The Reel Rejects - STAR WARS - ANDOR SEASON 2, EPS 1, 2, & 3 REVIEW!!

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Starting point is 00:00:24 John, ready to hop into this? So ready. Let's do this thing. Let's do it. wow okay let's talk about it people first thing i want to say is thank you to prepper for editing down these highlights thanks gang um if you guys are looking for some editors out there if you're aspiring YouTubers or you already have a channel you're looking for some quality editors

Starting point is 00:00:49 you know how to get the job done prepper is a good company i'll tell you that much guys tell you that much we watched the first three episodes of and or season two and the i can confidently say it was a journey john it was quite a journey we had a you know there's editing here we had we had we had like what like a two minute standing break from two and three yeah and we exchanged some words of um feel so different and we just said that you suggested we watched the third one because we kind of feel there might been some criticisms and it was a drastically different tone yeah and then the third one I'm like oh wow you descended it's like it's way dark enough yeah yeah like holy shit that was that was wild

Starting point is 00:01:43 because you expect to continue sort of yeah the flavor of the previous season and not that you're not but yeah like i i kind of took for granted that this season would need to establish its own sort of like yeah big first act hook and yeah big sort of inciting set of incidents you know this is mature this is mature like yeah like this season it's weird like i've been curious about because there's been a gap certainly between seasons one and two for various reasons that we know about and various things that i'm curious about because yeah like we started off these episodes going this is kind of like more humorous and bouncy in a way but by the third episode you're like and also this is like more mature in a more straightforward kind of way than even the previous

Starting point is 00:02:33 season was well i think the the first season's very i mean obviously we have several more to go um for this one several more weeks but the first season very much felt like it's political sides and the commentary on how a revolution comes to be yeah how resistance comes to be and how much work it is yeah how it's not so pretty and like if if star wars is about light versus dark and or it's about the gray that's probably how i on summarize it right yeah yeah the light gray and the dark gray you see the yeah yeah true gray in between it all you see that you see the ugliness of the resistance of what it takes you know and the fact you have to stoop to levels be on beneath your moral code and i think with this rightology this this this premier

Starting point is 00:03:21 outside of Cassian and or specifically I think they for some of the characters they really magnified more of what's going on internally with these characters because while you had some commentary about you know

Starting point is 00:03:35 again what we just said along with it seemed like they were talking about like immigration and it seemed like they were 100% talking about immigration they deal with assault

Starting point is 00:03:48 that I have I have, like, mixed feelings about it where I kind of need to process that a tiny bit. Yeah, I get you. Because of, like, throwing it to Bix, this character who is consistently tortured and there's a, there's, again, I need to process it. Like, I need a dial. The thing is, like, we're going to have a dialogue and we might have a different opinion by the time we're done talking about certain things because that's what a dialogue does. You have a conversation and you explore it.

Starting point is 00:04:15 You're like, okay, this is how I feel. And not what I start immediately saying is, you know. my conclusion my conclusive feeling um but yeah we can we can touch on that and it's like yeah i think like when we were watching it it the one thing that i don't think jived with us if there's only like really one thing that's your homies the their homies that group um they didn't feel it was the only time in all of and or where i mean all of and or where it felt like people were acting and it didn't feel real, didn't feel lived in. It felt so performative and line reedy or trying hard. I could not get on board. And then I never gave a shit about what was

Starting point is 00:05:07 going on. I kept trying to invest myself in it. And I didn't quite ever reach there. There were like some cool visuals there and there were some ideas that i think are worthwhile exploring you know like zeroing in on the the uh the jungle type of vibe of these people in the wilderness if at all and a little more savagery or whatever uh yeah i i didn't quite i never i never got invested in it in a way that endeared me or connected to and i don't know kind of added to my one criticism with Andor is he's not really

Starting point is 00:05:48 he's so far this season especially he's not done much yeah or been allowed to do much he's done plot stuff yeah he gets the ship he gets the test pilot ship and then he goes but he's stranded but he gets those of his time stranded there

Starting point is 00:06:04 and he's barely in episode three yeah he bookends these episodes yeah because you know you have this really cool and also humorous Yeah, introductory sequence where he steals the tie fighter in the first place, which is, which I was delighted by because it's one of those instances of like this technically counts as action. And in context, yes, he's like screwing this up because he doesn't know how the ship works and stuff like that. But like there's something charming about, yeah, like it still has the spectacle because they clearly had to do all the effects and stuff. But it's like in a context you're not used to seeing. And it puts him in a position of struggle. And after everything in the first season of him being like the crack pilot who can. do the impossible it's a fun resetting of the expectations and then at the very end of these three episodes he's able to you know ride in at just the right time and save the day the trouble is that i don't i consider it almost like joking about this in the second episode uh because i mean you know

Starting point is 00:07:00 he does just i assume they will come back he does just get stranded there and then leaves and so like in light of that in hindsight only as of these three episodes that does feel like he just got caught in a plot mechanic because the other two plot lines with the wedding and, uh, you know, with everything happening, uh, with Bix and, uh, Brasso and them, you know, like, those things feel very pertinent and like they're moving on a timeline. And like, the thing with Cassian feels interesting in, in concept. Because yeah, I mean, like, it does seem to speak to that thing that was touched upon in the first season about how, yeah, like the rebellion is so spread. out and there are so many whose orders you know who are you actually rebelling in the name or

Starting point is 00:07:48 ideology of and like nobody ever arrives in an answer there and like it's it's a salient i suppose metaphor for the fact that yeah like so many of these efforts fail because people just can't get out of the way the individual cannot get out of the way of the collective and so like that's all there but we've also already established that in this world and it doesn't really yeah feel like yet it amounts to much other than like, okay, we have this more guerrilla environment that feels more like you're in a sort of Vietnam war setting

Starting point is 00:08:19 and, you know... Very Lord of the Flies even. Yeah, and we're like left to our own devices and yeah, all these this gang feels like a bunch of kids or teenagers trying to govern themselves and each other. And like all that is like there's interesting, neat stuff

Starting point is 00:08:34 to think about, but it doesn't really seem like pointed in context of the show. Well, yeah, I think I think the I agree the the the ideas and everything surrounding it and what they're possibly or or or even overtly talking about is all good it's the execution of the it's it felt like kind of forced and yeah and and the performances did not the way the direction of that like wow this is not this is pulling me out bad I actually got a little concerned whenever we got there because that's the only thing. Yeah, I know. Outside of that, I love this. Like, the time flew by.

Starting point is 00:09:20 We watched three episodes in a row. And I was hooked the entire time. And it wasn't a chore. And I love that it does start off on a journey where, like, oh, you're messing with us, man. This is feeling way too hopeful and a little too bright in the sky. And then they they do things that really get under the nervous system, I would say. Things that are icky.

Starting point is 00:09:46 Like when it comes to assault on anything like that is surprising that they would do it. Like if they did it in Marvel, it would be surprising if they do it in Star Wars. It's surprising, you know, it's like, of course, we've seen movies and we know people who've had to go through things like that. So yes, it's a very sensitive and horrible thing. it's surprising that they let a Star Wars show do it and my cynical brain in terms of execution goes

Starting point is 00:10:20 is it a little bit tropey that they would like do that to Bix of course you know it is it's very that's the part where I push up against at the same time that this is where I'm of two minds I'm like 60% there and then the other 40% is I'm glad

Starting point is 00:10:35 they're pushing a boundary of what they can do in Star Wars that you normally wouldn't expect you know what I mean yeah totally I think I it would register different if she hadn't been so brutally tortured yeah at the end of last season or for half of last season and so it does feel like the trope of like oh in order for her to rise to her full potential she needs to go through horrific trauma yeah and part of me wonders if you could have had a because you know there's a worth in bringing up the idea like this is a very sort of like Nazi officer

Starting point is 00:11:10 or any type of you know authoritarian officer you know who is like of the system that is in command so thus feels like they can wield their power absolutely as well this is it's absolutely

Starting point is 00:11:24 part of the conversation of the show and for the world of Star Wars that they often ignore sexuality yeah you know that if Star Wars world is real you know the empire yeah tons of people are doing dirty shit like that all the time if this level of tyranny is thriving this is a common

Starting point is 00:11:42 occurrence and if there's a part of the star wars world to explore the subject or have something integrate that to not shy away from it yeah you know and it's not like he goes through with it he fails yeah still it's like r-rated x-ninder cut yeah a thousand percent yeah i think that is the one part is that it feels uh tropey to do it specifically towards bix it's After everything happened, yeah. If, and I'm not advocating for throwing any characters into this line of fire, but if it had been like their buddy with the curly hair, if like it had been his girl or something like that in that situation and then like Bix has to be the one to intervene or something like that, I might have, we'll see where the season goes. Obviously, all of this can be recontextualized, but it does sort of feel like, oh man, you are especially, are you, you're getting an especially terrible version of the, horribleness that you know the the personal brand of horribleness that the empire has to offer

Starting point is 00:12:44 and i don't know it does stand out among a bunch of characters who have gone through abuse and trauma this character has an especially high amount of that and like there it's not to say that there doesn't exist situations in life where like uh people who have had these experiences have more of them uh it does seem like some kind of weird indescribable magnetism can happen. But at the same time, in context of the show, I might have liked a different version of that. Again, I love Audrey Arjona as an actress, and I love what she brings across the board and here as well. And, you know, it is certainly very gratifying to watch her take him out. But, but yeah, it was like, oh, man, why do you, we really hate this character.

Starting point is 00:13:29 Well, yeah, I think, I think you hit it on the head that it, it, you get mixed feelings with it because yeah it is rewarding um to see her like tear this guy like the story of this guy it is rewarding yeah you know it's mixed back it's mixed back everything everything isn't there's slices of pies to everything yeah you know there are some parts of the slice of the pie that not a big fan of and then there's other parts from i'm like yeah i appreciate that uh that's where i would say with that and i guess there isn't really a conclusive idea other than adja arona is an amazing actress dude you haven't seen

Starting point is 00:14:06 the Richard Lindley other movie have you hitman no she's in hitman yeah it's her and my pal she's incredible oh she's like starring opposite him

Starting point is 00:14:15 yeah she's the main she's the main co-lead wow she's incredible like everything I see her and she stands out and she's right here yeah yeah like I love Biggs partly too is I'm just like sad

Starting point is 00:14:28 because I like Biggs as a character like I'm adhered to her yeah and I think to two despite tropey parts of it it makes it extra unnerving to see any of it happening because it's in the Star Wars world

Starting point is 00:14:42 where you do wouldn't exist literally saying that was like we were watching it they've got a misdirect us to some other more benign but still terrible thing and they still went further than I would have expected them to go. They named it. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:14:57 They named it. Yeah. They named it. And this is even named it. It was surprising to me you know. And this is a mechanism of fascism so it's like it's important to name it yes it's so yeah it's like it's a great and that's why i kind of respect it for not for them not cowarding away from naming it yeah you know oh 100% no in fact like i really it's weird like i do applaud the fact that they are at least yeah being upfront about it because again yeah if you apply because there is so much of like everyone loves star wars and it's light in the dark but like when you really break down the nuts and

Starting point is 00:15:30 bolts of like what is this conflict and especially at a time where we have the world like it is it's important to remind people like here are the wars and the instruments and mechanisms of war and all the intervening little subcategories that make that situation up here's all the realities of that or at least here is a distillation of all the different moving parts and pieces and it's like you know all that makes the world feel more lived in because it all speaks to like the personal person the individual personal experiences and pursuits of the people who make up all these different organizations be they the empire the resistance whatever uh and so yeah like for what this show is talking about and even like you know you brought up like they they mention or at least they touch

Starting point is 00:16:13 upon the idea of like this this planet here that we're hiding out on half the workers are undocumented and then he gives a little speech about like yeah obviously we have like the law about you know how you're supposed to be registered as a citizen but these industries thrive on you know, means that are beyond the law. And, you know, what do we do about that? And it's like, it's maybe not giving an entire I feel like it has more actively

Starting point is 00:16:36 explored certain themes. And what happens to Bix, I would put in the category like that commentary on undocumented workers is like, we're not necessarily taking a big long, few episodes walk through that, but we are at least bringing it in as a number of the different issues that are all

Starting point is 00:16:53 wrapped up in, again, how to just create order in society. well those are our thoughts on it i would be more interested in hearing a woman's perspective especially for star wars where um you know there's a there are a lot of female fans out there so i would like to know a woman's perspective of it people have dealt with assault how they feel watching this something like that happened in the star wars world too you know and i could see some scenario where some people go i watch star wars to escape you know Go watch Skellas and Crew.

Starting point is 00:17:28 There's plenty of other. Like I do. Like, you know, this is the ratio I feel like is you could do. It's weird. Like with comic book stuff, I feel like there is a bigger push pull in terms of like these were originally invented for younger people and now they are the younger people who it was invented for, you know, or a largely grown up. And yes, there are a lot of things like that aimed at younger people.

Starting point is 00:17:52 But now like comic book movies feel like they're having the identity crisis of like, how do we be for adults but not like rule out the kids and like star war i feel like you know in graphic novels there's so much stuff that's like youth accessible and then you have your like more mature clearly mature adult stuff and i think it's appropriate for star wars to have a a wing or at least you know a certain spectrum where it's like yeah we can do the more serious adult stuff and that'll also make it nicer when we go back to the fun plucky stuff or the stuff that's kind of in between and you know well this is the show that there's a show called star Wars rebels but to me this is truly a show about the rise of the resistance you know which i know i'm saying

Starting point is 00:18:29 a lot of star wars titles of things it really is about the rise of the resistance and things like this do happen so it is i understand again context like the purpose of including it because it adds more fuel to the purpose of rising against evil we fight the empire but what does that even mean like what is the fight why is the fight how is the fight exactly and so yeah including it in here i i understand i understand and it's going to be a i think it'll be a massive talking points obviously we're watching this from a screener so uh it will be a massive talking point and you're moving forward i'm very trepidations to see how the just the conversation unfurls out there in the wild yeah i would like to hear like actual is that i'm assuming aerials i mean there's guys named aerial

Starting point is 00:19:20 I don't know actually I'll look it up anyway next subject Mon Mothma is Genevieve O'Reilly it dawned on me when I was watching

Starting point is 00:19:30 season one again how freaking fascinating it is that they Genevieve O'Reilly's been around for a while playing Mon Mothman before and or

Starting point is 00:19:43 but it's so small so small scenes so small and then Mon Mothba who's been in the animated shows and it's part of the canon and other comics, books, and everything. So Mon Motha is an important character? Let's be kind of like straightforward with Mon Mothma before Andor.

Starting point is 00:20:02 And for this show to give that opportunity to her, to allow her to really explore the origins in a way where you feel like you were getting true substance to the origins. Versus sometimes when people do a dedicated prequel, a dedicated origin to an already established character A lot of times it's simply plot

Starting point is 00:20:24 and how they got their coat or some bullshit this is insane how much they've given her to chew on and watching the experience we know where she lands we know she goes

Starting point is 00:20:38 from political reformists to full on revolutionists right and seeing her whole life that's why I love being with the wedding that's why I love being with the culture this is family right now this is the 1% lifestyle she gets to have

Starting point is 00:20:57 this is everything for her and you see all these other things that are beyond Empire Bad that are pushing her and pushing her and pushing her to the spring where she is losing everything like it's so much about her and Lutheran are

Starting point is 00:21:14 they've sacrificed everything in order to participate in this fight and you're watching her slowly lose the personal connections in her life due to this pursuit, you know? It's, and I think it's really powerful and what she demonstrates here, I hope they, like, I personally love watching Cyril

Starting point is 00:21:37 as, he's like my favorite. I adore Cyril. I love him so much. I love watching him. And I think Genevieve O'Reilly is, is the best the strongest performer um that's not even fair to say well what they give her really requires like a a huge level of restraint and and nuance a lot going on underneath what she has to actually put forward totally it seems like it takes like a real emotional coordination she's to me to borrow a weird metaphor it seems like emotionally she's got to be

Starting point is 00:22:13 able to like play the drums whereas like all four of your limbs can do something different at the same time and the amount of coordination and effort that takes and yeah like so much is said through furtive glances and expressions or the fighting back of tears or you know a small

Starting point is 00:22:29 gesture when you know she's turned around and the other character can't see or something like that and two I mean like to end the episode off on we keep like I loved that they kept cutting to the evolution of this day like she jumps in she's sort of like assimilating to the

Starting point is 00:22:48 party sort of just starting to process it all but you can also tell that like this is probably a person who like rarely ever gets to breathe a sigh of relief or get any catharsis in her life and so then you have this escalating you know music and the more we're cutting to her the more she's just sort of like losing herself into that and it's weird because it's like kind of beautiful kind of cathartic but like you know how sad this is because this might be the last like she's not dancing with a true lightness and freedom of foot and yet this might be like the last time she gets to dance for a long time if ever and you know i think one of the strengths of this show is taking a bunch of star wars type figures and characters and like really zeroing in

Starting point is 00:23:32 on like what toll is this taking on you mentally emotionally physically of course and also what is it costing you as a human and i feel like you know that partly comes in with uh what's what's a tay uh like partly that comes in with him because he's like i you know i feel like i am left holding the stick i feel like you know all these people are getting what they need in this fight i am putting up all this capital and i'm risking myself and now i'm in an even worse position than ever you know i i everyone's finding the line and like how much is this guy willing to just keep up with it and and put up with the suffering because the cause is worth it versus, yeah, eventually being overtaken by self-interest. And so, like,

Starting point is 00:24:18 with Mon Mothma, it's, yeah, it's fascinating to watch because I think a character like that, too, and you obviously know her how she's portrayed more thoroughly than my previous experiences, but a character like that, often like the stature that she puts forth as this, you know, galactic Senate member is one of poise and grace. and someone who is always calm and, you know, and calculating, not in a cold way even, but just, yeah, like someone that in, again, a less nuanced or a less gray or a less, you know, harsh at times piece of media, you might never think of these things. Three-dimensional is what she is here versus before. Yeah, and it's like, you know, Cassie and Andor is like a Han Solo type, but like what's his internal struggle really about? Why is he involved in this fight? And we've seen the fun versions of all these things. Now we're seeing the,

Starting point is 00:25:10 real costly versions of all these things and back to and or that's one aspect of it that i do really like it cassian specifically i mean is how he he lost his mom in the last season and he wasn't around for that now i lost one of his best friends and he wasn't around and these these consequences that happen in his life when he is doing these missions and doing something bigger than himself but the people who he loses along the way where he's not even spending time with them and not even around for when their lives are taken you know and i think adding to that loss is a is a weight that that adds addition to cassian's depth as a character um quite a lot i really do love how this started off as this feels way more like star wars

Starting point is 00:26:05 and or is the one show that doesn't quite feel like Star Wars but in a good way yeah you know it's obviously Star Wars world and I think a big part of that is sound design because the sound design is the same thing yes we can look at some aesthetics

Starting point is 00:26:19 and obviously they're similar I think really it's the sound design where you're like yeah that's that Star Wars sounds oh yeah it's a proprietary library boy yeah no yeah seriously and the first episode in particular oh this feels way more like Star Wars actually and then they

Starting point is 00:26:35 you back to the reality, which I think compliments it nice, considering where we ended last season with him finally going. The people are rising, the rebellion starting, Cassie and asks to join Luton. So to pick it up with, all right, they're doing rebellion shit. We're Star Wars rebellion right now. And to get back to the harshness of what happens, the ugliness of what happens. And not only show it, but feel. feel it yeah it's great stuff it is it's great and i think too a lot of with what we were talking about adri ar hona a lot of that is elevated by her performance too like the her specific types of reactions are so well internalized that you can tell and see and feel it's never feels like

Starting point is 00:27:23 she's overdoing it you know it's like the camera trusts her she trust the camera it's really great like her yeah just her resting aura and face like you can feel all the stuff from the first season without her having to telegraph it you just feel like oh this person carries themselves differently now yeah yeah um springs here baseball's in full swing and if you're looking to make watching games even more exciting check out prize picks our go-to in the daily fantasy sports category the reason this household is so in a prize picks is because it's super easy to use you just pick more or less on player staff projections like strikeouts home runs or hits baseball terms for your chance to win up to 1,000 times or entry and unlike a lot of other apps

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Starting point is 00:28:32 So what you can do is download the app today and use code. rejects. You get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Again, that's code rejects. $50 instantly after your first $5 lineup. Price Vicks. Run your game, people. The, the, the, the, the Ditra and Oh my God, Diderot, Cyril. That is my favorite thing, though. That is my personal favorite thing, too. I love that they're together. I love that she's like his, his

Starting point is 00:29:02 Dom lady. She's like, just like, Take care of everything for him. Just trade one mom for another. She lost command. She lost control, but she can have control here. Yeah. And she can make him feel like he's got an elevated sense of, of, you know, use, you know, along with his elevated position at the grid that they all work in. I think the attention is psychology on Cyril is some of the best in this show.

Starting point is 00:29:32 Because in the first season, it really does feel like that kind of guy. who's influenced into being part of like a neo-Nazi group yeah who feels underappreciated and like he could be doing more and like he's just completely marginalized from all everybody else and he's got yeah an overbearing mom of all people yeah yeah yeah this is like and fascism come to me and the way they like preparing them up and again like what you said being new mom surrogate in this relationship for a guy who constantly feels like he he needs power in his life yeah And to get a new mom, I think is great. And I think their chemistry is great.

Starting point is 00:30:09 And I love how odd and weird and stripped down it is. Because, yeah, we've got to get to know. Dedra's rise in the last season was incredibly powerful and engaging as hell. And now we get to see more of the human underneath that. Yeah. We did that with Cyril, with Cyril and his mom, doing that with her in a relationship-type scenario where you get a lot. You got a lot of humor from that. but the humor I thought worked.

Starting point is 00:30:36 I thought the humor complimented it well as opposed to this other group of rebel of those people who weren't big fans of. I thought the humor there actually was genuinely funny because it made them feel more real and you're like, I kind of don't want any of you to die because you're like my favorite part of this show like you are on the dark side.

Starting point is 00:30:59 You're on the dark side. You're part of the empire because you want to be. You support it. believe it. Yeah. Now we're looking at you as like this strange couple. I love it. I really. I've never seen. We haven't seen that in Star Wars. It's so simple, but effective. It's really fun. And I, yeah, I think that the contrast, I mean, it benefits from the fact that the contrast is very clear. And yeah, it's like with the, with the stuff, uh, with and or in the, then the other group. Like that almost, you can't really tell exactly. It doesn't have anything to contrast off of. So you can't really tell like. Like, is this supposed to be kind of quirky? Like, I guess it kind of is because, again, they're all talking over each other and it's such a mess. But at the same time, it's not like heightened or like, what's the word? Like, ironic enough.

Starting point is 00:31:46 Like, there's some kind of fun irony to like everything happening between Cyril and Dedra. And there's like so much about their work lives that you can then apply to their personal lives and kind of have fun musing about what their relationship is like in multiple facets. You know, like, like it just really like. Like, it is forcing you to kind of, on the lighter side of the spectrum, wonder, like, yeah, what is their intimacy like? And, like, you know, they're together. They must, you know, be physically intimate as well. What is it that like? And, like, you know, is she dominant in all things?

Starting point is 00:32:19 Or Cyril seems like a kind of guy who would need some kind of dominant escapism and certainly is getting that a little bit at work. But, yeah, there's just, like, so much fun life stuff you can ponder about them. and a that serves the the idea that yes like in real life oftentimes you will find these shades of gray where like people who are committing atrocities either don't see them that way or just kind of compartmentalize them and have all this other mundane stuff in their lives but there's also i think the glimmer of maybe dedra like some of these imperials must defect and we've seen spies and other people who have already but i wonder if they're going to build up to her defecting because of that whole thing of like she doesn't want the Gorman project and they have all that that she and her superior have that

Starting point is 00:33:08 conversation about it and you know the fact that she's got to you know keep her head down again be exceptional go beyond your means because you're getting you know another demotion sort of on paper and you're a woman so you're going to have to work that much harder blah blah blah and and two

Starting point is 00:33:24 I mean that whole sequence with Krenick and them coming up with like what do we do about this we need these resources but we got to find a way to justify wrecking the whole planet well can we run a smear campaign a propaganda of some sort or do we orchestrate a national disaster and i mean you know i think in our waking life political spectrum i suppose every side is imagining the other side is meeting up in secret and doing this uh but you know that there is this in the world you know this certainly is a thing that happens and and yeah like i think that's an interesting again piece of debate because it's showing you like the tools of tyranny uh these conversations but also i think

Starting point is 00:34:02 it could be yeah like a line that she's finding and i wonder what that'll do to her and cyril because you know he seems committed to his own sense of justice beyond doing what he is told obviously so maybe there's some road for the two of them or one of the two of them to to spiral off in some way I thought she just wanted to continue her mission. She's someone who suggested the insurgency. I don't think it had anything to do with... She gave tips to Orson of what she... That's true.

Starting point is 00:34:34 Of how they could actually fulfill this plan in a way that would cause them to actually succeed and that where they don't have to worry about their optics. They could look like justified in their pursuit. I am curious about... I imagine that you're probably... correct in that that's probably like completely in earnest and that is probably her goal part of me was like well this is what i was thinking anyway like is she just responding here's what i was thinking

Starting point is 00:35:03 and here's what would be the better thing to do here if it was me you know and if i was really trying to get work done because she is yeah like no bullshit that character so yeah i wouldn't put money on the turn necessarily but i am curious about it and that it does present again it draws you into the character and makes you wonder what is she thinking you know because she is the most quiet in that meeting i think when she was torturing people in the last season i i didn't see a hint of remorse that's true actually yeah it's like she got off on it i thought she really enjoyed it i mean big fly out says that to her just like you enjoy this don't you so yeah i suppose that's not probably in the cards after all yeah i think as long as empire wins they're she's okay

Starting point is 00:35:48 they're okay that's fair yeah but the orson scene though i think is great having Ben Mendelsohn back oh man I love that they don't treat it like oh my man he's back you know they don't treat it as he doesn't like giant return let's hold for applause yeah camera pushing door slides up yeah he walks into frame he they just it cuts to him you actually hear his voice first and then cuts to him and he's leading a room it took me and Ben mental what were you saying it took me hearing just the voice over without him I I then realized how much Jeremy Irons is in his performance. He's like really

Starting point is 00:36:26 channeling Jeremy Irons. It's a bit as we're flamboyant. He's very dry. Very dry, but he's also got this like inflection and rhythm. Yeah, there's a theatricalness to the way he is. Yeah. Well, Ben Mendelsohn is an insanely

Starting point is 00:36:42 incredible actor. So what they've done for Genevieve O'Reilly, I hope they can allow that for him. Same thing for Randor, right? And I don't know if we'll get to that effect. I was surprised to see him right away in the first episode considering how important

Starting point is 00:36:58 he is for Rogue 1. Of course he will be in the show more. He's an integral part since we are doing the buildup to the Death Star thing to link us to Rogue 1 but more than that of course. That whole scene was a very infuriating scene to sit through

Starting point is 00:37:15 of watching them work the propaganda, watching the marketing behind it, how they're discussing the the sacrifice of life i don't even view it like a sacrifice of the people aren't people they don't view people as human beings that they're numbers in order for them to gain more wealth to accrue more it felt like you were in a fly on the wall in a meeting that you would hear in real life and the way they're eating their their their treats their pastries and yeah

Starting point is 00:37:52 talking about it in such a casual um the words not dismissive um what's the word looking for john no goodness not dismissive i mean they are being dismissive well it's like in a sense of abandoner or they're they're they're i think casual is casual is the word i guess i'm looking for another word but yeah yeah but it's so it is so casual and i love the love the aesthetics that are doing for the planet of when they are playing the propaganda commercial and And I love, like, the marketing team aspect. I like what they were doing to include all these things because that's a big part of what makes Andor feel special

Starting point is 00:38:32 is how they do draw on the, they magnify the stuff that George Lucas talked about with what Star Wars is commenting on. And they strip down some of the fantasy and they magnify some of these real world stuff. And I thought that scene did it in a very strong way. like this is a group of elites just talking you know yeah it's the illuminati having a meeting figuring out what planet to wreck yeah and too yeah i think that's that's smart it's like yeah they've

Starting point is 00:39:02 zeroed in on like the actual themes of what the star war is but also funny enough i feel like in this show in particular you pointed out like that they seem to be leaning even further into like the fantasy aesthetic just visually speaking in certain spots yeah yeah because star wars is you know on that line of sci-fi fantasy and you know you're more used to spaceships and things that are

Starting point is 00:39:29 even in more natural areas you're sort of like oh well you know if there is a sign of civilization it's probably high tech whereas like all the stuff with the wedding granted you're in some kind of ceremonial location not everything looks like this but but you know all the dress and all the architecture feels very

Starting point is 00:39:46 tangible and feels like it's ancient somehow and it yeah it gives it that or Lord of the Ringsy tangibility, which is cool because Star Wars and Lord of the Rings both have a production value that is like heavily practical

Starting point is 00:39:59 or at least there's a lot of that kind of movie magic but then backed up with like big effects and so like it makes sense to do that. Well, Star Wars has a lot of stuff that is especially like witches, Dathemaeer and all that shit.

Starting point is 00:40:12 There's a lot of pure fantasy, Jedi and all that. A lot of pure fantasy. Yet it's kind of felt imbued with space opera consistently around it even though you're in space sometimes it kind of strips away some of that space opera stuff

Starting point is 00:40:30 sure you know and that's what I meant by it feels more Lord of the Rings times and certain especially with the Mon Mothma storyline that we were doing here but I appreciate the attention to detail too on they actually did a whole ceremony of this whole wedding

Starting point is 00:40:46 they didn't they didn't phone that shit in like everything was so calculated everything was choice they they found the music the different musics throughout the wedding dances the the the ritual the ritual of marriage of how they proceed with that i love mon mothma talking with her daughter trying to actually convince her both both parents have a thing of the dad's going you're gonna they want some to go through with it but don't make the same mistakes you guys can get past some of this awkward tension you'll probably encounter and the mom's going you can

Starting point is 00:41:25 probably like we could stop this we can call this whole thing off but no um yeah that's some strong shit man uh it was a journey of it i see why it they released them the way they're doing because unlike last season i felt like ever you could take it one episode at a time yeah this one really did feel like oh i need to watch all three yeah yeah for a complete picture or at least to form a complete you know conversation around it because when they would end i would i would i think every time it ended that would go oh is it over yeah yeah totally totally it does definitely feel more like oh this was a three hour block that you chopped up yeah into roughly an hour each uh which is cool i mean you know which i'm here for i um i'm yeah i'm i'm curious especially with disney plus how like

Starting point is 00:42:16 eventually they're going to crack some kind of like the perfect alternative release schedule that is like perfectly bingy but also keeps the conversation going for some time and uh what is this 12 again yeah four weeks of three so like yeah i mean that that at least is a good solid month of substantial star wars uh and yeah i don't be grud it's weird because this is a more uh dense show in terms of what it wants to talk it feels a bit more like a little bit more like a little piece of literature or something than like a breezy movie does so like that kind of makes sense to me

Starting point is 00:42:51 like okay here's three chapters and we're gonna kind of read them all in a chunk well the first season I did think was with their dialogue was something that it required much more pay close attention I mean you have to pay close attention regardless I think this is much easier

Starting point is 00:43:08 to keep up with for some reason it does feel that way does feel like simplified without feeling like it's been dumbed down or something it doesn't feel like something was taken out necessarily feels more accessible yeah yeah it's weird and normally I would be like oh I don't know but but

Starting point is 00:43:23 yeah it doesn't it still feels like they are their mission is the same and yeah there are some tonal adjustments that have been made and mostly you know I don't know if you are I would even say like for the better as if like they had something

Starting point is 00:43:39 like gravely to improve upon like most of what they have changed or added in terms of tone or feel I think is, you know, solid, it works. It's not like better or worse. It's just like, cool, more aspects. And the only thing, yeah, I think really that stood out is sort of like, I'm not sure about this was, yeah, that whole other rebel group interlude thing.

Starting point is 00:44:02 You know, but again, I have faith that that will amount to something greater. We'll see some of those dudes again or something. I thought it was directed really well. There's a lot of great wonders, a lot of great use of perspective. I thought the action scenes were done really well. I think it is cool that Cassian was able to like I love the opening scene

Starting point is 00:44:18 with Cassian figured out the shit but you know I thought about when I was watching episode Last of Us and I would apply the same thing here

Starting point is 00:44:26 there's there's there's in the last of us the first time they fight a clicker or the only time they fight a clicker in the game you're you have to kill like a billion clickers

Starting point is 00:44:35 and I love to have the show was we're going to have to show you the struggle what's like to kill one and it's been like 20 minutes on that and that's what I felt like with this ship

Starting point is 00:44:44 of the finesse of the when you're testing out a tie fighter you don't know what you're doing and the struggle of flying one of these what that will be like for someone looks like it hurts your arms looks painful yeah

Starting point is 00:44:57 looks painful and it was cool and when he showed up at the end that was a cool moment of action I thought they definitely amped up how they do the action because there's only one part in first season with Luthin where he does a little bit of aerial fighting

Starting point is 00:45:12 there's not much action in season one and this to me like I don't even call it like outside of episode three there's the whole rebellion fight at the end in season one I wouldn't really call it an action scene like there's action

Starting point is 00:45:28 but it's so much like drama yeah and then you have the one action scene with Andor and Luthin in episode three when they're escaping pharynx like that to me was action scenes yeah this felt pure action you know yeah Yeah, and I don't know how you felt about that.

Starting point is 00:45:47 It didn't feel, because that can also be kind of a risky thing in that you could sometimes come away feeling like, oh, maybe somebody upstairs mandated that the, you know, cerebral show had more action, you know, to pull more people in. But it makes sense to me, given where we are and the fact that the first season is so much about, like, yes, the rebellion is brewing, but now we're going to strike a blow that, like, really sets the match. And so it makes sense for me that season two would be more action-centric because it's. seems like yeah the fight is is developing into something much more physical and will soon become this all out you know yeah it feels appropriate but also cool and fun because yeah it's like you have the heist in the first season and you have like the escape that's true but even those things are dramatized in a different way and like the heist is is like a plan going wrong and going sideways I guess this is like stylized action yeah yeah the contrast is or the prison break you and yeah

Starting point is 00:46:42 they're like desperate and they're not very pretty and a lot of things go wrong whereas here you do get some satisfying moments of action or some moments of action that are at least like fun or whimsical or have more of a pure action rush yeah yeah versus like we really fought tooth and nail for such and such a thing like the amount of different shots they had from the cockpit to go into the personal p of you to lock in the camera off on sections of the tie fighter on the outside on the outside of the the exterior. Always works on me. Yeah, no, those lockoff shots in anything, any movies. It's awesome. Better than the snap zoom. Oh my God, the snap zoom is such a manipulative tool. It is like the number one, like, yeah, the tool you employ when you want your CGI shot to look, not CGI, just put a snap zoom on it. I think it must have been, is that or Star Trek or Mattis Steele that freaking made that

Starting point is 00:47:37 the thing, start JJ Abrams, Star Trek, is that just JJ of Star Trek or Man of Steel were after one of those movies it became like the thing you do it do that yeah yeah yeah yeah and think in retrospect thinking how it starts off with and or struggling like a madman

Starting point is 00:47:55 with the tie fighter to them being in control of the tie fighter at the end that is a nice hard book book in yeah it's cool book in actually I think about it yeah well those are our thoughts on the first three episodes of and or what do you guys think did you love it do you like it

Starting point is 00:48:11 do you think this will top the second the first season for you guys leave your thoughts down below um keep a lookout next week three more to go and three more to go after that and then three more to go after that thank you guys so much peace riley peterson my friend if we were to travel to a galaxy far far away i imagine punch what i just am adding an embellishment we're improvving please do not add it you go to The galaxy far, far away. Anyway, Riley. Riley. We're in a galaxy far, far away. I imagine we'd find a distant planet with you alone on it.

Starting point is 00:48:52 Would you say? I said, oh. Please, we're trying to improv. Stop contributing. So you'd be on a distant planet and you be alone stranded. There'd be just nothing but water and you and a bunch of potatoes. But, sorry? Oh, I said, to kind of do like a watery.

Starting point is 00:49:10 Like a bad one thing. improv though stop I lost my train of thought there's something about like you're supposed to be naked with a bunch of potatoes he's got a potatoes yeah

Starting point is 00:49:22 it's like the Martian potatoes oh wait this Star Wars have more of a visual like his potatoes or nutsack and you kept interrupting me and now I'm lost now I can't imagine Riley's potatoes

Starting point is 00:49:36 I'm sorry Riley happy birthday yeah Thank you. BOR POMPEO

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