Watch Now
Where To Watch
| Stream On |
|
Critic Reviews
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Andor rises to meet the challenge of telling the story of the early days of the Rebellion through the eyes of a man who hasn’t fully come into his own yet.
-
This is the Star Wars series you’re looking for. Don’t sleep on it.
-
With a stellar cast and clever storytelling, the hope that there’s more to Star Wars than Skywalker stories continues to grow with the absolutely magnificent Andor.
-
A show that’s more concerned with portraying life under an oppressive system than with inspiring awe, Andor is an unusually mature entry in the Star Wars franchise. It’s a confident and sophisticated drama that asks for—and rewards—a grown-up kind of patience.
-
It's all much more complicated than it needs to be, but at least Andor commits to building an expansive, self-contained world rather than plopping down on Tatooine yet again. Thankfully this hyper-local focus finally pays off in the third episode. ... Andor makes you want to enlist in the Rebellion.
-
Andor swerves by refusing to make Cassian blandly noble. In Luna’s accomplished hands, he’s pricklier and more nuanced than that. ... In taking time to grow its central character, Andor unveils an ensemble with characters who drive a number of intriguing subplots. ... The interiority and self-reflection it demands have created the most challenging and invigorating work in this galaxy in years.
-
While it’s a bit of a slow burn of a show, Andor draws you in because it is so thoroughly and messily human. ... Andor is Star Wars, distilled down to its revolutionary soul.
-
In its first few episodes, Andor has established an exceptionally immersive world and put the pieces in place for a tense, thrilling story underpinned by big ideas. By returning to some of the series’s core principles rather than merely recycling old parts, Andor might be the most exciting new beginning the Star Wars universe has enjoyed since those giant yellow letters first crawled up the big screen to invite us into the galaxy far, far away.
-
Andor doesn't need whooshing spaceships or flashing lightsabers to raise the stakes for a compelling and morally ambiguous drama grounded in real human hopes and fears.
-
If “Andor” is slow to start, it ignites with fury in episodes three and four, paving the way to a show that, so far, feels gripping in its tension and resolve.
-
Make it through that opening marathon and you have what’s shaping up to be the best Star Wars show since The Mandalorian.
-
Andor is more mature than its peers. It’s closest in tone to The Mandalorian, but without the gimmicks akin to Baby Yoda, and it has none of the unnecessary fan service that dragged down the otherwise brilliant Obi-Wan Kenobi.
-
While the pacing here can be a bit problematic—the first two episodes could have been easily condensed into one—“Andor” is more confident than most Lucasfilm or Marvel shows. ... But the third is a banger. ... One of the best Disney+ episodes of television to date. And then the fourth is what “Andor” is more likely to be over the run of the season, a balance of character and the unfolding story of a growing revolution.
-
Andor is engaging enough to withstand that scrutiny so far, with two-thirds of the season left to go. If the series maintains its assured style, Andor may be the closest Disney+ has yet come to going rogue.
-
The show’s not in much of a hurry (the first three episodes dropping together really are of a piece), and that might lose it some shorter attention spans. Those who stick around, though, will be rewarded for their patience.
-
With sharper edges than this franchise is used to, a previously peripheral character has set up one of the most intriguing starts to a live-action Star Wars entry so far.
-
We know where this story ends for Cassian, but three episodes in, Andor makes an acceptable case that this story deserves to be told.
-
It's an unembellished, taut TV show, with well-written characters and well-established stakes. In a lot of ways it doesn't feel like "Star Wars" at all, simply a very good science-fiction tale set on some far-off planets.
-
Lingering prequel issues will bother some more than others — knowing the fate of not only Cassian, our lead, but the Rebellion itself can lend a futility to sluggish scenes — but a quarter of the way into Season 1, “Andor” has established itself as the most deeply felt “Star Wars” series yet. And that’s worth holding onto.
-
This series is bristling with that potential, from moment to moment. Hopefully, it’ll eventually remember that, like it or not, it’s also a TV show.
-
These characters offer a fresher take on “Star Wars” lore than Andor’s story, which is a rote rebel mission. If the series finds a way to further blend familiar storytelling with the more-unusual-for-“Star Wars” vibe of palace intrigue, “Andor” might yet prove itself to be a favorite among fans much the way “Rogue One” has become embraced in the eight years since its initial theatrical run.
-
Andor has me debating distinctions between “different” and “good” (it’s definitely the former, occasionally the latter); between “interesting” and “entertaining” (it’s usually the former, increasingly more of the latter as it goes along). ... Andor doesn’t instantly deliver the thrills I expect from a Star Wars show, but it’s different and that may turn out to be the best thing about it.
-
It’s a promising stab at bringing the franchise back down to Earth (so to speak), favoring compelling new characters and guerilla-warfare action over lavish, force-related mythologizing. Buoyed by Luna’s sturdy headlining turn, Andor has the sort of jagged, weathered spirit that’s been missing for too long in this far, far away galaxy—even if the jury is still out on whether Andor is truly worthy or capable of assuming Han Solo’s mantle.
-
Creator Tony Gilroy is best known for Michael Clayton, but so far this series feels more like his Bourne Legacy, another franchise offshoot where the ambient world-building is more exciting than the main characters.
-
As in “Rogue One,” the story starts with urgency and the pacing at least gives the illusion of brisk. Streaming storytelling is a drip drip drip affair, and this series doesn’t escape that with opening episodes that have brief bursts of action and a desire to slow revelations and plot twists to a crawl.
-
It is a darker, more grown-up approach, although it is slow. Actually, in the first two episodes it's too slow. Diego Luna, reprising his role as the brooding, narky Cassian Andor, is the charismatic fulcrum to this story.
-
To be frank, it's just not interesting enough to sustain such detailed exploration, no matter who the POV character happens to be. It was bleak, we get it. What more is there to say?
-
Luna is a coiled spring throughout and Andor as a whole is bunched up with a tension which, in the first four episodes at least, is never fully unleashed. But the new series isn’t an insult to the original movies and – set against the recent track record – what a scintillating improvement that represents.
-
While its surface attractions are significant, you may find yourself looking for things that other sci-fi stories supply, like compelling characters and a narrative pulse. ... Thin writing is an issue up and down the cast list; people seem less important than the depictions of political intrigue and corporate malfeasance, which are handled well but aren’t that different from any number of other dystopian dramas.
-
A prequel to a prequel, "Andor" brings a gritty tone and look to the "Star Wars" universe, as much the washed-out landscape of "Blade Runner" as George Lucas' far-away galaxy. Yet whatever promise that entails is mostly lost in flabby storytelling, essentially stretching what would have been a 10-minute movie prologue over the first three episodes.
-
There is barely any shape to these first four episodes. Three of them don’t even build to any kind of real climax, but just seem to stop at a random point. ... The third [episode] is the one where things finally start happening, as well as the only one that actually has something that feels like a conclusion to one phase of the story. It’s a shame, not only because Luna’s Cassian Andor occupies an interesting place within the larger Star Wars universe, but because Andor gets off to a promising start before things quickly begin to drag.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 134 out of 186
-
Mixed: 16 out of 186
-
Negative: 36 out of 186
-
Sep 21, 2022It's a very good show, loved the cyberpunk atmosphere. Disney finally made a more adult star wars series.
-
Sep 21, 2022
-
Sep 21, 2022