Harvest

No spoilers just an initial reaction. Man this episode left me riveted. The topics they tackle in this episode are insanely mature and they handle them very well. I was absolutely not ready for how dark this would get.

As for the show itself, it's still great. People probably won't love Cassians plot in the first two episodes but i enjoyed it because I think I see what they were trying to do with it. I think that plot is supposed to be a microcosm of the rebellion and how there's no trust and everything's chaotic and it'll be a contrast to the end of the season once the rebellion truly unites.

I loved everything else. Krennic, mon mothma, luthen, bix. The ending of the last one almost got me ngl. Overall this was a phenomenal start and I don't use that word lightly.

When the ragtag and inept group of leaderless Rebellion fighters tried to settle their infighting with a galactic version of rock/paper/scissors, the full genius of Tony Gilroy's writing was shown.

I love "Andor" more than any Star Wars movie or series. Like many, I've been watching anything and everything to do with Star Wars since the very beginning. "Andor" finally, FINALLY filled what I didn't even know was missing. "Andor" gives us a full, detailed, emotional and passionate back story as to how the Rebellion impacted the general population. We already know about heroic Jedi, Starfighter battles and adorable (or quirky) aliens, so it is a relief to understand why a galactic war is necessary.

Fighting back against the Empire is astronomically expensive (pun intended) and procuring those funds is fraught with intrigue, danger and boldness. This episode shows exactly how money plays into any war. Mon Mothma is on a terrifying, emotional roller coaster surrounding her financial backing of the Rebellion and we all should applaud Genevieve O'Reilly for bringing IT to the role. The Empire has its own troubles in procuring a much needed mineral (calcite) from planet Gorman and this is where Dedra Meero enters the narrative. By the way, that dinner between Dedra, Syril and Eedy may go down as the most delightfully nutso family dynamic to grace the small screen. I actually found myself cheering for Dedra and Syril even though they are the Bad Guys.

Yet most important to these early episodes, we see how the Rebellion has as many bozos fighting in the ranks as the Empire has in their ranks. Or maybe that is too harsh of an assessment. The discombobulated, messy group of Rebellion fighters who hold Cassian prisoner are hungry, tired, scared, frustrated and worst of all ... leaderless. In-fighting is norm. I will assume that this season will treat us to how the Rebellion tries to overcome these obstacles.

Again, I love this series. Next week's 3-episode airing cannot come fast enough.

I can't take credit for it, but I saw someone online say "This wedding could have been an email" about this episode and it's true.

We did not need 3 episodes of a tiresome, make believe wedding with Stellan Skarsgard's character furtively appearing, whispering something inane, and then scuttling back off into the shadows. Where was the fearsome smuggler from s1 ?

Anyway, the entire wedding arc could have been over and done in about 45 minutes, but at least it was plot relevant.

The action in the rest of the eps so far was great, and it all came to a head in 'Harvest', with some real punch-the-air moments.

Also I've got no objection to Techno - even boring Club techno of the throw your hand in the air variety - being in soundtracks. I think they could use more Techno, and more Heavy Metal while we're about it, since Ambient and Hip Hop crossed that line years ago.

But, the arcs did advance. Season one was slow, with a lot to unpack. These first 3 eps of Season two are a little fatty and needed trimming, but there's definitely 2 episodes worth of material across the 3.

This so far is not Severance, or From. They haven't introduced 30 new characters and 15 new plot lines that don't in any way related to the previous season. They are continuing the arcs, and, with a little reservation about pace, I like where it's going.

Will be watching still!

How blessed we are to have something like Andor. It is the only great thing (maybe even the only truly good thing) to come out of the post-Disney Star Wars era, it's the best that Star Wars has been since the franchise first began, and perhaps most impressively, it is the only piece of Star Wars media I could recommend even to people who don't much like Star Wars.

The reasons for this are several: It is mature in a way that the other films and shows aren't, it goes to different corners of George Lucas' galaxy that don't involve (or demand the viewer's knowledge of) the same old characters and concepts, and it aims to first and foremost tell a good, complex, resonant story of revolution instead of getting bogged down in precisely that -- call-backs to characters and places you already know and whose mere mention you're supposed to soy out over.

The characters act and speak like fully fledged human beings, things move with heft and weight, its political messaging goes beyond modish buzzwords, and the Galactic Empire feels like a threat in a way you'll never see in other Disney-Star Wars media -- where Din Djarin or Boba Fett or whoever dispose of Stormtroopers like they're mere video game enemies. Andor understands "quality over quantity" better than the Sequel Trilogy ever could; it doesn't just throw 100 superlaser-equipped Star Destroyers (that then get easily destroyed because "they don't know which way is up") at us. Last season, one single TIE Fighter (the ship that exists in a swarm of disposable "mooks" during most of the franchise's space battles) was presented with all the terror of the WW2 bomber that inspired their sound design. In Season 2, we get scenes that demonstrate how fascists make their ideas more palatable to those on the fence; these aren't simply mustache-twirling villains, which would be the easy way of doing it.

Certain fanboys are, of course, testy about all this: from complaints that it "doesn't feel like Star Wars" -- even though my father, a fan since the 70s, argues that the fact that it treats us to new sights makes it "feel" the way witnessing Star Wars felt at the very beginning -- to complaints that the franchise that gave us The Slave Bikini "suddenly" regards sexual abuse. They also think it's boring and that nobody cares about Cassian Andor, which may be the same mentality for why Disney execs let Tony Gilroy cook, meddling-free, vs if he'd used more marketable characters and stories.

You'll get your keys plenty jangled some other time, guys. Let the adults have something.

The pacing and growing tension leaves me feeling anxious for characters I seem to genuinely care about. This episode left me sat silently at the end processing the arc so far.

Twists and turns from the previous series and the two previous episodes culminating in a crescendo of emotional blows that hurt because of the time and skill invested by everyone working on this show.

Dedra brings an E-WEB to a knife fight in a series of scenes so unexpected and divergent from the pace of the rest that it is more arresting and engaging for that difference.

If the remainder of the run continues at this pace and with this quality it will be a lasting testament to all involved and to what sci-fi can be even in this era.