Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re checking out a new property, one which falls well outside the site’s general wheelhouse, but which has received enough positive buzz that I’m eager to explore it for myself. Thus I find myself engaging with one of the inescapable franchises that have so effectively narrowed our collective imagination, as we explore the Star Wars miniseries known as Andor.
Alongside fellow blockbusters like Jaws, Star Wars was one of the death knells of the rich and varied New Hollywood era, signaling the advent of a dumber, simpler cinematic landscape consolidated around a handful of endlessly replicable genre scripts. I suppose it’s not exactly fair to blame the original film (a fine riff on Flash Gordon-style adventure serials) for the death of cinema, but it certainly didn’t help – particularly since Star Wars has continued its zombie existence for decades, and now stands alongside superheroes and “live-action” remakes as one of the main artery-cloggers of film and television.
Our perception of science fiction is narrower for the outsized footprint Star Wars has left on the genre; as is readily demonstrated by the impoverished imaginations of modern isekai, the more your inspirations all resemble each other, the less rich and distinctive your own fantasies will be. All that said, if you want to reach people, you need to speak in their language – and from everything I’ve heard, Andor uses the language of Star Wars to speak of oppression and rebellion in genuinely meaningful, well-crafted, perhaps even inspirational ways. Thus, with my antipathy for Star Wars as a cultural institution established, I nonetheless dive into Andor with great curiosity as to how good it truly is. Let’s get to it!