Some Burning Questions About Andor

Frank and I just finished watching the second season of Andor. We’d started the entire series a few weeks ago because of all the acclaim it had been receiving. Some have called it the best series of the year. It also received a ton of Emmy nominations last month so we plugged away with the second season after being confused for much of the first.

Before I go further, let me explain my connection to the Star Wars universe. I saw what was called Star Wars when it was first released in 1977. I was 14 and liked space stories but was underwhelmed by the film. I much preferred what Spielberg did with Close Encounters of the Third Kind the year after that. I was also thrilled when Annie Hall beat Star Wars for the Best Picture Oscar. As such, I didn’t see either of the sequels until after I saw the prequels in the 2000s. (I’d already been teaching film by this time and had to constantly hear about how great the original trilogy was from my students.) I took one summer to watch all six films based on their chronology and generally came away enjoying the series.

I then went along with the crowd in 2015 and saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it was released. I wanted to see how they handled Harrison Ford as Hans Solo and I soaked in the joy the other audience members around me had when he first appeared back on screen in the role. I liked the film well enough but didn’t have much interest in seeing anything that came after. I didn’t see Solo, Rogue One, any of the animated series, The Mandalorian, or anything else. Frankly, the Star Wars world seemed a bit too overwhelming to try to tackle and I really didn’t care how it all connected.

But then, Andor started getting all that attention and I’d seen most of what had already been touted as Emmy frontrunners so I decided to check it out. Frank, who is decidedly not a fan of science fiction surprised me by agreeing to watch it with me. As I’ve already mentioned, we were confused throughout most of season one but really wanted to be ready for Emmy season this year so we kept going and remained pretty lost plot-wise until the last episode or two. The episode that received the most nominations was called Who Are You? which was a very high-powered, action oriented one that was quite good on a technical level.

I now know that the plot details of Andor are all leading to Rogue One and eventually to that 1977 film now called A New Hope that I saw as a child almost half a century ago. However, I still have a lot of really important questions that Frank and I couldn’t answer while watching. Feel free to chime in during the comment section for any valuable insights you have to these crucial questions:

-Why don’t we ever see a scene of Stellan Skargard as Luthen Rael change his wigs? He has kind of a dual role but I wanted to see how he made that change happen! Did he use a special kind of tape or glue to keep the wigs in place??

-If all of this is taking place “long ago in a galaxy far, far away” why do they have so many of the items we have today on Earth, such as forks, pockets, hair ties, plates, etc?

-Why is it so easy for the characters to walk on spaceships? Haven’t they ever heard of zero gravity?

-Speaking of walking, why does almost every episode of the series feature characters in a state of determined walking? I thought we’d learned that films don’t have to show every moment a character is in transit.

-What are most of those “R2D2”-like droids actually doing?

-Who are all of those alien creatures in their midst? They seem to be equals. Why don’t we get to know more about their homes, families, and lifestyles?

-Speaking of which, why do some of the characters understand the alien languages but we don’t?

-Why are they referred to as aliens? Aren’t they all aliens on the planets that aren’t their own?

-Why do the characters have so many different accents? Most are British but Diego Luna’s Andor clearly comes from Mexico. When did he have time to travel to our planet?

Speaking of actors, few of them received any Emmy love and I’m not surprised. Most of them just seem angry and humorless. The exception is Alan Tudyk as the voice of K-2S0 but he doesn’t show up until the last few episodes. I’m glad HE was nominated for Best Guest Actor. Even Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera wasn’t very memorable from the episode he’s nominated for. I wasn’t even sure how he connected to the rest of the story.

-Why couldn’t there be more humor in the series? Everyone is just so serious…!

Okay, so those are just a few of the questions I had about the series. I won’t even try to ask the number of questions we had about many of the plot points. Oh, well. It’s over now. We made it through. One of my college friends, Mike, is currently watching everything in the Star Wars universe in chronological order. I’ve always loved and respected Mike but I don’t think I can do it. Then again, maybe I should watch Rogue One next?

I want to hear your comments - especially any answers you have to the questions!