Nobody's Listening!

Dedra continues her investigation into the rebellion, whilst disturbing news is heard on Narkina 5.

This is another high quality episode.

The themes in this story are some of the darkest portrayed in the Star Wars franchise so far and they are depicted in a plot that is ramping up the tension, particularly on Narkina 5.

The detail covered about the complexities involved in securing an empire and developing a rebel insurgency, are everything that I ever could have wished for as a Star Wars fan.

As a long time fan, the best aspect of Andor is how it explores the details of concepts introduced in the original movies. The Empire and the rebellion have largely been mythical notions outside of the dealings of the elite characters on both sides, however episodes like this help bring it to life.

For me the best scenes involve Dedra and Mon Mothma as they are well plotted and give plausible faces to both sides of the conflict. I feel a sense that they are exactly the type of people who would be drawn to each ideology.

With Dedra and the scenes involving imperial officers, it portrays the horror of a totalitarian system (as well as fiction can) including aspects like torture, mass murder and euthanasia and does it with great tribute to George Lucas' legacy, such as the homage to the Princess Leia interrogation scene in the original Star Wars movie, complete with doorway/footsteps transition.

Visually it is a superbly filmed episode with excellent production design. Particularly the scenes on Narkina 5, that also pay tribute to Lucas. These are very well made, but there is no real tension associated with Cassian's fate here as we know the outcome. However, the writers use characters like Kino Loy and other prisoners well. I do want to find out what happens to them given the depiction of their plight and how the episode ends.

The standout performances for me are Denise Gough, Genevieve O'Reilly and Andy Serkis.

It's an 8.5/10 for me but I round upwards.

This show is killing it.

Great writing: the.tension continues grow with each instalment! Every moment is telling. Each event cascading in consequence.

The performances are superb. A dark foreboding score that hits the mark. The costumes and sets are lush. They and the cinematography are painstakingly true ti earliest (ie finest) Star Wars traditions.

And the direction is ... restrained but relentlessly taught. No there's not much humour.

I know people are saying "this isn't a Star Wars story" but it so very much is. No it's not a Jedi story. It's not even a Jedi adjacent story. And it is SO much the better for it.

This is a serious show about the desperate courage of real people trying to get out from under the heel of an authoritarian government. It is mandatory viewing.

Between this and Netflix's utterly brilliant All Quiet on the Western Front we have two powerful and timely studies into the horrors of conflict and oppression.

I have never been as on edge watching anything Star Wars. Period.

What the writers have done with this show is nothing short of phenomenal. The acting is unmatched; the script puts other Star Wars projects to shame; the characters are so inexplicably well-written. I'm nothing short of amazed.

The overwhelming atmosphere of the jail and the eerie totalitarianistic egos of the Imperial Security Bureau are some of the biggest highlights of this show for me. For the first time ever: the Imperials seem unceasingly and head-crushingly competent. Palpatine, Vader, Tarkin, Thrawn etc. All were great villains, but this show has taken the Empire to a whole - seemingly unreachable - new level. I actually get the chills when I see stormtroopers. I get on edge when a Tie Fighter flies overhead.

Well done.

Dedra Meera character is great. The actress who plays her has a great twitch smile when pleased with her evil doings.

Getting to know the Empire as much as the rebels has been a very rewarding approach.

Along with the wealthy contributors among the complacent, the working class complacent too busy to see what's happening in front of them, and the 'I'm just doing my job' cogs of the Empire, this is much closer to the obvious comparison to real-world societies of the past.

The dangerously mentally ill fellow with Norman Bates vibes is a creepily nice touch.

The only thing that bugs me is the same reason this show works so well: lack of droids. Their slave existence was an underlying theme never played out in this universe. But as Andor said, people are cheaper and easier to replace.

The show continues to be one of the most engaging and intense Star Wars pieces of media and tv shows as a whole without any explosions, and lightsaber or baster action scenes.

Meero steals the show once again and all of her scenes, especially Bix's interrogation, are just brilliant.

They're doing too good of a job of showing The Empire is not just a cartoonishly evil bad guy with troopers that can't aim, and they actually manage to make them menacing and meticulous and a bad guy that gets the job done.

Showing the inner workings of ISB and how they run things is just the cherry on top.

The prison scenes are just as brilliant and Andy Serkis has a nice little character arc and development in this episode and the writing and editing of these scenes are just great.

Andor is slowly planning his escape but they run into some problems in this episode. The whole prison arc is just bigger and more well-written than I thought it was going to be and it's just a joy to watch.

We get some great scenes with Mon too and the actress is just great, in fact, every actor has been great since episode one. There is another surprising reveal in the Mon Mothma plotline and it makes the whole story more complex. The plot is thickening in a great way.

All in all, I thought this was another great episode from this Star Wars show that I'm actually enjoying watching, which it has been a long time since the last time that happened.

With the brilliant writing team and just everyone behind this show, I'm confident they're gonna do a great job with the rest of the season and hopefully the next season too. Can't wait for the next week's episode.