Rogue One and Andor are the Only Two Great Star Wars Properties Made Since the OT

On a totally different note...

Well, as you can probably guess, I’m a huge nerd. I don’t think I hide that much, considering one of my last pieces held up Star Trek: The Next Generation as one of the best TV shows ever made.

Star Wars is of course another favorite. I grew up watching the original trilogy. Then, from an early age, reading the books in the extended universe. The first were the Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Dawn. WOW. While somewhat aimed at kids, I’ve probably re-read them five times and I still deeply enjoy them. The character known as Grand Admiral Thrown, a brilliant blue skinned alien with red eyes who wears a white uniform, is introduced as the new villain and man does he deliver. He’s actually my favorite character in all of Star Wars. I dressed up as him for Halloween in a custom outfit my Mom made for me as a kid since, of course, no one made a white Star Wars Imperial Officer outfit at the time.

There were dozens of these books, almost all of which were captivating and told fantastic stories. All were approved by Lucasfilm and kept a consistent timeline and universe, frequently referencing events from each other, which made reading more and more of them even more enjoyable. We were introduced to Coruscant, the imperial capital planet, for the first time in the books. So when the remastered movies came out in theaters and we got a 5 second glimpse of the planet for the first time on film…nothing but chills. It was a special moment I’ll never forget.

The prequels were of course disappointing, although not entirely bad. Then Disney bought Star Wars and threw the entire books’ “extended universe” into the trash which I have to say was one of the stupidest moves in IP history, considering they had so much material already written to make great movies from. What Disney has made instead has been awful by comparison. Ironically, a movie featuring Thrown is now in the works and seems to be based upon the very book I referenced.

But Disney did make two properties that not only lived up to the Original Trilogy but perhaps even passed it.

On April 7, 2016, we got this:

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but the moment I saw this trailer, I was unbelievably excited. I’ve seen it hundreds of times since and every time I still get chills. It’s an entirely different side of the Star Wars universe. No Jedi. No Sith. No Emperor. Just rebels with families fighting for freedom against an unimaginable force of evil. It’s dark, it’s gritty. In fact, the original cut was so dark, Disney told them to go back and recut and re-film a bunch of it, which is why so much of what’s in this trailer is actually not in the movie itself.

Then I saw Rogue One and I was blown away. Finally, a great Star Wars movie after decades of waiting. It didn’t sugar coat what the fight was about. The casting was tremendous, the acting incredible, the script tight, the acting fun, and it had some very emotional scenes. Who knew you could be so moved watching a droid say, “Climb…” in his dying moments. And it does not have a happy ending. I watched with a friend at the time who was horrified by it. I won’t spoil how it ends but she said if she knew how it ended, she would not have wanted to watch it since she got so emotionally invested in the characters.

And then, the ending dovetails perfectly into the start of A New Hope! What a great way to end a prequel. It also maintains the exact rules of the universe set up by the OT, doesn’t play politics, and features a badass, smart, capable female protagonist who doesn’t seem shoved in awkwardly or belittle her male counterparts.

I loved Rogue One. I rank it waaaay up there. Honestly, probably 2nd on my list of Star Wars movies behind Empire Strikes back. I never get tired of watching it. I know a lot of big Star Wars nerds who agree with me that it’s a masterpiece. So if you’ve never seen it, give it a try.

So when Disney announced Andor, I was confused, but a little excited. It’s the origin story of one of the main characters of Rogue One. I had recently watched Obi Wan and while it was not exactly thrilling, I found it entertaining in a “let’s waste some time” kind of way, with a pretty satisfying lightsaber battle with Vader to end things.

So, I tried Andor. I’m not going to lie…the first 2 episodes are a slog. Then the 3rd episode hits like a bomb going off. After that, I was obsessed. Stellan Skarsgard steals the whole show, as he so frequently does. It turns out Andor isn’t about Cassian Andor at all, but the birth of the rebellion against the empire and holy wow does it deliver. And it puts the empire in an entire new light. For example, you see a small band of maybe 10 lightly armed rebels run in fright from a single TIE fighter, which as a viewer, you suddenly realize is much more menacing than you ever realized. Before this, I thought of them like easily swatted flies. The Empire is portrayed as absolutely horrifying and willing to go to any ends to obtain absolute control. Some of what is depicted caused me to lose sleep. It’s a show purely for adults about what it takes to be among maybe 5 people deciding you’re going to topple a galactic government spanning thousands of stars, and realistically thinking you might have a chance (with all the doubt that comes with that).

Again, the casting and acting are outstanding. The script and action sequences too. It was the best TV show I’ve seen since Chernobyl, which is for good reason since a lot of the same actors and crew worked on both shows. Andor is rightly up for a lot of awards. Two of the episodes rank up there as the best I have ever seen on TV. Numerous moments brought me close to tears while others had me cheering, frequently within minutes of each other.

Quite simply, if you can make it through the early episodes, I cannot possibly recommend Andor enough, and this is coming from someone who watches so little TV, I don’t even own one.

Andor and Rogue One show an adult side of Star Wars it was missing for a very long time. The realities of the determination and grit required to go up against a foe as wildly powerful as the Empire, even without considering Vader and the Emperor. It’s about hope. It’s about not thinking about the odds. It’s about unbelievable determination and fighting for what is right.

I’ll leave you with the best part of Andor. Don’t watch this if you’re definitely going to watch the show. But in my mind, this is the best monologue in Star Wars history. This is the founder of the rebellion responding to being asked, “What do you sacrifice?”

Nothing but chills.

Have a great weekend everyone.