Andor Season 2 is a Major Disappointment
Womp. Womp. Nearly three years after an amazing first season of fantastic science fiction adventure TV, Andor has returned to grace the small screen. Unfortunately for fans of those initial 12 episodes, which I alleged comprised the best television series of that 2022, the second, and final, season of Andor is a major letdown.
If you’ve yet to watch Season 2 of Andor, and loved Season 1 like I did, it’s time to temper your expectations big time. Season 2 is an uneven ride. There are two fantastic episodes that live up to the super high standards set by that first year. Besides that, however, the show is mostly subpar. There are some solid scenes in other episodes, but they’re mixed in with below-average clunker moments. Overall, it’s a show with some huge issues.
I’ve never been a major Star Wars fan, but that’s something that didn’t hamper my enjoyment of Season 1 in the least. That season was a great science fiction show. Period. The fact that it was part of the Star Wars universe felt like just one aspect of it.
Season 2 couldn’t be more different in that regard because Season 2 feels 100% squarely placed in the Star Wars bucket of content. There are oodles of character names to keep track of, wacky aliens, and the requisite talking robot that provides comedic relief (towards the later episodes).
Season 1 began with a scene where Cassian Andor enters a seedy club in search of his missing sister before being pursued by a pair of corrupt Imperial officers. It was a dark, intense scene that let viewers know they were about to watch something more serious. Season 2 starts off with Cassian stealing an Imperial TIE fighter in a big action set piece with lots of shooting bad guys. It could be taken straight from any generic Star Wars film.
While Season 1 is expertly paced and spent time naturally building up characters and exploring their relationships, Season 2 is zero percent concerned with character development and 100% focused on only plot. Originally, Andor’s creators had a plan for a much longer series featuring these characters, but because of the show’s massive budget, they were forced to combine all their story into this final batch of episodes.
This significantly hampers the show. It feels like the writers just nixed everything they had planned to have in episodes except for the most major plot points (which is probably not too far off from what they ended up doing). As a result, the flow of the show and character development both really suffer.
While Season 1 featured episode arcs that were distinct from one another, everything in that season was occurring within a relatively short time frame. This allowed the series to explore different exciting situations Cassian would find himself in, while at the same time not having characters suddenly change by having had important moments not shown on screen.
Having a ton happen off screen is exactly what happens on Season 2 though, where we have several yearlong time jumps between episodes. The result is that we don’t get to see any actual character development or characters’ relationships with one another changing over time. For example, characters who were not a couple will suddenly be a couple and be deeply in love. Viewers aren’t shown any of the formation of such relationships – they just suddenly have happened.
*I’m going to get into a few more specifics of Season 2 now, so spoilers follow.
There are plenty of aspects of Season 2 that were a big miss for me. To name a few:
The entire storyline over the first few episodes where Cassian is caught up with fighting between two rebel groups is awful. The fighting between the rebels comes off as extremely juvenile and silly.
Dedra and Syril suddenly being a couple does not work at all. Syril gave off some serious stalker vibes in that first season and Dedra didn’t show any interest in him then. Just because he saved her at the end of Season 1, they wouldn’t magically become a couple with her suddenly becoming interested in him.
The series doesn’t understand the idea of show don’t tell at all with things often being spelled out for the audience. For example, we are told up front why the Empire is interested in Ghorman instead of this being kept as a mystery. Similarly, we are told right away that Syril is a spy for the Empire instead of being left to wonder whether he’s really changed.
We spend way too much time in early episodes concentrating on a wedding that ultimately is of zero importance to the overall story. I kept wondering how the wedding and the characters there are going to be important. But they’re just not.
I understand the show’s creators wanting to have a more serious series and to really drive home how bad the Empire is, but to have an officer attempt to sexually assault Bix feels out of place. It sort of happens, is awful, and then, like a lot of plot points on the show, we just don’t come back to it at all.
Because the show is all over the place, there are characters like Wilmon who get no characterization besides just being there. Seriously, who is this guy and why are we supposed to care so much about him? He’s not interesting in the slightest.
Forrest Whitaker is a solid actor, but wow, does he ham it up here as a rebel leader. His performance is so over-the-top it comes off as silly and out of place. He’s so far from being how any real person would be.
There are just too many random character names being thrown out to keep track of, and characters on screen too that’re supposed to matter. For example, when Luthen reveals to Mothma that a staffer working for her is actually a spy for him we’re not as shocked as she is (or impacted at all) because we’ve seen the staffer guy maybe once before.
The decision to have the show be so closely tied with the movie Rogue One is a major issue. It was fine to make a show that features characters from that movie before the film’s events (like in Season 1) as long as said show was allowed to stand on its own. However, the final episodes of Season 2 are basically a direct prequel to that movie – something no one needed.
Andor would’ve been a far superior show if they simply concentrated on having great adventures featuring the title character. Instead, they worried too much about tying together different Star Wars stories instead of focusing on simply having a quality program.
The two episodes that really are great this season, Episode 8, “Who Are You?” and Episode 10, “Make It Stop,” are so much better than everything else because they really narrow their focus and concentrate solely on a singular story with characters we care about.
Episode 10 in particular, where we further explore the relationship between Luthen and Kleya, feels so much more impactful because we’re not only being shown current events taking place, but are also learning the backstory to the relationship between these two characters. I wish the show had decided to have more character driven episodes like this throughout Season 2.
The speech that Mon Mothma gives to the Imperial Senate and her subsequent escape is another great moment, but that particular episode is weakened by the rebooting of an android later on that is supposed to make us excited since the robot was in Rogue One. Again, they really cared too much about having this show lead into a near decade old film.
In general, Andor Season 2 still gets stronger as it goes along. If I hadn’t loved Season 1, I think I wouldn’t have even bothered watching this season after the first couple of episodes and would’ve just dismissed it as another generic Star Wars show/movie. Sadly, despite a couple stellar episodes, that’s what Andor largely ultimately becomes in its final outing – a totally fine, but not fantastic or noteworthy Star Wars show.
That’s quite a way to fall after what was such an amazing initial season. If this is what we were going to get, I think I would’ve been happier if Andor concluded after Season 1. There’s so much mediocre TV out there, and this is really just more of it. Is it watchable? Sure. It’s never so bad you need to turn it off. But after three years of waiting? An uneven ride with only a few peaks is pretty disappointing.
Grade: 5.5/10