Films for Breakfast

Note: This is a review of the entire second season of Andor, which Disney was kind enough to grant me screeners for. Enjoy!

The first season of Andor was a resounding success, both with fans and critics alike. For myself, as a lifelong fan who enjoyed almost all of the Disney-era Star Wars films (except for Rise of Skywalker) and enjoyed their first two season of The Mandalorian, I found Andor to be an incredible breath of fresh air within the amount of content that was produced for Disney+. I don’t despise The Acolyte or Book of Boba Fett like others do, but I do think shows like those and especially Ahsoka missed the mark – especially when it feels like they have been building to them as genuine events; feeling more like products than stories. However, Andor felt immediately different. From the very first episode, I was astounded by how it felt like real humans not only made the show, but treated each episode with care and like there were genuine themes they were passionate about expressing through the world of Star Wars. From the passionate writing, inspired performances, trading in the Stagecraft for actual sets and lcoations.. I could go on and on.

Naturally, the second season of Andor has had an incredible level of hype around it – especially since Tony Gilroy has made it abundantly clear that this is a two-season show and that this season of Andor will fully catch us up to the events of Rogue One. And you know what? After years of waiting, I am happy to say that Andor Season 2 fully delivers. While I do think I prefer the first season due to each individual story just being so memorable and exciting to me, I love the Andor attempts to recreate the same narrative flow of a three-episode story arc throughout while also attempting to deliver something even more meditative and melancholy. This time around, the season takes place over the course of the four years leading up to the events of Rogue One. Each three sets of episodes marks a single year, and tensions rise the more the season progresses as the Rebel Alliance is scattered and scrambling to attack the Empire before their fascism fully wins.

Diego Luna once again steps into the role of Cassian Andor, delivering another soulful and comitted performance that commands the screen. What I love about his performance this season is that he finds himself stuck between the relunctant hero we found him to be in the first season and the leader who relunctantly gets his hands dirty in Rogue One. This season gives Cassian as a character time to grieve the man he once was, what the Empire has taken from him, and reflect on what he wants from his life and what his purpose truly is. This makes all of the moments of action and thrills surrounding attacking the Empire truly impactful, and Luna takes full advantage of the material to deliver another fantastic performance.

I was also really taken by the incredible supporting cast this season – another compliment I paid to the first season, but this one is truly filled to the brim with incredible actors that are too much for one paragraph. However, I found Adria Arjona’s performance this season to be really magnetic and powerful, and her chemistry with Luna solidified itself as the heart of the entire series. Stellan Skarsgård also delivers once again as Luthen, a man who is also plagued by the inevitability of his situation and the desparity of trying to take down the Empire. His chemistry with Elizabeth Dulau is also really incredible this season, and her individual performance as Kleya shocked me at how much more emotionally powerful it was this time around.

With all the emphasis on the Empire, I was also delighted to see Ben Mendehlson return to the role of Orson Krennic. He truly shines in his screentime here, delivering another top-notch performance that looms over all of our characters and also perfectly sets-up his goals you see in Rogue One. But on the Empire side of things, I was really taken aback once again by the performances of Kyle Soller as Syril and Denise Gough as Dedra. Their relationship is so delightfully twisted and provokes such an uneasy feeling everytime they’re on screen, and a tension builds between them that is one of the highlights of the entire series. Individually they deliver fantastic performances, but the two of them together work brilliantly off one-another and their character arcs are absolutely perfecy by the end.

The narrative choice to have each three episode blocks represent a year in the life of Cassian is a bold one, but it’s a choice that I think pays off by the time the season ends as it beautifully paints a picture of the journey the character has gone on. My only real complaint with the season is that it does feel like it takes a bit of time to get back into the swing of things in the first episode or two, but once you get further along, you appreciate how much those first episodes are setting up for what the characters experience down the road. Each three-episode story is engaging in their own right, but Episodes 7-9 just may be the peak of the entire series and what it is remembered for.

Visually, the show is still leaps and bounds above anything else not only in terms of Star Wars but on Disney+ as a whole. The VFX work here is absolutely immaculate, with the opening action sequence from the first episode being one of the most engaging and stunning action set pieces I’ve ever seen on a television show. On top of the VFX work, there is just such amazing craft on display – the cinematography is so largely gorgeous, the massive sets and production design blew me away each episode, the creature effects are stunning, and there are so many sequences that could’ve been directed in a standard way that the show wisely utilizes with unique framing and camerawork. It goes a long way in making the show as good as it is.

As a final season that also leads into the events of Rogue One, I think this is a pretty fantastic follow-up and conclusion to this side of the story. Yes, this is an individual story about Cassian Andor as a character and his evolution into becoming a leader for the rebellion. On the other hand, much like Rogue One, it is about the assembly of the Rebellion as a whole and how they became an actual unit with ideals to strive towards. The inner-politics and plot mechanics this season are utterly fascinating, and how they flow into the underlying themes really blew me away. By the end, I found Andor Season 2 to be incredibly entertaining, highly emotional, and just damn’ good television.