Andor (TV Program)

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    ‘Andor’ Season 2, Episodes 7-9: Deaths and Births

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    This week’s episodes hinge on events that are so shocking — and happen so fast — the main characters aren’t sure how to interpret them.‘Andor’ Season 2, Episodes 7-9Before we begin, let us raise a glass to Syril Karn, a wonderfully weird villain, who meets his end in this week’s rough and rowdy set of “Andor” episodes.What is there to say about Syril? Do we celebrate the demise of this officious little man, who craved power and hounded our hero, Cassian Andor? Or is he a tragic figure, pushed around by the two women in his life and used as a pawn in the Empire’s violent takedown of the planet Ghorman?To be clear, there is no shame in being a pawn. This is one of the main themes of “Andor”: Pawns have value to the cause. Even the evil ones.Ghorman’s fall is at the center of these three episodes, which are just as much about how the main characters react to events that are so shocking — and happen so fast — that they aren’t sure how to interpret them. Is what just happened good? Bad? Bad for now but good in the long run? The uncertainty of the moment is what makes these episodes so exciting and their outcome so consequential. The fog of doubt envelops Syril and ultimately kills him. The frenzy propels Cassian — though he remains wary of where it is sending him.The big question that drives all the action has to do with how history will record the Ghorman massacre, which sees imperial troops and security droids slaughtering the Ghor by the score while pretending that they are defending their own people from Ghorman’s “inexplicable resistance to imperial norms.” My favorite of these three episodes is the third, in which Senator Mon Mothma aims to give a speech that reshapes public opinion. I have never seen a science-fiction television show be thrilling in quite this way, hinging on the courage of one politician and the will of those aligned to stop her.To get to that episode though, we must endure a stretch of “Andor” that — while expertly crafted — is not exactly what I would call “fun.” Nor should it be.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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      ‘Andor’ Season 2, Episodes 4-6 Recap: The Revolution Will Be Televised

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      This week’s trio of episodes includes visceral kicks while digging into the meat of the new season’s plot and themes.Season 2, Episodes 4-6Last week’s set of “Andor” episodes opened with a thrilling star-fighter chase and ended with a daring rescue, but otherwise the action was noticeably light. Yes, “Andor” is an imaginatively designed and richly detailed drama, filled with political intrigue. But it is also supposed to be a “Star Wars” show, with blasters, stormtroopers and narrow escapes. Season 2’s first arc, while mostly great, leaned more toward soap opera than space opera.This week’s trio of episodes brings back the visceral genre kicks, with more cloak-and-dagger and cat-and-mouse. It also digs deeply into the meat of this season’s plot and themes.Even more than last week, this particular three-part arc has been thoughtfully broken down into TV episodes rather than feeling like a movie roughly snapped into three segments. The first episode is all stage-setting, introducing the main plot, which involves the Empire’s appalling treatment of the planet Ghorman and Luthen’s attempt to lend aid to the Ghor. The second episode is a slick and stylish spy thriller, as Cassian assesses Ghorman’s rebels by going undercover as the fashionista Varian Sky (complete with snazzy clothes and a stylish mullet).The third episode is one of the most exciting of the series so far, cutting between two Luthen operations: one on Ghorman and another on Coruscant. While the Ghor rebels are hijacking an imperial supply vehicle — in order to reveal to the galaxy that the Empire is lying about its intentions for the planet — Kleya is at a fancy party, trying to remove one of her listening devices from an antique artifact in an aristocrat’s personal gallery. This is white-knuckle, edge-of-the seat stuff.I want to start, though, with an odd subplot that runs through just the first two episodes and at times seems out of place, until its electrifying ending. The story involves Wilmon, who is on D’Qar, helping the militant rebel Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) by teaching one of his soldiers, Pulti (Marc Rissmann), how to operate a complicated piece of tech. Ultimately, the strongman Saw kills Pulti (who turns out to be a traitor) and orders Wilmon to join him on a mission, to operate the big machine himself.Saw gives a rousing speech (made more effective by Whitaker’s whispery rasp) about how he grew up as a child laborer, breathing in toxic starship fumes. He encourages Wilmon to toss off his protective gear and huff some fumes himself. He says revolution is not for the sane, given that they will all be dead before a new republic is established. But with this insanity comes a kind of freedom.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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      ‘Andor’ Season 2, Episodes 1, 2 and 3 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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      ‘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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      ‘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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      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

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      ‘Andor’ Is Coming Back to Disney+. Here’s a Recap of Season 1.

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      The sophisticated and moody “Star Wars” prequel to “Rogue One” is returning for its second and final season. There’s a lot to remember.It is totally fine that “Star Wars” series like “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Ahsoka” are aimed at deep-lore fans who collect the action figures, play the video games, watch the cartoons and know the difference between a Twi’lek and a Togruta.But it is also OK to think that “Andor,” which returns to Disney+ on Tuesday at 9 p.m., stands apart. This show appeals to the kind of fan who also likes Lucas’s arty pre-“Star Wars” science fiction film “THX 1138” and has read the “Star Wars” novels written by esteemed fantasy writers like Alan Dean Foster and Elizabeth Hand. Created by the Oscar-nominated screenwriter Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”), “Andor” foregrounds the political intrigue and guerrilla warfare elements that have always been a part of “Star Wars,” with a heightened level of storytelling sophistication and moody style.Ostensibly a story about who put the “war” in “Star Wars,” “Andor” is a densely packed study of dictators and dissidents, set across multiple planets, with a colorful cast of characters who each have very different opinions about how this galaxy far, far away should be run. And because Season 1 aired in 2022, even devotees may need a reminder of who all these major players are and what they are up to. Here is a quick refresher ahead of the second and final season.The series is a prequel to a prequelThe original 1977 movie “Star Wars” (or “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope” for the pedantic) begins with the rebellious diplomat Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) loading the blueprints for a planet-killing mega-weapon onto the droid R2-D2, who then carries those plans to the hermetic Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) and the starry-eyed farm boy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) — thus setting a whole saga in motion. Nearly 40 years later, in 2016, Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Studios released “Rogue One,” a prequel film about the courageous guerrilla warriors who stole those blueprints.“Rogue One” was directed by Gareth Edwards from a screenplay originally by Chris Weitz. Gilroy was brought in after the initial shoot to write and direct additional scenes. Collectively, this team made a different kind of “Star Wars” movie, with less whiz-bang fantasy and more gritty military action, emphasizing the hard personal toll of a rebellion against a powerful authoritarian state.“Andor” Season 1 begins five years before “Rogue One” and covers the origins of the Rebel Alliance that, by the time of the 1977 “Star Wars,” had already become organized enough to have a defined hierarchy, long-range strategies and fleets of fighter ships. In “Andor,” by contrast, the rebellion is more scattered, manifesting mostly on poorer planets, where the excessive demands of the Galactic Empire can push a frustrated populace to respond with violence.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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      ‘Étoile,’ Plus 8 Things to Watch on TV This Week

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      Amy Sherman-Palladino’s new dramedy, about ballet companies in New York and Paris, comes to Prime Video. And two sports documentaries air.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, April 21-26. Details and times are subject to change.On point.First with “Gilmore Girls,” then “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” the showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino has given us hyper-verbal heroines and their on-again-off-again love interests. Her new show, “Étoile,” is going back to one of her favorite topics, ballet, which she briefly touched on in her show “Bunheads,” before it was canceled in 2013 after the first season. This new show stars Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg as the directors of two ballet companies, one in Paris, the other New York, who must work together to restore their beloved art form to world-renowned stature. “My whole life, I’ve known [that] without ballet, the world is a lesser place. And a place that I don’t think a lot of people want to be in, even if they don’t realize it,” Sherman-Palladino said in an interview with Vanity Fair. Streaming on Thursday on Prime Video.On a track, a courtor a battlefield.I grew up going to Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York, so I understood at a young age the seriousness that comes with horseracing. The new documentary series “Race for the Crown” delves into that world, following horses, jockeys, trainers and owners as they make their way through the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes — better known as the Triple Crown circuit. Just because horses are cute doesn’t mean that the sport is all fun and games. Streaming Tuesday on Netflix.The new documentary series “Race for the Crown” delves into the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes — better known as the Triple Crown circuit.Courtesy of NetflixAt just 19 years old, the tennis player Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man and first male teenager in the Open Era to top the single rankings, after he took home the 2022 US Open title. The next year, he defeated Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, then took home the silver medal during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Now the documentary series “Carlos Alcaraz: My Way” follows the Spanish champion throughout his 2024 season as he focuses on keeping up his winning ways while trying to let loose like a normal 20-something. Streaming on Wednesday on Netflix.If there’s one thing Netflix loves to do, it’s to take cast members of various reality shows and have them mix and mingle in different scenarios. That is the premise for “Battle Camp,” which puts personalities from “Love is Blind,” “Too Hot to Handle,” “Cheer” and many more into physical and mental competitions with the ultimate goal of winning the $250,000 prize pot. If you’re a young millennial, you’ll probably agree it sounds a lot like “Disney Channel Games.” Streaming on Wednesday on Netflix.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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      Adria Arjona on ‘Hit Man’ and How the Production Surprised Her

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      The actress, who stars with Glen Powell, said that with the contract-killer movie, her ideas were finally valued in a writer’s room.Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead.Adria Arjona doesn’t like doing what she’s told.The co-star of the new Netflix romantic action comedy “Hit Man,” Arjona accompanied her father, the Guatemalan Mexican singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona, on tour from the time she was young. It was a musical mentorship opportunity, so she ended up deciding early on: Music was out.He also made her read the poems of Pablo Neruda and the work of Gabriel García Márquez, so naturally, she said, all she wanted to do was listen to ’N Sync.“I do everything backwards,” Arjona, 32, said on a recent weekday morning over sparkling water at the Whitby Bar in Midtown Manhattan. “That’s just my personality — I just listen to my intuition. It’s not like I’m doing it on purpose or trying to be rebellious.”In “Hit Man,” directed by Richard Linklater, Arjona is Madison Masters, a desperate housewife who tries to hire a hit man, played by Glen Powell, unaware he’s a police operative. The rapturously reviewed movie is the latest entry in a 12-year-long acting career that has suddenly become white hot.She broke out in 2022 as the mechanic Bix Caleen in the streaming “Star Wars” series “Andor,” playing Cassian Andor’s fearless friend. (Season 2 of the Disney+ series, which she’s finished filming, is expected next year.) She also appeared as the betrothed daughter in the 2022 reboot of “Father of the Bride,” after roles in “Pacific Rim: Uprising” and Season 2 of “True Detective.”Arjona with Glen Powell in “Hit Man,” the Netflix action romantic comedy.Brian Roedel/NetflixWe 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