The first one is a snoozer. The last three – AWESOME!

Rogue One is one of my absolute favorite movies let alone Star Wars films. So well made. So well scripted. So well acted. Andor, Season 1 was slow to start but really developed into being one of the better Star Wars Disney+ shows. Andor, Season 2 was exactly the same way. The first two episodes were literally pointless. You could have summed it up in just episode 3. But the last three stories? Like Rogue One perhaps the best Star Wars media you’ll ever see outside the original trilogy. Maybe…better?

It’s really hard to say anything is better than the original trilogy or even the first movie (in my heart of hearts, it’s not called A New Hope). But if you took sentimentality out of it, the last nine episodes of Andor, Season 2 could be the best Star Wars ever. Technically great. Story amazing. Acting superb. And it FELT like a Star Wars story. It accomplished what most prequels fail to do – nicely wrap up the story and lead into the original material seamlessly. You know the fates of the characters you don’t see in Rogue One and you feel good about it in the end.

This series was broken up into four parts making it a quadrilogy. The first part takes place one year after the end of Season 1 in BBY 4 (Before the Battle of Yavin – which is the big battle at the end of A New Hope). It’s a snoozer. Cassian steals a prototype TIE fighter (the only exciting part in the first two episodes) and lands on a planet to pass it off to the next pilot when he finds out the other pilot was killed and he is captured. We spend the rest of this episode and all of the next suffering through this incompetent group of idiots trying to figure out what to do until Cassian can escape. We also have to suffer through Mon Mothma’s incredibly ungrateful and spoiled daughter’s wedding. That’s pretty much it. The rest is just set up – but not important set up. Nothing that would warrant three hours of wasted time. The third episode is only marginally better. The best part? Bix and the other refugees who escaped to Mina-Rau. One note about the wedding: Whoever was the fashion designer for the show should get an award. That wedding dress and the other costumes during the wedding were amazing.

The rest of the series keeps building in pace and excitement with engaging storytelling all along the way. Diego Luna did such an amazing job as Cassian, but it was the sum of the cast that really created the world of Andor. Stellan Skarsgard was powerful as Luthen Rael, the antiques curator and secret Rebel leader. Denise Gough provided depth and contrast with Dedra Meero. Joplin Sibtain’s Brasso was surprisingly touching and heartfelt. Benjamin Bratt did an admirable job filling in for Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa. Honestly, he seemed made for the role. But my favorites were Alan Tudyk who reprised his role as K-2SO (SO funny) and Elizabeth Dulau as Kleya Marki, Luthen’s assistant. Her story in episode 11 was probably the best of the whole series. They gave her and Luthen’s characters the penultimate episode almost completely – and once you see it you’ll understand why.

Andor, Season 2 is the complete package. If you love Star Wars, you’ll absolutely love this show. It will be worth your while!