Review: Andor (Season 1)

What is fascism? Is it when the governing authority marginally encroaches on your rights, albeit with good intentions? Is it when it slightly breaches your privacy for the safety of the general populace? Or is it when many such encroachments, over a wide spectrum of issues and over a long time, turn into an invasive irreversible system of governance?

How do you fight fascism? Do you always stay on guard? Do you wait until the turning point when it starts bothering you personally? Or do you do nothing and see how it goes?

These are difficult questions with no simple answers. When it comes to literature exploring these themes, Star Wars would be the last place I'd look into. But Andor changes that big time and does it with a lot of conviction.

Cassian Andor was a protagonist of Rogue One (an offbeat SW film that I loved for its grittiness). He dies at the end of that film, delivering Death Star's plans to the rebellion. Andor follows Cassian's journey from a drifter to a rebel. Searching for his lost sister, and making a living by stealing and selling parts, Andor cannot look beyond his own world, let alone have thoughts of rebellion. And rebellion against who?

The Empire is a system governing human and alien planets of the galaxy, led by a wily strongman Palpatine. But the system is enforced by normal people like you and me-- people with ambition, people trying to please their bosses, people aiming to climb the career ladder-- people oblivious to how the system affects the people it's supposed to serve. In its bid to control the vast diverse space, the Empire indulges in mass displacement, ethnic cleansing, draconian measures, and invasion of privacy. The political opposition is not easy to build because "what's there to fear if you are not doing anything wrong?"!

Finally, the so-called rebels are small groups fighting for their own causes who often don't see eye-to-eye. They are too dispersed and disparate to offer any real opposition to the Empire.

The makers of Andor admirably refrain from painting the characters in black and white. They are given motivations that you can relate with. "Everyone has their own rebellion", as one character puts it. If all this sounds too serious, it doesn't come at the cost of entertainment. Andor features a lot of exciting action-- a heist, an intense prison break, an exciting space battle, guns and explosions, spying, politicking, and scheming. The cinematography is great. The show is shot in real locations with detailed sets giving the world a lived-in feel. The CGI is limited to bare essentials. The story offers plenty of emotional highs and lows. I can think of a dozen places where the story left me moist-eyed. It is accompanied by a rousing score, which also makes for a great standalone listen. The tight script is performed by extremely competent actors in all roles, big and small. It is near perfection. If I had to nitpick something, it would be the slow pace in the initial few episodes.

Andor is ambitious, insightful and unabashedly political-- a show I didn't know I needed. By staying clear of traditional Star Wars tropes and focusing on relevant themes, it cements its place as one of the best sci-fi shows. Highly highly recommended!

4.5 stars.