the faces of these absolute units of imperial troops. specially that guy with the stache.

oh yeah k-2so fantastic as always. although in rogue one, one of the security droids gets one-shotted by jyn and i'm like, how come that didn't happen on ghorman? sorry, nerd thoughts!

lol mh & VG xps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HLS_SQbWR4

(2hr YouTube essay, "A special thank you to Mike Duncan, whose Revolutions Podcast was an invaluable resource in my research process.")

ooooh

sorry i linked that video without watching it. i watched it. it's quite good.

Good interview with Gilroy (which has nothing to do with whether or not I have seen the show yet!!!):

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/andor-creator-tony-gilroy-gives-the-interview-1236510166/

yeah that’s a good one! i can’t wait for whatever he does next.