My Favorite Things of 2022: Andor
Weird pop-culture year as we’re still trying to return to normal in this odd sort of post-pandemic society.
Are we out of the pandemic? Can we say that? I don’t know the answer, and I don’t mean to minimize covid, especially as that seems to be a more and more popular idea instead of recognizing the deaths of over 6.5 million people worldwide. I say all that to say that almost every medium of art and pop-culture is trying to figure out how to navigate this new space and release formatting. It’s too much for me to commit to doing lists for all three, so instead I’m just going to write about my favorite things to come out this year over the next couple weeks.
I’m not going to do a numerical order or anything, but I will highlight what I believe was the best of each medium this year, starting with the best television of the year, a show that took me with a storm and hasn’t left my brain since I started watching.
Andor
Disney+ finally has a prestige TV hit. This isn’t hyperbole, it isn’t a Star Wars or recency bias, Andor is a brilliant series that has no business being as good as it is. It feels like Andor has been talked about ad nauseum for the last two months, and I still don’t think it’s been talked about enough. While many have talked about its clear anti-fascism themes, Tony Gilroy and Co. have crafted a masterpiece that feels extremely timely; with mirrors in the current acts of rebellion in Iran against a morally and financially oppressive regime, a war being waged by the invading force of Russian greed in Ukraine, and the reality of slave labor in Qatar to build the World Cup infrastructure put in front of us at a global scale. The philosophical discussion of the price and necessity of rebellion against oppressive government regimes is a theme that’s existed in Star Wars since it’s very inception, but it’s never felt more poignant than now.
If art is a reflection of our society at the time we live in it, Andor has given every viewer a reflecting pool to not just stare at but be plunged into to force you to come to the same reality as Cassian Andor, rebellion against fascism is not a question of if or when you should do it, but how and for how long? The greatest thesis presented is in a manifesto finally played for us at the end of the season, “the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward”. Rebellions are not won with one big act, but by a culmination of a multitude of acts that finally break the dam of fascism, “These moments of defiance, will have flooded the banks of the Empire’s authority and then there will be one too many”. This is a show that the center of its core is about the power of the people and it’s no coincidence that the final monologue about fighting against that power is juxtaposed with imagery of storm troopers in riot gear that instantly roots us in protests all around the world against injustice within just the last few years.
Besides being a show that is anti-facism, a message we should universally support as humans, there is much more to love about the show. The cast across the board is excellent, from single episdoe background characters to the jaw dropping performance from both Genevieve O’Reilly and Stellan Skarsgard this is a show tailor made for actors to thrive. This is a show that’s not based on action set pieces, even though it has two of the most intense set pieces I’ve seen in Star Wars in a very long time; but is instead a show rooted in classic espionage, sci-fi, and heist cinema. This is a TV show made for film heads. It invokes 2001: A Space Odessey with its very intro credits/logo if they can’t make it any clearer that this show is going to pull a lot of influence from the history of cinema. Much like 2001, this isn’t a sci-fi epic with a lot of bombastic gun fights and cheesy one liner, this is a show about characters having conversations and having to make tough choices in the face of impossible circumstances. The construction of this show from a screen writing perspective is astonishingly perfect, each three-act story builds into a bigger three-act story like a pyramid, coming to fruition as a character arc that should make writers angry it’s so well paced and expanded on.
I encourage everyone to watch Andor, it is excellent television with every tool of filmmaking operating on the highest of levels. I could write on and on about how Nicholas Britell might be the best young composer working today on television and how Andor blows every other Disney+ produced content out of the water on a production level visually; but instead, I’ll say, go watch this show because my words cannot do either of those justice.
For really the first time, there is a piece of Star Wars content made for adults and oh boy does that shit slap. If anything, do yourself a favor and listen to this track and if you aren’t emotional at all listening to this, I think you might actually be a rock and you should check with your doctor, but if this does strike you as a particularly powerful track, go watch the show and find out who Kino Loy is, because that’s an actual legend right there.