ANDOR aka Glum Village : its own thread

i want a thread to talk about it and i'm too lazy to keep putting spoiler tags around everything in the Star Wars thread

Well DAMN Andor delivers so far.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 22 September 2022 06:26 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah this is great

the policing aspect feels like oldschool brit procedural and i LUV it

also aesthetically- love the color pallete, all the browns & oranges… also it needs to be said that star wars universe outerwear is chef’s kiss always

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 22 September 2022 06:48 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

fuck I'm so excited

― i eat ass with a knife and fork (Neanderthal), Thursday, 22 September 2022 06:54 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

So this is where all the budget and creativity for “Obi Wan” and “Boba Fett” went!

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 22 September 2022 07:53 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Am saving the third episode for the weekend but yeah loving it so far.

The universe feels lived in and the characters for once appear to be driven by human-level motivations - misplaced ambition, jealousy, laziness, spur-of-the-moment thoughtlessness. People actually talking like people, instead of just delivering exposition. No one is just going round going from place to place completing RPG quests (which is what Obi-Wan/Mando sometimes felt like).

also hell yeah, blue ramen

― Roz, Thursday, 22 September 2022 09:41 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Lovely and perfect detail, that,

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 22 September 2022 12:09 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Andor truly the Star Wars show for anyone who ever wanted a Star Wars without Jedi, lightsabers, action, cool spaceships, iconic designs, John Williams music, or things happening at all, but get really excited about scene after scene of intensely whispered exposition
— Matthew Perpetua (@perpetua) September 21, 2022
It's amazing how this guy is just wrong about everything. I knew the second I saw this tweet that I would love the show.

― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 22 September 2022 16:35 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

I enjoyed the first few episodes of Andor, so now I'm going back and checking out Kenobi, and holy shit, I never realized how brutal the recruitment process for RHCP was.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, 24 September 2022 19:01 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

What I got I got to give it to the Empire

― i eat ass with a knife and fork (Neanderthal), Saturday, 24 September 2022 20:11 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Paul says Let It Be

― Stevolende, Saturday, 24 September 2022 20:13 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

big ACAB energy so far

are my eyes deceiving me or was the police bus thing that brought the cops down to the planetary surface the same sort of vehicle that the jawas bundled our droid friends into on tattooine? as if the jawas had found an old junked spaceship of this model and repurposed it into a sand crawler?

i wasn’t thrilled by the horizon zero dawn shit but at least it’s out of the way. that really could have all been told in a line or two. the way cas was “adopted” was fairly… horrific?! like okay maybe you’re right that he would have been in trouble or even killed later, but who put you in charge

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 25 September 2022 01:11 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Oh I very much like the idea that the 'adoption' wasn't nice, pleasant or even desired!

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 September 2022 01:13 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

the cop transport was similar to a clone wars-era troop transport from the starwars 2 movie

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Sunday, 25 September 2022 01:15 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Mull of Kenari

― Stevolende, Sunday, 25 September 2022 08:49 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Am at least semi enjoying this though am aware taht whatever background is being set is pretty temporary no matter how in depth it's being set up as so intrigues between side characters probably not as important as might seem. I take it we do know the ultimate end of the story arc anyway & it ain't no frog chorus. THough possibly set up to show attitudes to loyalty and a few other things. Though he do seem a tad shady and stuff.

Trying to work out why the kids clothing on Kenari looks so manufactured when they seem to have been returned to a primitive level though not sure how long before. THought clothing would be more natural/simple not as textured or complicatedly finished. KIds look more dressed than scrabbling by having to make clothing or whatever from local materials.

Is this like a footnote to a footnote if the main character is someone whose til now main arc was inside a film that sets up some of the action in one of the original films.

― Stevolende, Sunday, 25 September 2022 09:59 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yes definitely - backstory to the backstory.

Interesting point about the clothes. Maybe they’re still getting by on the remains of what the mining colony left (maybe 100 years earlier? Hard to tell)

I wonder if Dudley Do-Right policeman is going to “break good” at some point

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 25 September 2022 10:05 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

The situation on Kenari was relatively recent. There’s that line in the third episode about how Cassian saw his father hanged by the imperials in the town square as a kid! The implication is that the adults were killed or were absent for other reasons.

I think the bouncing between his past and the present day sets up the parallel of circumstances molding his path. He didn’t choose to leave his planet but that became his life, much as he isn’t actively trying to become a rebel agent but he’s stuck with another foster parent figure again. Orphans make the best agents, you know.

I kind of hope they follow through on that, and his diminished sense of agency, as he gets groomed as a spy and assassin

― mh, Sunday, 25 September 2022 14:58 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

(I mean, it seems incredibly likely they will with Gilroy reusing some of the backstory markers from his Bourne series screenplays)

― mh, Sunday, 25 September 2022 15:00 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

And that's in place in Rogue One as well, so.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 25 September 2022 16:49 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

you can tell star wars is for babies because of the crawls and the wipes
— Al Shipley (@alshipley) September 25, 2022

― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 25 September 2022 17:27 (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

this episode was sensational. too short!

- baby banthas!
- “clem”!!!!! i love it
- incompetent sadman fascist on the skids
- light speed!
- THE TIE FIGHTERS fuuuuck
- the creeping centralisation and surveillance
- woke mothma
- the hard-science diversion for the heist a kind of switcheroo of king solomon’s mines, where it’s the locals who use the astronomical calendar to their advantage

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 28 September 2022 23:38 (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

How do i do spoiler text?

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Thursday, 29 September 2022 01:16 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

[ h ] like this [ / h ]

― peace, man, Thursday, 29 September 2022 01:27 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

i dont think those were bantha babies they just looked like goats to us and i assume they have weird alien penises. My wiiiiife also said she was amused by the star wars world retail experience

― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Thursday, 29 September 2022 01:32 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah this was really sharp. Just the way this show easily introduces characters, switches scenes and modes while maintaining mood.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 30 September 2022 07:26 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol, it's that dude from The Bear!

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, 30 September 2022 23:23 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I keep thinking this show is called Endor and is about Ewoks.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 30 September 2022 23:42 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

POSEUR!!!!!

― stank viola (Neanderthal), Saturday, 1 October 2022 00:26 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I keep thinking it’s called And/or and it’s a philosophy text

― “uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Saturday, 1 October 2022 03:51 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Further adventures of Paul Ramone

― Stevolende, Saturday, 1 October 2022 05:23 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

The Rebellion the Next Generation
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FYHSzMMX0AIqLlT?format=jpg&name=large

― Stevolende, Monday, 3 October 2022 21:12 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

getting to the end of Obi-Wan Kenobi, there's certainly some good stuff here, I like the new bad guys and Darth Vader of course, but the retcon level is so high as to make it rather aggravating

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Tuesday, 4 October 2022 16:07 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

(i've never been to england) i like how the first three eps of andor are set in some sort of blighted northern england post-industrial mining village! perhaps the next star wars series will be how the same planet gave birth to the post-modal nodes band the max rebo twelve and their label sandcrawler records?

― 龜, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 04:32 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

great show if your favorite part of star wars were the scenes of imperial officers sitting around a table bitching at each other or if you were curious about the lives of all the construction workers and contractors who died on the 2nd death star

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Wednesday, 5 October 2022 04:49 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Well, yes.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 04:56 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

xp I actually am glad after the last set of Star Wars shows that we're getting a bunch of new/different planets and ecosystems, especially after Boba Fett. (We got like, two or three newish locales on Obi-wan, but eh.) Even "new" Coruscant was fun to see.

― Nhex, Wednesday, 5 October 2022 23:15 (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Perfect ratcheting-up-tension episode this week, I'd say. When it ended I felt totally wound up.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 6 October 2022 01:59 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ooh forgot there's a new episode today

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 6 October 2022 02:09 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

The pre-Imperial tech thing Karis was showing off was actually a barely-concealed older Polaroid!

― Priory, Thursday, 6 October 2022 02:46 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ha I DID think "Wait is that a camera?"

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 6 October 2022 04:58 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Which, BTW, was prompted by seeing this earlier in the week -- turns out Diego's a major camera nut (the explanation is kinda sweet, really)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59rKS8qaKuA

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 6 October 2022 04:59 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

is the name of the droid in this noir feelings star wars show actually B2EMO? because that's awesome.

― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 6 October 2022 16:00 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

enjoyed the new episode - it definitely heightened my anticipation for “the job”

love the classic heist/bank job story beats ie new-guy suspicion, last-minute revelations that undermine cohesion, newly-sown suspicion towards leader, etc etc etc

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 6 October 2022 18:12 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

blue food watch: space cereal with blue milk

― Roz, Friday, 7 October 2022 01:25 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

the uptight police guy’s mom is a whole mood, i kind of love her and their vibe

also uptight police guy reminds me of the Jude Law android from AI, it might just be his hair

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 7 October 2022 01:32 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

i thought the same thing

yes his mom is great. strangely for such a diverse and motley set of beings she’s one of the few real “characters” in this show

i was psyched for the heist but now i’m very much enjoying the slow burn. “clem” a bit jumpy, not just a strong dude for us to identify with but a dude with problems. “we all have our own rebellion” - loved that.

will our double agent’s moment of sentimentality - allowing the men to watch the cosmic happening - come back to bite them? i don’t know but i loved that we got to see that little grin

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 7 October 2022 09:23 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

maybe didn't follow the plot but felt like that smile was showing that he played them, got them to think he was giving them what they wanted when really he cleared them out to not be paying attention during the heist or something?

I'm enjoying Ebon Moss Bachrach. I HATED him on Girls, where he played a truly odious character. Then when he showed up in the Bear I was like ugh this guy again, but then I was like well he's playing an asshole, do I hate the actor or just his characters? Then by the end of the Bear I was like, aw I like this guy, and now here he is again! And he's enjoyable. ANd I can erase his Girls character from my memory.

― dan selzer, Friday, 7 October 2022 18:05 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've had almost the same opinions as you regarding that actor; they did too good a job making him an asshole on Girls and it's taken a few years to rectify. He was also in one season of Damages

― Vinnie, Saturday, 8 October 2022 01:58 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

same, his character was so convincingly awful in Girls i thought maybe i hated his face lol but i dig him so mich in Bear & Andor

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 8 October 2022 04:16 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

So difficult to tell whether Dunham liked or loathed her characters, and I guess that had consequences for the performers too - were we watching a charming actor uncharmingly playing an asshole, or an uncharming performance of a character we were supposed to like? Hard to tell from week to week

― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 8 October 2022 11:54 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

dan otm

― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 8 October 2022 12:14 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ok. Wow. That was some Star War telly.
Tense.

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 12 October 2022 21:43 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol they kinda delivered on the hype for The Eye thing damn

― nashwan, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 22:18 (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

wow. episode delivered. only marred by young trotsky nerd’s hopelessly tendentious acting.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 13 October 2022 00:21 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol they kinda delivered on the hype for The Eye thing damn

ha yeah i was disappointed we hadn't gotten to the heist at the end of the last episode, but the wait was worth it!

Between this and The Bear, Ebon Moss-Bachrach has been in the two most stressful episodes of TV I've watched all year

― Roz, Thursday, 13 October 2022 04:38 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

ok if we get a three episode cadence, every third is action-heavy, and each builds on the last, that twelfth one better deliver

― mh, Thursday, 13 October 2022 13:29 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

THE GREENIE GREEN ONES

THE GREENIE REVNOG

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 19 October 2022 22:55 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

this show keeps impressing me tbh

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 19 October 2022 22:59 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

so "shave and a haircut" exists in the star wars universe?

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 20 October 2022 19:25 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

It does now!

Fantastic last couple of episodes here. And yes it's pretty clear we're on a three episode arc each time, which I have no problem with. (Appreciate the ISB office politics mania of course. Also didn't realize the dude there with the one speech about imposing measures etc is the latest iteration of this character, who might be the classic retcon.)

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Wullf_Yularen

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 20 October 2022 19:29 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

looking forward to episode 9 being the star wars version of the great escape

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 20 October 2022 19:45 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

nerdy sidebar - i love the room interiors for a lot of their homes & meeting rooms, like the architectural details in mon mothma’s mansion or the interesting brick interiors of andor’s home or that 70’s looking pad of his girlfriend/not-girlfriend, and uptight-guy’s mom’s modular pod-apartment

i can’t say why exactly but it gives me a bit of a “bladerunner” echo.

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 20 October 2022 19:48 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'd reallt still like a series dedicated to Jawas especially a Jedi Jawa

― | (Latham Green), Thursday, 20 October 2022 19:52 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

veg, you're the third person to make the bladerunner connect here. I should be watching Andor I think.

― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 20 October 2022 21:17 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

for me it’s specifically the interiors somehow

anyway it’s great!

mandalorian still my fave but andor def a close second

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 20 October 2022 21:38 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

and some of the music this latest episode - by the fantastic Nicholas Britell - used a lot of very Bladerunner-y synth textures. Such a wonderful series. The ground level Empire stuff (probe droids, TIES, stormtroopers) has rarely felt more ominous.

― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 20 October 2022 22:26 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

If you thought that the Mandalorian was essentially bad, is this good on a Mandalorian scale or on an objective scale?

― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 20 October 2022 22:27 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

the vacation planet theme song was pretty amusing

I like this much more than the Mandalorian, it is a very different show

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 20 October 2022 22:28 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

it is much more focused on giving a glimpse into how normal people live in various parts of the galaxy, very subdued, much less action and heroics, although that stuff is in there for sure.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Thursday, 20 October 2022 22:33 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

andor is way more grounded in a lot of ways than mandalorian, it feels more like a gritty, modern type of spy movie that happens to be set in star wars world rather than the kind of epic space western like mando was

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 20 October 2022 22:40 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

but if you thought mando was essentially bad i can’t fully speak to whether you’d even enjoy andor

different vibe but like, it’s not NOT star wars

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 20 October 2022 22:41 (six days ago) bookmarkflaglink

veg otm re the interiors. I also liked that wide shot of the Imperial cubicles, love this (and Rogue One’s) depiction of the Empire as essentially being run by a bunch of corporate stooges and horrible middle managers.

that ISB meeting scene was as gripping as any lightsaber duel lol

― Roz, Friday, 21 October 2022 01:58 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think this may also be the first star wars show to follow multiple agents of the empire maybe not quite as sympathetic characters, but definitely as humans possessing inner lives.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Friday, 21 October 2022 04:29 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

It is Ronin but Stellan Skarsgård has more years and hair this go round

― Cinta Kaz is comin' to town (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 21 October 2022 05:08 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Absolutely delighted to discover that Chamberlin, Powell and Bon did some work on Coruscant before coming to London to design The Barbican.

Not so thrilled that everyone is carrying around tablet computers, I thought it was canon that SW never had that kind of tech.

― ledge, Friday, 21 October 2022 08:52 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

i thought of the Barbican as well!

i must have missed the tablets. it’s a funny mix of tech, it mostly feels like Vietnam-war era is about where they’re at.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 21 October 2022 08:56 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

watched the new one last night and was thinking the same stuff about the production design and music. A lot of these star wars shows have felt kinda cheap...like expensive compared to a lot of tv shows, but budget compared to an actual movie, but the physical world building, the exteriors and interiors, vehicle design etc, on Andor has been really fantastic. I prefer this to the Mandalorian for sure. I skipped Boba and only watched one episode of Obi Wan.

― dan selzer, Friday, 21 October 2022 13:52 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think a big reason it looks so much realer is that they used the green screen superdome a lot less for this show. Or at least, that gave them an excuse to have less scenes of people standing around in the desert.

― Nhex, Friday, 21 October 2022 14:09 (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Britell such a great choice for this series

― realistic pillow (Jon not Jon), Monday, 24 October 2022 14:06 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I keep hearing good things about "Andor," but I haven't watched anything post-Mando S2. Just kind of Star War'd out, I guess. (Also totally off the LotR and GoT trains, too, though more power to you folks invested.) But maybe I'll give it a shot, since we're between Marvel things. The praise seems similar to S1 of "Mando" - just a good show set in the Star Wars universe rather than some portentous fan service playing up/with mythology.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 October 2022 14:24 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Pretty much - it's a good show, a little elevated by the extra Star Wars mythology that it does touch and the action setpieces that finally happen

― Nhex, Monday, 24 October 2022 14:33 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

it ties in closer to the main Star Wars story than Mandolorian does because it's about the birth of the rebellion, but mostly avoids obvious fan service, most of the characters and settings are new, and there hasn't been any mention of jedi/sith stuff so far. It sidesteps the superhero aspects of Star Wars and focuses more on the human side of things.

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Monday, 24 October 2022 14:40 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I like the idea of the "rebel alliance" explicitly being a coalition of partisans and pro-republic politicians and aristocrats, as messy as that may be, playing out. The formal title of "Alliance to Restore the Republic" might be an interesting point in a future episode because it's been pretty strongly implied that some of the people involved hate the Empire but didn't necessarily have great faith in the Republic

― mh, Monday, 24 October 2022 15:26 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I love Andor, and thought the Mandalorian post season 2, the Boba Fett thing, was dumb, as was Obi Wan. Dug the first two of Madalorian, but this is even better.

― a (waterface), Monday, 24 October 2022 15:28 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have skipped LoTR and found HotDragon lame, so I have sorta desperate geek hopes here.

― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 October 2022 17:21 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I have skipped LoTR and found HotDragon lame, so I have sorta desperate geek hopes here.

― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Monday, 24 October 2022 17:21 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://twitter.com/i/events/1584693275755044865

― groovypanda, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 09:58 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Try again:

A Secret Writers Room, a Rising Scribe and a Post-‘Skywalker’ Timeline: A Look Inside Damon Lindelof‘s ’Star Wars’ Movie (Exclusive) https://t.co/Qr3PvFqx3F
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 24, 2022
― groovypanda, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 09:59 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

no mas

― death generator (lukas), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 16:23 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I’ve read articles by like “industry watchers” who are LIVID that Disney has not been exploiting the star wars IP more in the cinema and I’m like….. thank fuck for that

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 25 October 2022 16:35 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The Force Reawakens
The Penultimate Jedi
Re-Rise of Nu-Skywalker

― stank viola (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 25 October 2022 16:41 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

kinda crazy that Andy Greenwald (formerly of the Ringer) is on the writing team of Star Wars movie

― “uhh”—like, this is an insane oatmeal raisin cookie “uhh” (President Keyes), Wednesday, 26 October 2022 15:27 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ha, I knew Andy from Spin.

We saw the first "Andor." I liked it, at times it sort of had "Blade Runner" vibes, but my daughter was very resistant and found the characters "boring" (which come to think of it is also very "Blade Runner"). That means I'm on my own for finishing it, which means it'll be another ... six months before I'm done.

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 October 2022 15:35 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's a pretty glum set of characters in a pretty glum setting it's true. i didn't exactly find them boring but i can see how someone would think that

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 26 October 2022 15:37 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah I watched the first three episodes and liked aspects of it, but the characters are definitely still pretty opaque (and kind of charmless, to be harsh) and I'm not sure I'm going to continue

― rob, Wednesday, 26 October 2022 15:43 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

'this is Murg. she's from the Cassavetes system'

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 26 October 2022 16:18 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

damn i love this show. THIS IS THE REAL PREQUELS, PEOPLE.

instead of princesses and princes it's the story of labor camps, of construction workers, of kidnapped natives, of middle managers and despised sergeants. of plots in the workplace. of the obdurate details of enforcement and empire management. not just as backdrop or character detail but as the main subject. it's bloody-minded in its materialism. and unstintingly gloomy!

so this episode.. our rebellion poster couple has split up. but that's what happens in good dramas, the characters get faced with tremendously difficult decisions and we get to find out what's important to them and you're DAMN RIGHT that the rebellion is more important to... Cinta, okay i did have to go look that up.. than whatever is going on between her and.. Vel, yes i looked that one up too. now i have images in my head of what the actresses look like in normal clothes. but anyway. good.

the prison is WILD. how the fuck is he going to get out?

i enjoyed the hell out of how tense and awkward andor's introduction to the factory floor was. remember that hold-up with the irritated imperial support staff in the corridor? someone wasn't at their post? all that kerfuffle? i'm interested in why that scene was there. why do you need that scene? you could have tightened everything up by just getting andor into the fabrication room straight away. hands on his head, jabber poised to zap him, it's already tense. so why? i guess my answer would be that it does heighten the tension some, makes you say "get on with it", which gets you closer to what andor himself is feeling then. but it also shows how everybody kind of hates their job there, apart from a handful of sadists. they're all just annoyed and snappish and despite the gleaming ultra-sanitary meticulously conformist operation they're running, the human stuff doesn't really work right. the whole thing's idiotic of course. you'd get better work out of your laborers if you actually trained them properly at the beginning! your efficiency would improve if so many of them didn't kill themselves! etc etc but that's how repressive regimes have always done it. they don't know any other way.

still holding out for... Syril?? is that really his name? to break good. it looks like he's reached his limit with the Imperial paper-pushing department. he's going to do something loco next episode it's clear.

- storm troopers, the old school kind! they still strike instant terror in me

- even though it focuses on very different sorts of characters there is a star-warsness to certain themes: hope vs fear, techno-minimalism vs organic sloppiness, belief in a cause vs being a gun for hire

- fuckin GHOST DOG

i want to watch rogue one again now but i think it’s actually a pretty different beast? a “movie” with all the compressed energy and relentless pace that implies these days, as opposed to this which is paced more like a 70s tv miniseries

so uh, the gas shower - was that a holocaust reference?

I think it’s definitely intended.

Such an amazing show. The factory floor introduction was intense.

I said out loud “I wonder what they’re making” and my kid said “parts for the Death Star”…

Out of the mouths of babes.

My takeaway from the holding-up bit where the guy wasn’t at his post was that Andor — as indicated brilliantly acted by Luna — is an extremely good observer. Not some super spy nonsense as such, just somebody who is good at thinking on his feet and knowing when to shut up (like does he even have ten lines this episode? astounding). My sense is that he was taking in a lot of quick details almost chaotically but is filing them away, as was more obviously hinted at with the sign-language sequence.

Yes. And his bewilderment at the assembly process was brilliant as well, it made me extremely anxious. But as you say possibly not as helpless as he seems - he’s filing things away for the future.

thx for starting a thread tracer!

reposting my thoughts:

new Andor episode great

the prison stuff gave me a “Ghosts…Of The Civil Dead” vibe but honestly it’s prob just bc its an all white future hell-prison

diego luna is so good, the transportation + arrival scenes he looked legitimately physically scared like he was going to puke at any moment, like when you are so afraid you’re involuntarily twitching

xpost I think it's good to remember that at the start of the series he's already been established at someone who stole a high-level Imperial macguffin to begin with as well as searching around for his sister in skeevier/less 'safe' situations. It's not that he's James Bond as such, but someone who has some earned skills to start with; absolutely he's frustrated, overwhelmed and bewildered at being stuck where he is now on top of being scared he but clearly realizes this isn't the place for a vent or a whine. (It helps too that I think the character gets clearly established at only being easily conversational and earnest as such with people he's already known for years, thus the small circle of his Ferrix crew. Everyone else, he talks only when he has to, and usually only when he absolutely has to.)

it was extraordinarily tense

you’re like “why is everyone taking off their shoes??” just pit-of-the-stomach horror vibes

and “why do those guards have such massive boots”?

the insta-pain device

the realisation of just how many poor fucks there are in this place

the gamification of work

this is marxist materialist star wars and i’m here for it

yeah Ned i rewatched the first few scenes of Rogue One last night and i forgot just how much of a “shoot first, talk later” guy he is. he’s from the Han Solo wing of life, in it for himself, ready to blast anything or anybody he needs to, but where Han could talk the ears off a rock, Andor just does his thing with minimal extras.

I think the whole "where is this person they're not at their post" is planting seeds/foreshadowing. . . just think at some point in this show he's gotta BREAK OUT OF THERE

CRAZY

HOW WILL HE DO IT

Through wisecracks and tomfoolery

the food hose was so ._.

We get a heist and a prison break in the same show.

Also thought the guards thing was to show how intense the security around the work is, and how the whole chain runs on fear and bullying. (at a time in the episode where it creates maximum anxiety for us!) Worked for me, as does pretty much everything in this outstanding show. It’s almost too good for Star Wars.

Loved this too the show has fine momentum now after a little too slow of a start imo. Nice to see Saw (arf).

good role for Andy Serkis

the penal factory was all very THX 1138

It sure was!

Watching this i was very * in a crow t robot voice* “dialogue by david mamet”

the characters for once appear to be driven by human-level motivations - misplaced ambition, jealousy, laziness, spur-of-the-moment thoughtlessness. People actually talking like people, instead of just delivering exposition.

I never found storm troopers scary in the originals, they looked slow and awkward in those white plastic suits. What was terrifying was the droid that almost chokes Cas out--how did they make the wrongness and un-human-ness of that badly proportioned robot SO CHILLING?!

The Ferrix wardribes--mwah. Skarsgard's outerwear in his off-planet buyer disguise, basically an American military parka as adopted by rebels everywhere--mwah! Everything being slate blue and orange--double mwah.

Skarsgard's failed negotiation with Forest Whitaker told us a lot about the precarity of the elements he's trying to bring together!! All crazy in their own way and each other's worst enemies...except for the Empire.

I really like it. Everything looks so good and not cheap or shoddy.

I said out loud “I wonder what they’re making” and my kid said “parts for the Death Star”…

― Spencer Chow, Thursday, October 27, 2022 3:57 AM (five days ago) bookmarkflaglink

YOOOOOO I was like THIS IS ALL PART OF THEIR WAR MACHINE.

I was thinking TIE fighter parts, but Death Star makes more sense. I'm still holding to my assessment that this is 100% based on the discussion from Clerks about all the dead Death Star contractors in ROTJ.

What was terrifying was the droid that almost chokes Cas out--how did they make the wrongness and un-human-ness of that badly proportioned robot SO CHILLING?!

I thought this bit was hilarious, because it deliberately makes you think of the same model Imperial droid that Cas owns (and reprogrammed) in Rogue One, except most definitely not as lovable or funny. kind of the opposite of the fan-servicey moments we usually get when we see a familiar character in these shows.  

show needs more aliens though. what, no twi'leks or rodians in imperial prison?

I hate Cyril's manipulative, grasping mom so much. I think that means she's a great character lol. You can really feel how growing up in her shadow, under her power, would mal-form you into something that would look unremarkable (family, loyalty, paying debts owed) but be so wrong inside.

Happy Andor day everyone!

This was the least remarkable and possibly talkiest episode so far (!) and still quite tense in places.

kind of breaks the whole 3 episode arc model, I was ready for some wild escape action

Still a great episode though. Andy Serkis was excellent and guessing the escape action will all kick off next week

It's worth taking a few episodes to build up the escape. Loved the horrifying sound being described to Bix as something we ourselves are spared - and Cyril's Mom's expression when he told her he'd been promoted to name but two of many things.

Denise geogh smash me in the head w a hammer pls

this was really her episode. i thought she was extraordinary. performance of the series imo.

She's so devious, but Mon Mothma has my heart, and it makes total sense that glammed up Vel is part of the family.

Good stuff once more.

i love the way gough does that snarly-sneer at cyril while putting him in his place, she’s so awesome

and the sound editing when they from bix screaming into the drill in the prison workroom was ~chef’s kiss~ so good

cannot say how much i love the actress playing cyril’s mum, more insidious and unsettling than the manipulative-mum-stock-standard - even her tone is somewhat surprising.

great episode

*when they CUT from bix

How long is the series. I assumed it would be either 8 or 10 episodes judging from other things. So is the next one season finale and filled with cliffhangers or are things working up to a temporary at least denouement.
We do know the eventual end anyway already unless that had a miraculous intercession or something.

12 eps for this season

and according to imdb, 12 episodes for the next :)

you're telling me I might have to work with CRIMINALS?!

the entire scene of Mon Mothma giving an impassioned speech only for someone to cut the mic of anyone agreeing with her followed by her continued reticence was some good character development (or lack thereof)

can't believe the Empire plays people the Tim Treadwell tapes from Grizzly Man--didn't Werner Herzog remind us to never listen to the tapes

http://richardhoefer.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/honestwithme-1024x573.png

Meero is just the best. So believably compromised and desperate. Her expressions are a tour de force at times, just a flicker here and there which hint at what’s hidden.

She's great. Took a while to realize where I'd seen her, she had a small but good role in Under the Banner of Heaven. Very different show than Andor.

how is meero “compromised”? am i forgetting something? in many ways she seems like a successful version of syril - a true believer

Idk how she literally makes one muscle in her cheek twitch when she’s pissed at Syril but it was masterful.

Abrams habitually cannot finish a story, his ability lies in hooking you with an opening. so he was a bad choice to take it to the finish line. just an absolutely mediocre talent. as flawed as TLJ was, it was at least interesting and RJ is a director capable of memorable imagery. though i don't really think in retrospect he should have been picked, either. it's kinda weird they're returning to the well with a Rey film, not because Daisy Ridley wasn't good (she was one of the few good things i took away from the trilogy) but you'd think they'd want to completely move past it.

It’s funny how the first time you watch Andor it takes awhile to realise how central Dedro Meero is, or at least it did for me. Plenty of characters in the ISB. Her ambitious and petulant rival; her tough but fair boss; the dude who wants a fancy office on Ferrix; etc etc. So I wasn’t watching her that closely at the beginning. This time I was. And she is just fucking phenomenal all the way through. The tiniest twitch of an eyebrow, the slightest widening of the eyes. This is not stuff that plays in a 1000-seat theatre. This is very close-up stuff and the level of control is just off the scale

i had read that Denise Gough was a bit inspired by Gus Fring in her interpreation of the character.

turns out i was rewatching this in parallel w/u tracer, bursting into tears at the exact same moments lol

'Too bad' might need unpacking there, if it's "too bad, I'm going to tip half of it out the window", that's fair enough.

Very much my meaning!

xxp denise gough would be perfect as a young margaret thatcher

I definitely agree with the point about this being very loosely linked to Star Wars - TLJ strikes me as what happens if you treat it more like the Aliens movies, Rian Johnson clearly came in and said "okay, this is an interesting framework, here's a story I want to tell in it"

(I know it's an over-wondered thought in geek circles, but I do always wonder how big the ripples would be if David Lynch had directed RotJ)

Gough was my favourite thing in the show (among many, many favourite things - set design, no magic, Andy Serkis, prison stun floor ...)

Yes inclined to agree, she's somewhat first among equals.

Although I guess it's evident Gilroy is not reeeally burdened by telling this story in not only the same galaxy as Gungans and Babu Frik but in the increasingly carved up yet still alluring nexus between Eps III and IV where there are always the events and aspects of those plus R1 to bear in mind I'd be interested to see what he could do truly free of all that while still offering a modern branded Star War, maybe concurrent and complimentary to the Rey trilogy.

Rian Johnson clearly came in and said "okay, this is an interesting framework, here's a story I want to tell in it"

Tangentially, did anyone else read that scene with Kylo killing Snoke and then inviting Rey to join him (as sparks fall dramatically from the ceiling) as Rian Johnson inviting JJ Abrams to actually do something new and interesting with the franchise? I can't tell if this is insane or obvious.

bringing this stuff into the andor thread is actually kind of upsetting

Haha 100%

When Johnson was working on TLJ wasn't Trevorrow still expected to helm the final part? From what I've seen of what he had in mind for it it actually lined up well with TLJ (still jarringly suucinct for a supposed middle act imo) and the subsequent nature of Andor via a proposed mass uprising against the First Order that we would see more of as opposed to this just being an aside uttered by Dominic Monaghan (iirc) at the end of IX.

Cheer up Tracer I am rewatching Andor for the second time in six months thanks largely to you (and to large new TV).

xxp You can always take up with the guy who mentioned the films in this thread!

I’m rewatching and I have decided this show is also a romance. Not about romantic love, but about a spymaster willing to believe he’s right about the impulse he sees in a possible agent and the tumultuous route they take to come back together. Just a guy hoping another guy can believe what he believes

Occurred to me after seeing the episode 8 scene where Luthen doesn’t want to sever ties with Bix back on Ferrix and has the delusional belief that anyone on Ferrix has a better idea of where Cassian might be

I never quite understood why Luthen comes back to Ferrix for the funeral. He already has agents to deal with Cassian. What’s he doing there? If it’s a bit of a romance that makes it start to make sense.. he’s drawn to Cassian irrationally.. but I feel like there was something I missed

maybe he intuited the presence of the force (hints for s2 reveal)

my kids keep saying he’s a Jedi and I like NO YOU DON’T GET IT

RETVRN

luthen was darth plagueis all along

what i think is important when watching star wars with children is to make sure they understand when they’re wrong

I think Luthen remains undecided on killing or recruiting Cassian right to the end as one of those two options MUST happen. In the end only going to Ferrix himself to see if he can encounter Cassian again and force a decision on it can enable that, but he has to keep Vel ready to kill him if it all goes south?

yeah that sounds about right. He’s a bit of a gambler isn’t he, despite his attention to detail. He doesn’t mind leaving things open, seeing where they go.

Luthen's also subtly attempting to affirm his own beliefs and you see him waver a little in several episodes. Those grandiose speeches are as much for him as they are for his audience (and the viewing audience). He wants to be right about Cassian so bad

As for something more ephemeral: apparently there is exactly one party song that's popular during the run of the series thus far, and it's titled after the hottest beach planet-turned-imperial: Niamos!

So far we have:
Niamos! (Morlana Club Mix) -- First episode, Cassian is at the club trying to find out if his sister was there
Niamos! (Coruscant Lounge Mix) -- Played at the party Mon Mothma is hosting in ep 7 where she's entertaining guests and talking about moving money
Niamos! (Galaxy Mix) -- Played over the ending credits of ep 7 after the camera zooms out from Syril in his new insanely boring office cubicle, a distinctly un-party atmosphere

Niamos!

here's a 10 minute loop version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r9qnkCE0Hw

keep music live

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA8-6X8aR3o

Some are rockists, some are poptimists, some are wailing jizzists.

iirc jizz has now been retconned to "jatz"... thanks disney :(

Some are into skatplay, others are into jatzplay

xxxxp I think that's just the section that was played in the episode looped. The official soundtrack available on streaming has a second section

I was gonna say only on third watch of this did I notice Mothma's muzak was a tease of the same tune as the Niamos Grindcore banger.

Whenever you hear that party music, you know something terrible is going to happen!

oh, I forgot to mention that the Galaxy Mix over the credits was an encore. The first time it appears in that episode is when Cassian is on the beach about to run some errands

the next two tracks are, depressingly:
"Tourists Don't Run"
and
"Six Year Sentence"

space-age music in dune:
• bagpipes
• throat-singing
• chapman stick

Fairly certain Chapman Stick's a character

Blu-ray set out next month with some extras:

https://gizmodo.com/andor-season-1-blu-ray-release-date-details-steelbook-1851308715/slides/5

Sweet!

Wow yes. I just rewatched it with my sci-fi indifferent older daughter who was absolutely gripped from ep 1. Is it even better than the 1977 movie? Certainly for an adult audience.

On a separate note I actually just saw Michael Clayton for the first time thanks to a one-off Alamo screening. And yeah, a lot more of the vibe tracks, if you will.

I recently showed my niece and nephew A New Hope and they kept laughing at how bad the VFX were, they couldn't take it seriously. I kept having to be like, "when I was a kid, this was mind-blowing". My nephew is even pretty into sci-fi but I guess it was too hard a sell for them - no interest in seeing Empire Strikes Back

I suspect they'd be way more into Mandalorian or Andor simply because they look better

Must be hard when you grow up watching movies with great special effects like, er, Ant-Man 3

Vinnie was it the "special edition" with the coating of "new" (now old) CGI applied?

the space battles get a lot better in rotj. i agree, i remember being very nonplussed as a 10 year old by how slowly the x-wings moved in ANH vs the x-wings that i flew in the pc game x-wing.

"new" (now old) CGI

shit, you're right. new special edition mk 2 needed stat!

well i've always said this, that since CGI gets better all the time once you go down this road of specializing old movies with new effects you kind of can't stop since those new effects will quickly start looking very bad, in fact far worse than if they'd been practical to begin with. the only winning move is to despecialize obv but in lieu of that yes, new special editions are needed!

Tracer, it was the special edition on Disney Plus. I don't think I was particularly bothered by the "new" CGI - it doesn't look great but many of the old VFX shots look pretty dated nowadays as well. I still enjoy all the other aspects of the movie, but I can see how it's a hard sell for younger people. My nephew and niece pointed out how bad any blaster scene was, with the shots going wildly off-target every time. And fair point to them

that lobster man in full

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNmFiZjBjZmUtOTdkYS00YmU0LTlkMjItMjZiZTk1YWJlMjRkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMDYyODAzNQ@@._V1_.jpg

FUCK

lol when we watched Andor my kids were stunned that stormtroopers actually got a few hits in