OK, I buy in. There are some points in the writing that aren't top notch like jealous boyfriend or stupid soldiers. That's thin. But I want to see early stages of the Rebellion. And hopefully want to see Andor become a more likeable and deeper character.
So I'm more intrested about the possibilities the story could go right now.
The first two episodes are indeed slow-burns, which I normally wouldn't mind much but they also feel a little shapeless? More than compensated by the world-building that genuinely feels lived-in and thought-out though, on both sides of the conflict (loved the bell-towering dude hammering the time). And it greatly builds to this incredible third ep, where the world-building makes that town come truly alive against the invading force, with a few great action set-pieces. Just exciting, stirring stuff here.
In this episode, Andor has already become one of my all-time favorite Star Wars shows. It demonstrates character development and story nuance in a way that we haven't seen before, even in Kenobi. It tackles difficult political issues so that we can understand both the hero and the villain's perspective. Wanting to bring a murderer to justice is an easy-to-understand and sympathize-with goal, as opposed to killing force-sensitive children, but the hatred the common folks show for their heartless methods few brutality is just as compelling.
Yup I’m into this. Feels like Star Wars but also like something that can stand on its own. These first three episodes did a great job of introducing the characters and making you instantly care about them. Andor especially is a character full of nuance and complexity with an interesting backstory and complicated relationships (that’s how you set up a character well). And of course we’re coming into this knowing the type of person he eventually becomes in Rogue One, so it’s interesting to see him years earlier and how different he is while still feeling like the same character. You can anticipate the arc he’s going to go on but are excited to see it actually play out. Even if we know where things kind of end up in the big picture story wise, I’m very excited to see the journey to get there and from a more personal and grounded perspective. Another thing I loved about these first three episodes was Andor’s relationships with the other characters. You can tell he has a history with all of them and that these are often complicated histories but you can also sense how much some these people care about him and would do anything to help him. By the end of episode three I also really enjoyed what they did with the deputy inspector character and setting him up to be a main antagonist. I didn’t love what his character had to offer early on but at the end of the third episode I was really loving the potential for his character. This already feels so much better than the last couple of live-action Star Wars shows in that this story feels like it’s going to be much more complex, with characters that are way more complicated and interesting. They are really taking the approach of character-based storytelling which I am very excited about because that is the best way to tell a compelling story in my opinion. Not to mention that visually the show looks really great so far. Overall this premiere drew me in and I can’t wait for the rest of the show!
[8.0/10] If the first two episodes started things slow (and I’m not complaining) this third episode more than makes up for it. I appreciate the thematic weight and underplayed character acting that goes on in “Reckoning” quite a bit. But this is also an outstanding dose of action, gripping excitement, and clever set pieces.
Stellan Skarsgard’s character’s traps for the soldiers who follow him inside the factor leads to some superb sequences of explosions, mechanical equipment on pulleys swinging around dangerously at inopportune moments, and Andor desperately trying to retrieve the box that he thinks is his ticket out of there mid-firefight. Director Toby Haynes and the rest of the production team do a great job of pacing out the turns in the fight, cross-cutting with other events in Ferrix without ratcheting down the tension.
I’m a big fan of the misdirect to get Andor and Skarsgard out of dodge here. The show does a good job of creating the sense that the corporate soldiers have the upper hand and the numbers advantage, only for the two proto-rebels to use their wits and daring to best their would-be superior attackers. The change in tone from when the private security thinks they’ve shot down their foes’ escape vehicle, only to see it explode and take many of them out, while our heroes escape on a speeder bike while everyone’s too dazed to do anything, is outstanding.
The other kinetic moments here are striking as well. The lowly goon sent to provide air support, whose anchored transport leads him to crash into a nearby grounded vessel, helps illustrate the way these regimented soldier types are being bested by the guile of their prey. The texture of the show continues to be good, with set design, ship designs, and costumes that give the sense of a dust-covered backwater that is, nonetheless, a full-fledged ecosystem with its own rituals and life apart from these events.
But I love the thrust of these events. The buyer Bix contacts is interested in the special imperial box that’s for sale, but he’s more interested in Andor himself. I love how this is more about testing Andor, seeing if he’s what the budding rebellion is looking for, than about making an exchange. And I love how the litmus test, the thing that proves Andor is what he claims to be, is that he didn’t do anything special to get onto an imperial ship and steal this thing. He just counted on the Empire’s arrogance, the way they wouldn’t think anyone could pull off such a thing, that allows him to work under the radar. It triggers something in Bix’s contact, a recognition that this man, despite his complicated background, has the mettle they’re looking for. That chance, to step into Andor’s known future, makes their escape that much more exciting.
But it’s also harrowing. The stormtroopers in Star Wars tend to read like soldiers, but the private security in Andor read more like cops. That’s driven home not only by their blue uniforms, but the way that, when they step into the neighborhoods of Ferrix, the locals clang on makeshift metal alarms, cueing everyone to scurry lest they be caught up in something bad. As Maarva says, the sound is unnerving, adding the sense of impending danger and a community that recognizes it.
It also makes these enforcers seem extra rotten, extra contemptible, when they tear up Maarva’s home in search of Cassian, give Bix a hard time, chaining her to a wall and roughing her up, and despite his misdeeds, kill Timm in the streets for daring to question the way they treated someone he cares about. The subtext here isn’t very subtle, but Andor uses it to underscore how Deputy Inspector Karn’s men are the bad guys here, but in a way beyond the mythic figures of a Joseph Campbell narrative, and in a rough-hewn, prosaic way that too many people can relate to.
I also appreciate how Karn is shell-shocked after experiencing what an on-the-ground operation looks like, rather than just theorizing and daydreaming about his moment of law enforcement cosplay glory. The way he shoots too easily at some diminutive aliens who’ve done nothing, gets caught unawares by Cassian himself, and gives away the key information when he thinks his life is on the line punctures the tough guy image of strength he wants to project. And him standing agog, entranced, to where the sergeant has to practically shake him out of it, shows how much more intense and serious this was than he thought.
Otherwise, I appreciate the flashback to help us understand how Maarva found Cassian. It stemmed from a simple act of kindness. A scavenging hunt for some of the tech from the fallen ship led to this chance meeting between surrogate mother and child, and a kind soul who was unwilling to let a scared kid be killed by Republic troops for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The decency and compassion of that, to take on care of a young person who needs it, and a bond that’s lasted to today, drives home the rectitude of her choice.
It also gives Andor a chance to cut between him leaving this home and leaving his old one. There’s powerful imagery in the blend of Maarva rescuing him as a child, and Bix’s contact rescuing him again now. The chance for a brighter tomorrow, realized in sunlit hues bursting through grungy glass on scrappy ships, symbolizes Cassian’s journey, again and again. One time, he was going with Maarva. Another time, he is leaving her behind. And in both instances, he’s running from men who want to kill him, with the idea that someone, somewhere, thinks he deserves better.
This show is incredible so far, cant wait for more!
Perfect culmination for the 3 episode arc. The parallelism between the present and the flashback is very well done.
Damn, that music was soo good
This is what I needed from Disney and Star Wars. The same Star Wars universe but with no light sabers or jet packs. Just down on their luck people trying to make their way in world that doesn't serve them but the rich, powerful and corrupt. And from those people, heroes rise as well as villains. We just saw the birth of both. This is story is so much more personal then I thought at first. I am so excited to see what comes next and I have no idea where it is going.
Maybe my expectations were too high after looking at the reviews, but so far this show doesn't do a lot for me. I caught myself being bored for some time in all of the three episodes. Maybe I have to get used to the really slow pace of this show. Will continue watching.
Eh, this is going to be nothing but "Dumb Imperials BTFO" every week isn't it? I don't think I'll bother.
I love all the flashbacks
This episode was really intense, heartbreaking and just wonderful!
Not me actually sobbing over the ending of the ep. wtf. I famously never cry at star wars (except episode 3 ofc) but damn this fucking hits. you can't really assess the first three episodes as individuals because it's basically a sequence unto itself but this last ep in the trio really pas off every character beat set up in the two episodes before it. And its final sequence is just so emotionally impactful and cinematic I couldn't help crying.
It was the minor characters that really got me. I didn't realize just how much I had gotten invested in these randoms that are only in a handful of scenes but their performances (esp Maarvas towards the end) coupled with the score and coupled with knowing Cassian probably won't see most of them ever again. it just worked.
All the threads of act 1 come together in a wonderfully messy fashion. And I need, NEED, an entire Fiona Shaw spinoff series.
By the time the 3rd episode is completed I seem to be in the minority. I still think the show is only okay. Those 3 episodes could have probably been 2.
This is the spirit of Star Wars!
Did Stellan Skarsgård initially ask if he could literally just phone-in his performance instead of showing up on set?
Did we really think this could work split up as three separate episodes?
Assuming the signal tracker is active instead of just a signal strength meter (as it appears), how do you immediately TRIangulate the direction of one of two point-to-point transceivers without first tuning to the same frequency?
Level with us, Tony. This is just a "big boy" version of Rebels minisodes, isn't it?
What is editing, and who takes cues from Lauren Hissrich for making disorienting time jumps?
How much time did the effects crew really have to finish the space ships?
Do you think the audience will notice we just played the junkyard scene from Blade Runner: 2049 in reverse order?
How are spherical men line Tweedle Bruv and Tweedle Guv simultaneously somehow fat, and yet so solid?
Why is an English tourist wearing a Scottish hat and a Japanese yukata?
How long do we have to wait until Mon Mothma shows up? She was the best part of the deleted scenes from Episode III.
Are we there yet?
===
Okay, things I liked this episode:
The Po-Po alarm (for you non-Americans, that's slang for Police), however, not just the characters, but the show seem to not be sure whether it's that or part of psychological guerilla warfare tactics, despite the fact that they never acted offensively or defensively, and just went "g'land, g'lang g'lang"..
The ending. I mean, it felt nice. And I genuinely liked Captain Fancypants' reaction and Kyle Soller's acting, though the action preceding it was like a droller play on a Rebellion murder spree from an episode of Rebels, but visually more Denis Villeneuve directing an episode of a TV production of Dishonored that decided it wanted to be a lil' bit Sci-Fi, and a lil' bit slapstick.
Likewise, Adria Arjona shows us her strongest performance yet. I hope they utilize her abilities, because her character starts off rather bland, but her talent is apparent here.
I really like (scrolls over) Brasso. Joplin Sibtain imbues him with pathos and humanity despite having such a small role. Fine actor.
Things that I no longer care about, because this show is too inconsistent and generic to be taken very seriously, but still noticeably detract from it:
If I didn't know better, I'd think that Stellan pulled a Brando and just showed up jetlagged or wasted, with no lines memorized. The scenes with him and Luna look like a dress rehearsal. I know both of them are great actors, so something else was going on. It's like the "The Heiress" episode of The Mandalorian , where Katie Sackoff, who I know to be a more than capable actress, gave a performance that seemed like she'd just been called in early, last minute, and handed the script five minutes before shooting. Just incompetent directing? Terrible shooting scheduling? Immense studio Kathlene-ference? Not enough (any) White, British, brunette supergirls in the cast?
Okay, I'm re-watching some scenes, and I'm beginning to see a pattern: All the British actors seem perfectly comfortable and are giving great performances, whereas most others-- even in the same scene --are inconsistent.
Same scene. Who the fuck but some kind of pissypants gang banger points a gun at someone, finger on trigger, that is no visible threat to them? And then get progressively more menacing until they're pushing the barrel into their face? And then he just keeps wasting time, knowing the space Gestapo are closing in. Was it handed down that Cassian had to be a reckless moron punk? Because this scene is fucking hard to watch. Okay, Skarsgård is supposed to be Mr. Ice Chill who knows his cloak & blaster, but that doesn't mean Cassian has to be an idiot.
In case the title format wasn't clear, this just doesn't feel like Star Wars. There is some good costume work, and some jarringly bad, but there are only two very short shots that made me think "Star Wars" (and they were both close-ups, something this show needs more of), and the plot and characters may as well be from anything. I'm not asking for stormtroopers. I'm not asking for lightsabers. I'm honestly not even asking for John Williams, but magic just ain't here.
It’s been fascinating to see this world free of the usual imagery and laser swordsmen so far. You can get a sense of the oppression that couldn’t be stood for any longer.
Ok, starting to improve the show now with this episode.
Watching this episode alone raised my anxiety levels to the max, why does Disney do this to me :sob:
Why should I keep watching this? Not interesting nor exiting.
The Good: ...
The Bad: Lazy plot devices (like the droid's speakerphone, magical signal triangulation etc.) and shallow characters. Andor not realizing that Karn is an officer, and not just some grunt, because they don't wear any kind of insignia.
The Ugly: Framing Kassa's kidnapping as an act of kindness (or worse, a necessary evil)...
The show took a slow start but this episode brought me in. I love how every character, even those that only appear for a few moments, doesn't play second fiddle for the plot's sake. You get to peer into the impact of deaths from seemingly irrelevant characters in the story. Super refreshing.
So it takes three episodes for this show to get interesting...
So, the stormtroopers hold Maarva (the woman who took him from that post-mining catastrophe planet) hostage, and the droid inadvertantly leads them to Cassian. Meanwhile, Cassian meets with a maybe rebell alliance member who wants to take him off planet for some kind of mission.
In the end, we're off Ferrix and hopefully get into the bigger picture, alliance vs empire, soon. Don't really care about any of the characters so far presented, but the casual cruelty of that wanna-be stormtrooper force, the zealots leading it... that resonated with me.
They've been overdressed and their faces have been painted.
It's been rather slow going until now but this was a good episode. I hope that we get some more imperial ass-kicking from now on.
Karma's a bitch, Timm! Also, we got a "Shit!" in Star Wars!
Awesome! Now it all makes much more sense :) And those Imperial forces really messed up :D Let's go! Quite some action <3
yeah this shit slaps lol
a very very satisfying start to action that really builds off of everything that the first few episodes were setting up! really good action, really fucking tense environment, and i just love that the whole city just had a system in place already, cause everyone hates the cops corporate security bastards. Really good way to push the story forward while still planting the seeds of future conflict.
Where the first two episodes set up the people from Cassian's past and present, so did this one push him out of his zone of comfort and now into the world of espionage (i'm literally guessing here lol) that he has been known for after being established in Rogue One
So excited to see what's next! This is literally disney+'s best show!
It took me a while to watch this one but I'm finally starting to like it. It having more action definitely helped.
I was doom scrolling while watching this episode the first time because the first two seemed so pointless. Came here and did something I never do, which is read the comments.
Glad I did. Watched it again with my phone put away and this episode is like a flick of the switch. It changed a meandering, uninteresting series into (hopefully) a great one.
Loved the emotion they brought in and it goes without saying the scenes, FX and action scenes are by far the best of the Disney add-on series’ so far.
C’mon Toby ol’ buddy, don’t let us down!
I was not disappointed in my hopes after watching episode one. I like how they focus on atmosphere and characters instead of simply a story. I feel they really did great in making the antagonist an asshole while still understandable. From his point of view he is hunting a criminal.
Only by now there are too few aliens for my taste. I hope they will include more than one speaking character who is not human. So far they only have the Droid if I remember correctly.
I needed this 3rd episode to continue watching it ...
Not particularly exciting and a little dull unfortunately. I had high hopes for this story, but it just doesn’t deliver.
man... Timm really really sucks... including the fact that his name requires 2 m's
Shout by Caio MunaroloVIP 4BlockedParent2022-09-22T02:35:19Z
I hope people watch this show and realize how bad Obi-Wan was, this show felt like I was watching the same story of Star Wars I watched so many times, but in a more realistic way, a more calm pace, I never saw myself so much involved with rebels and empire conflict such as in this episode, and also no jokes, amazing