ANDOR aka Glum Village : its own thread

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

I’d be interested to see her in the lowkey gritty vibe of this show. There were flashes of excellence in RO but a much higher cheese quotient than here. (I will admit I loved the robot snark tho.)

RO is such a comfort movie for me at this point. Possibly the Star War I rewatch the most.

There is a lot to enjoy, the settings and the world building are gorgeous and it’s mercifully low on fan service.

the last hour is amazing

feel like I’m saying this every week but… it’s another incredible episode

Stellan Skarsgard and Andy Serkis. That is all.

This. Fucking. Show.

AAAHHHHHH!!

holy hell. television, eh?

that was just incredible. that was the most thrilling hour of SF i can remember having watched in a good long time. as good as the best expanse episodes. better? mon mothma looks fly as hell in her meeting with Dirk Skelton or whatever the “gentleman thug” financier guy’s name is. he lives up to his billing by the way. they really teased him last episode. would it suit me if he chewed the scenery a bit more? it would. it’s just a whiff of menace and violence to him rather than the whole bottle but it’s delicious nonetheless

the class and labor politics of this show are right out in plain sight and it’s fuckin rad!! the whole prison break was just.. i mean the heist was alright but this was next level in terms of ratcheting up the intensity. so many things came together. watching serkis come around is so gratifying. and hey even dave matthews lookin motherfucker gets to shoot a few guards. andor and serkis’ invasion of the central sanctum of the empire prison control room tense as fuuuuck. (absolutely incredible art direction for the on that btw). and you know what? a lot of dudes died. like a lot of dudes. it’s a massacre.

finally clocked that this is where the rebels get their colors?!?? this is why they wear orange and white in a new hope!! this prison break has to be one of the foundational events of the rebellion. they’re like “we are all those prisoners.” “if we can fight half as hard as we’ve been working we’ll be out in no time”

“axis” lookin like darth vader, talking about using the tools of the empire to defeat them, the ends justifying the means - the “dark side” one might say

fuckin a!

the choice that the banker offers mon mothma echoes the kind of choices skarsgard is talking about in his speech to the spy - and i think mothma’s so shaken up by it because she realises that there’s a version of her who makes that deal

RETVRN

luthen was darth plagueis all along

what i think is important when watching star wars with children is to make sure they understand when they’re wrong

I think Luthen remains undecided on killing or recruiting Cassian right to the end as one of those two options MUST happen. In the end only going to Ferrix himself to see if he can encounter Cassian again and force a decision on it can enable that, but he has to keep Vel ready to kill him if it all goes south?

yeah that sounds about right. He’s a bit of a gambler isn’t he, despite his attention to detail. He doesn’t mind leaving things open, seeing where they go.

Luthen's also subtly attempting to affirm his own beliefs and you see him waver a little in several episodes. Those grandiose speeches are as much for him as they are for his audience (and the viewing audience). He wants to be right about Cassian so bad

As for something more ephemeral: apparently there is exactly one party song that's popular during the run of the series thus far, and it's titled after the hottest beach planet-turned-imperial: Niamos!

So far we have:
Niamos! (Morlana Club Mix) -- First episode, Cassian is at the club trying to find out if his sister was there
Niamos! (Coruscant Lounge Mix) -- Played at the party Mon Mothma is hosting in ep 7 where she's entertaining guests and talking about moving money
Niamos! (Galaxy Mix) -- Played over the ending credits of ep 7 after the camera zooms out from Syril in his new insanely boring office cubicle, a distinctly un-party atmosphere

Niamos!

here's a 10 minute loop version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r9qnkCE0Hw

keep music live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA8-6X8aR3o

Some are rockists, some are poptimists, some are wailing jizzists.

iirc jizz has now been retconned to "jatz"... thanks disney :(

Some are into skatplay, others are into jatzplay

xxxxp I think that's just the section that was played in the episode looped. The official soundtrack available on streaming has a second section

I was gonna say only on third watch of this did I notice Mothma's muzak was a tease of the same tune as the Niamos Grindcore banger.

Whenever you hear that party music, you know something terrible is going to happen!

oh, I forgot to mention that the Galaxy Mix over the credits was an encore. The first time it appears in that episode is when Cassian is on the beach about to run some errands

the next two tracks are, depressingly:
"Tourists Don't Run"
and
"Six Year Sentence"

space-age music in dune:
• bagpipes
• throat-singing
• chapman stick

Fairly certain Chapman Stick's a character

Blu-ray set out next month with some extras:

https://gizmodo.com/andor-season-1-blu-ray-release-date-details-steelbook-1851308715/slides/5

Sweet!

Wow yes. I just rewatched it with my sci-fi indifferent older daughter who was absolutely gripped from ep 1. Is it even better than the 1977 movie? Certainly for an adult audience.

On a separate note I actually just saw Michael Clayton for the first time thanks to a one-off Alamo screening. And yeah, a lot more of the vibe tracks, if you will.

I recently showed my niece and nephew A New Hope and they kept laughing at how bad the VFX were, they couldn't take it seriously. I kept having to be like, "when I was a kid, this was mind-blowing". My nephew is even pretty into sci-fi but I guess it was too hard a sell for them - no interest in seeing Empire Strikes Back

I suspect they'd be way more into Mandalorian or Andor simply because they look better

Must be hard when you grow up watching movies with great special effects like, er, Ant-Man 3

Vinnie was it the "special edition" with the coating of "new" (now old) CGI applied?

the space battles get a lot better in rotj. i agree, i remember being very nonplussed as a 10 year old by how slowly the x-wings moved in ANH vs the x-wings that i flew in the pc game x-wing.

"new" (now old) CGI

shit, you're right. new special edition mk 2 needed stat!

well i've always said this, that since CGI gets better all the time once you go down this road of specializing old movies with new effects you kind of can't stop since those new effects will quickly start looking very bad, in fact far worse than if they'd been practical to begin with. the only winning move is to despecialize obv but in lieu of that yes, new special editions are needed!

Tracer, it was the special edition on Disney Plus. I don't think I was particularly bothered by the "new" CGI - it doesn't look great but many of the old VFX shots look pretty dated nowadays as well. I still enjoy all the other aspects of the movie, but I can see how it's a hard sell for younger people. My nephew and niece pointed out how bad any blaster scene was, with the shots going wildly off-target every time. And fair point to them

that lobster man in full

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmFiZjBjZmUtOTdkYS00YmU0LTlkMjItMjZiZTk1YWJlMjRkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDYyODAzNQ@@._V1_.jpg

FUCK

lol when we watched Andor my kids were stunned that stormtroopers actually got a few hits in