Disney's 'Andor' might be And-boring, but it has potential

Disney has lately been trying to push more TV shows on their streaming service compared to putting their resources into movies, especially for “Star Wars.”

“Andor” is one of those TV shows that we didn’t really ask for nor need in order to still be a fan of “Star Wars.” If anything, this goes to show how Disney didn’t quite ruin “Star Wars,” but they didn’t help the franchise, especially if they don’t have Dave Filoni on the project.

This show introduces characters no one knows besides Cassian Andor himself, played by Diego Luna, and introduces them in a way that would be good for someone to put that first episode on to help them fall asleep. This makes us not care for the characters or want to watch more after that first episode.

But, since the first three episodes were released at once and you have some extra time on your hands, you then press play on episode two in hopes it’ll pick up. It's as if Disney knew no one would continue to watch the show if they only released one episode at a time to begin with.

The only thing that saved episode two was introducing Stellan Skarsgård’s character and Fiona Shaw’s character. Their characters didn’t particularly stand out, but these two actors have such a phenomenal reputation and acting span that you immediately like the show more just seeing them in it.

Episode two is where the true plot begins, and you see the characters' personalities and how they’re possibly important to the storyline. Yet the characters' chemistry is non-existent. Episode one is that throwaway episode where, in the entire time span, only one important thing happens, and it’s at the end. Episodes one and two should have been combined to prevent fans from losing faith in Disney’s Star Wars additions.

Disney did not learn from “The Book of Boba Fett” when it comes to the flashbacks. They add nothing to the storyline except to show where Andor is from and have a language no one understands without subtitles — but they don’t have subtitles. They act as filler just so Disney can make the episode more than 30 minutes long and create more than their normal six to eight episodes.

These flashbacks are practically here to also add a pop of color since the present-day scenes lack saturation. Yet the show would instantly be better without these flashbacks or with shorter flashbacks. Disney needs to get right to the point. We do not need to see a girl taking the entire episode‘s flashback just walking to a crashed ship to see if there are survivors or not.

Episode three is where you’re finally grateful that you started this show, and it’s worth the wait. Skarsgård’s character, Luthen Rael, becomes relevant to the plot, and we get to see his personality — not just someone who was thrown in the show to keep viewers from turning the episode off.

This episode shows us how Andor got into the rebellion and why Shaw’s character is important. She is the one who took Andor off his home planet which is how all of this unraveled. This episode is filled with meaningful flashbacks that don’t waste your time and action-packed, present-day events. Disney should’ve actually combined the first three 40-minute episodes into one hour-long episode, cutting out most of episodes one and two.

Episode four introduces a familiar character, Mon Mothma, played by Genevieve O'Reilly. Although there was hardly any action compared to episode three, episode four expands on an important political figure in the journey of the Rebel Alliance, though this is the first time we're getting her story since she was introduced in 1983.

This episode also introduces new characters instead of expanding on the ones Disney wanted us to get attached to in episodes one through three. It seems that Disney is either taking on more characters than they can handle or that they just don’t like sticking to one plot with a normal amount of characters.

The plot that’s introduced in episode two ends with episode four. It continues with Andor fighting the empire but changes in terms of absolutely everything else.

Episode three was so far the best episode — it didn’t take Disney an unbearable amount of time to get to the action and important takeaways. Episode four took a step back, taking its time to reveal the new extended plot, but at least it wasn’t dreadfully slow like episodes one and two.

While the show is getting bearable to watch with episodes three and four, I do hope they pick up the speed of the plot with the remaining episode of the season and the already-planned season two.