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      ‘Andor’ Shows How a Resistance Is Built, One Brick at a Time

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      In the best of the Disney+ “Star Wars” series, returning for its final season, fighting fascism is more than just a joyride.The “Star Wars” movies, TV dramas, animated series and sundry other content-shaped products have shown us some spectacular sights: underwater civilizations, planet-choking cities, mystic swamps, ice worlds and volcanic hellscapes fit to forge a demon.“Andor,” whose second and final season began on Disney+ on Tuesday, has some of that world painting too. But perhaps its most memorable, and certainly its most definitive, physical feature is: bricks.The brick walls on Ferrix — the childhood home planet of the series’s hero, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) — have a somber origin story, revealed in the first-season finale. They are the cremains of the dead, baked into stone and placed into edifices to support those who come after.These bricks are the symbol “Andor” is built out of. Like many “Star Wars” stories, the series is about a battle against a fascistic empire. (In the melee that ends the first season, set at Cassian’s mother’s funeral, her brick is used to clock an imperial soldier in the head.)From a street-level, brick-level perspective, “Andor” shows what resistance means, how it works and what it costs. It emphasizes not just individual heroism but also collective loss and sacrifice. In “Andor,” rebellion is more than a joyride: It is a construction project.A sense of tragedy is built into the series’s premise. “Andor” is a prequel to the 2016 movie “Rogue One,” in which Cassian goes on a fatal mission to retrieve the blueprints for the Death Star, the planet-killer that Luke Skywalker destroyed in the original “Star Wars” (now known as “A New Hope”).We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kimmel Likens the Selection of a New Pope to ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’

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      The late night host also described the papal conclave as determining “who will be handed the keys to the popemobile” on Tuesday.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Shantay, You StayWith Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, the selection of his successor will quickly follow.On Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel discussed the traditional process of determining “who will be handed the keys to the popemobile.”“Over the next few weeks, 135 flamboyantly dressed cardinals will gather to pass judgment on a series of aspiring candidates. In a lot of ways, it’s the Catholic version of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race.’” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And nobody’s going to be more insufferable this week than your friend who saw the movie ‘Conclave’ and now knows everything about how it works.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“The Vatican has published images of the pope laying in an open casket. A surprise, Jill Biden said, ‘I’d hit that.’” — GREG GUTFELD“The funeral will be held Saturday for people who want to see something less depressing than ‘S.N.L.’” — GREG GUTFELD“We won’t know for at least a couple of weeks who will succeed Pope Francis, but this guy, to me, this is the guy at the top of my list. One of the candidates is an Italian cardinal stationed in Jerusalem. His name is Pierbattista Pizzaballa. ‘For a limited time only at Papa John’s, the Pizzaballa!’ How much fun would that be? In fact, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take a minute to pray. Please bow your heads.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Punchiest Punchlines (Earth Day Edition)“Today, of course, is Earth Day. Nancy Pelosi said, ‘I remember the first one, 7 billion years ago.’” — GREG GUTFELD“Think about this: One planet produced dinosaurs and the iPhone and Fig Newtons and Kid Rock. Isn’t that something?” — JIMMY KIMMEL”The Environmental Protection Agency did their part to honor our planet today, with a round of reassignments and mass layoffs. I can’t help but wonder how different things might be if Donald Trump’s father had taken him camping even one time.” — JIMMY KIMMELThe Bits Worth WatchingIn his Tuesday monologue, Greg Gutfeld targeted the city of San Francisco while discussing dark woke.What We’re Excited About on Wednesday Night“The Bear” star Ayo Edebiri will appear on Wednesday’s “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney.”Also, Check This OutA first-edition copy of “The Great Gatsby” at Princeton University. In honor of the book’s 100th anniversary, the university has mounted the exhibit “Living Forever: The Archive of The Great Gatsby,” which runs through November. Karsten Moran for The New York Times“The Great Gatsby” will celebrate its 100th anniversary with special exhibitions in New York, Minnesota, New Jersey and South Carolina. More

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      ‘Andor’ Season 2 Premiere Recap: Rebel Rebel

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      The “Star Wars” series, back for its final season, shows how a revolution takes hold and how even in times of radical change, people have to keep living their lives.Episodes 1-3: ‘BBY 4’Want to escape from the real world by watching a “Star Wars” TV show? Can I interest you in Season 2 of “Andor,” which begins this week with stories about refugees being evicted from a safe haven, resistance fighters tearing each other apart, and the obscenely powerful plotting to destroy a whole planet?Maybe a touch too real? I get it. But let me add that the first three episodes of the season, the show’s last, are remarkably entertaining and thoughtful television. It’s provocative stuff, but satisfyingly stirring.This series is about how a revolution takes hold, in fits and starts, with a lot of disagreement about how to proceed. Season 2’s first set of episodes also shows how even in times of radical change, people have to keep living their lives.In Season 1, the show’s creator, Tony Gilroy, divided his saga into multiepisode arcs, each presented in a slightly different style. Gilroy and Disney+ are retaining that structure for Season 2 and leaning further into the “movie of the week” concept by releasing three episodes at a time.But the first thing fans may notice about the opening three episodes (of 12 total) is how they jump around between locations and genres, to tell essentially four different stories, all set over the course of a few days one year after Season 1 ended. The date is “BBY 4,” four years before the Battle of Yavin, the big space-fight in the original “Star Wars” that ends with the Death Star exploding. Reminder: That triumphant rebel attack was made possible by the events of the film “Rogue One,” for which “Andor” is a prequel. (Rampant franchise expansion can make for confusing timelines.)The series’s namesake, the mercenary-turned-rebel Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), bounces between two of these stories. The new season gets off to a strong start in its opening sequence, in which Cassian steals an imperial fighter ship, posing as a test pilot. After a lot of dramatic buildup to him getting into the pilot’s seat, Cassian pushes the wrong button and goes rocketing backward instead of forward. He then accidentally engages the ship’s blasters, shooting laser bolts indiscriminately around the hangar. It’s a funny bit of slapstick, but also exciting, filled with the fine design and special effects “Star Wars” is known for.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Gardener’ Is a Great Pop-Goth Spanish Murder Series

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      This Netflix series has plenty in common with slick, dark shows like “Dexter” and “You,” though it more often feels like “Wednesday.”A lot of foreign murder shows are about misery, about agony. Bereft parents bicker in muted kitchens while determined detectives avoid but inevitably confront their own personal failings; grim neighbors offer ominous condolences. Let us gaze at the violent, morose ocean. And then, let us gaze at the violent, morose ocean within.The Spanish series “The Gardener” (in Spanish with subtitles, or dubbed), on Netflix, takes a campier, soapier approach. It still has ample bloodshed and intrigue, but it is a lot more soda than scotch. “The Gardener” has plenty in common with slick, dark shows like “Dexter” and “You,” though it more often feels like “Wednesday,” not only in its pop-goth vibes but also in its reliance on its protagonist’s wide-eyed stare.Elmer (Álvaro Rico) is a young man with a passion for horticulture. Well, maybe not “passion”: He has no emotions, according to his witchy mom, China (Cecilia Suárez), a fount of Freudian oddities. They were in a car accident when Elmer was little, which caused brain damage that affected his ability to experience and interpret feelings. China has had to teach him how to emote, how to fake it, practicing facial expressions with him as a child and directing his speech and behavior as an adult.Sure, there are downsides to raising a blank sociopath. But the upside is that you can craft him into a perfect hit man, which is what China has done. They use their gardening business as a cover for their murder-for-hire work, and they use the literal gardens to bury the bodies — superb fertilizer, the characters say.And then one day Elmer is dispatched to dispatch Violeta (Catalina Sopelana), a young schoolteacher, and suddenly he wonders if maybe he isn’t so empty inside. Maybe he has a lot of feelings, and maybe those feelings are mostly about Violetta and how much he likes her. Maybe instead of killing her, he’ll woo her. Maybe this is love! Or … maybe it’s a brain tumor.You don’t have to know all the #boymom lore to guess that China is no fan of Violeta and that, in fact, Violeta could never understand Elmer the way she does, never love him for who he truly is, as she does. A boy’s best friend is his mother and all that.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In ‘Ransom Canyon,’ Minka Kelly Enjoys the Ride

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      There were times when Minka Kelly assumed that her acting career was over.Kelly, 44, had never planned on becoming an actress. Before breaking out in her mid-20s as the sassy cheerleader Lyla Garrity in the football weeper “Friday Night Lights,” she worked as a scrub nurse. A decade ago, during a slow period, she graduated from culinary school.So later, when fallow months turned into fallow years, she would tell herself this was fine. If Hollywood had finished with her, she would survive it.But recently, having published a sensitive, unsparing memoir, “Tell Me Everything,” a New York Times best seller, Kelly found herself again in demand. An offer came for “Ransom Canyon,” a Netflix neo-western series with romance elements. Kelly would fill the cowboy boots of Quinn O’Grady, a concert pianist who runs a dance hall in the Texas Hill Country. Quinn’s enthusiasms include soap making, love triangles, looking wistful in prairie skirts.Kelly didn’t think a romantic lead would be available to a woman in her 40s. But it was. And audiences have been enthusiastic: “Ransom Canyon,” based on the novel by Jodi Thomas, has been one of Netflix’s most popular shows since it debuted last week. And there is also more to come. After Kelly finished shooting “Ransom Canyon” in June, she flew to Paris to film her first romantic comedy, “Champagne Problems.” That movie will debut in November, also on Netflix.Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly in a scene from “Ransom Canyon.” “This is Lyla 20 years later,” Kelly said of her new role, comparing it with the one she played in “Friday Night Lights.”Anna Kooris/Netflix“I’ve gotten to a place in my life where I am my best, and now the best thing has happened,” she said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Monsters Plague Japan. But What Do They Mean?

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      How ancient history and modern calamities have cultivated a national obsession with menacing creatures.HIROSHIMAON A BLUSTERY afternoon last November, I stood on the esplanade of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park listening to the solemn gong of the Peace Bell as English and American tourists rang it again and again. A traditional Japanese bell made of oxidized metal, it has a pendular log that strikes at the atomic symbol engraved on its side as if to banish that evil from the earth. A few feet away, a group of Japanese schoolboys stood laughing and gamboling, hanging on each other as schoolboys do everywhere. More

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      The Darker Side of Japan’s Love of Cuteness

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      From Hello Kitty to Pikachu, the country changed what the world considers adorable. But do these characters represent joy — or rage?To accompany this essay, three Japanese artists created (and named) seven mascots exclusively for T, all inspired by or representing The New York Times in some way.HELLO KITTY STANDS on the balcony like Eva Perón, framed by two great stone pillars and a blue-green dome. At least theoretically she is standing: Save for the round, claw-free paws on the balustrade, she is all giant head, white as a lit-up lamp with sun ray whiskers and the slash of a red ribbon at her left ear, mouthless, her eyes wholly pupils. This little girl — she is not a cat, although not not a cat either (more on this in a bit) — presides over an exhibition at the Hyokeikan, part of the Tokyo National Museum complex in the city’s Ueno Park, celebrating her 50 years of existence and global domination. More

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      On ‘Andor,’ All Is Fair in Love and ‘Star Wars’

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      What attracts two people to each other? Are they drawn together by a mutual need for companionship, affection and emotional support?Or are they united by their individual yearnings to advance their own positions and consolidate power in a tyrannical empire that is building a moon-size superweapon?In the Disney+ series “Andor,” the answer turns out to be a little from Column A and a little from Column B, at least in the case of one of the stranger — yet undeniably compelling — relationships to emerge in the “Star Wars” fantasy franchise: the frustrated pencil pusher Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) and the ruthless security officer Dedra Meero (Denise Gough).Syril Karn (Kyle Soller) and Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) had an unusual and often awkward relationship in “Andor” Season 1. At the start of Season 2, that relationship has evolved.Des Willie/Lucasfilm and Disney+Their pursuits are often nefarious — against their perceived enemies and also against each other. And although their give-and-take may have lacked the smoldering looks and snappy banter of, say, Princess Leia and Han Solo, Meero and Karn became a subject of fascination for viewers of Season 1, who watched the power dynamics ebb and flow in the characters’ often awkward relationship.As their story continues to unfold in Season 2, the first three episodes of which debuted on Tuesday, the actors portraying them and the show’s creator, Tony Gilroy, are taking stock of the characters’ journeys — what it says about the underlying themes of the series, the nature of couplehood and the possibility that there might be someone out there in the universe for everyone.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More