Television

I’d even go so far as to say Andor is one of the best tv series of the last five years period.

I'd say it is the best mature star wars piece of media ever made. Because I (today still, but especially my younger self) do love me some good lightsaber fights or large scale space battles, which we didn't get here. Andor not including those is for the better, but I wouldn't want to completely go without them either.

I have to agree, really brings the whole universe alive for me.

Hard agree. The original trilogy has some truly great moments, but nothing on the level of Luthen's "sacrifice" monologue, or "one way out."

I consider Rogue One to be a very good, but very flawed movie (IMO the last act does a lot of work to make up for a weak middle, but the last is so very good that it actually does make up for it), but Andor is basically flawless.

It was good at all levels - not only did the characters had real human depth as did the story, but it even had details like creating a Gorman language and an actual detailed Gorman fashion, so the Production quality matched the quality of the Script, Direction and Acting.

It's unsurprising that some (maybe many) think this is the best Star Wars ever, at least adult Star Wars.

I saw Rogue One again just after the last episode of Season 2 and whilst they're almost seamslessly linked, you can absolutelly notice the change of pace and story telling style from one to the other: you go from a story of people in the Rebellion to an Action rollercoaster with an almost symbolic bit of background story.

Mind you, both are a pleasure to watch in their own ways, though Rogue One is mainly "chewing gum for the brain" as entertainment goes whilst Andor is a far grander meal.

The whole thing is told in 3 episode arcs.

It took me 3 times of starting the series to push through the first couple of episodes. When it finally clicked though, I was so mad about not giving it a better chance sooner.

Agreed. Rogue One was basically redeemed with that final act, basically right when it became clear to everyone that no one was getting off that planet alive. But everything leading up to it (aside from the opening) was basically just okay in retrospect, and I found myself rolling my eyes a bit at some of the memberberry cameos like R2 and C3PO just having a random conversation, or bumping into the guy with the weird face from the Tatooine cantina. And uncanny CGI Tarkin, which I remember thinking was fine when I first saw it but now just really sticks out a bit.

Surprisingly, other than the mere presence of some core characters, Andor didn't rely on nostalgia bait at all and I think that really worked to its benefit.

I think this series can be really good for people that don't know Star Wars, too. Anyone that enjoys spy thrillers and political intrigue should really get on well with it.

Disney+ I guess. That's pretty seamless and legal.

Huh, I misremembered that last scene as a kiss, but I checked and I guess they do just hug. So at least that part isn't so bad. I think the rest of my problems with the season are still legit though

I typically hate the force mumbo jumbo aspect of star wars but I thought the force healer bit was way more nuanced take about the force than other examples in recent films. My interpretation is that he saw his own death, and still chose it anyway. So he still had a lot of agency rather than just being a pawn of fate.

I think the Saw parts fit in decently. It adds another flavor of resistance to the mix.

We get the rebellion, which is an organized military like effort, we get luthen who as a spy master pulls strings in the shadows, Mon mothma straddling the line between being in a privileged public position and helping the rebellion, on ghorman we get a more amateurish resistance, Cassian is more of an individualist who finds his own path between the different factions, and with Saw we get a guerrilla like extremist faction

There was such well constructed tension in every slow scene. If you were getting bored you would have to have missed some plot, be traumatized, or not be particularly invested in the series on other grounds.