Five episodes in, the cracks in the series are starting to show. I'm a bit mixed on it right now. Some of my scattered thoughts:
* I think from a visual, production standpoint, this show is really unparalleled as far as any other live-action Star Wars TV series and many other live-action streaming series period. Halo looked like garbage compared to this. Lucasfilm spent a possible $180-$200 million if not more on this season, and it you can see it on screen.
* By this episode, I'm already over the Syril subplot. It's becoming a sci-fi Woody Allen film at this point. I didn't need the scenes with Syril's overbearing mother to understand his obsession and how he's obsessed with getting Andor. But where are we going with this?
* Not to mention, we have like a dozen other subplots going on that this is starting to feel like an over-written soap opera. Man, Mon Mothma's family life sucks. Her daughter is a total brat and has no respect for her. Her husband is an ******* who takes glee in their daughter verbally insulting his wife. At first, I was kind of excited to learn more about Mon Mothma because she's been this important background character for years, and now this is just starting to feel rather extraneous and superfluous. I'm getting that her husband is suspicious of her extracurricular activities and could in fact turn out to be an Empire loyalist or just doesn't want his wife involved for their own protection, but whatever.
* I think the best thing is Andor's interaction with the other rebel guerrilla fighters. Andor hasn't been fully indoctrinated into the cause yet, so the show is his journey toward that. I think the dynamic with the rebel group and gradually earning their trust and coming clean worked, especially with Skeen. I got the sense that Vel and Cinta were in a romantic relationship. That felt like the subtle impression. The kid Nemik is a bit of a dreamer, but I imagine his information will help the Rebel Alliance become a more organized group. I'm assuming that Vel and Luthen have some sort of relationship or indirect familial connection.
* The stuff with Blevin and his toadie felt extraneous to me. Like it doesn't take a genius to figure out the Empire is moving into Andor's old town and setting up shop. But it just seems to be adding in a lot of unnecessary drama.
* And then we have ISB agents Dedra Meero and her toadie. Dedra is clearly onto something and realizes that this is the start of the Rebel Alliance. So...end game is what? ISB realizes there's a Rebel Alliance and in a galactic civil war? Dedra gets a promotion? An audience with Darth Vader? Emperor Palpatine? Like, I think the acting is like solid, but I'm not sure why I'm supposed to care about Dedra and the ISB agents investigating the Rebel Alliance and this much attention.
* Now on one hand, lots of setup. This will be good because next week will be lots of action. With 12 episodes, it looks like they are pacing things in three-episode segments. First three episodes were like a little movie. Now we are in the next three-parter setting up the siege in Aldhani. They stopped just before the raid, so that means the next episode will have to mostly be the raid on Aldhani. That means it will have to be a very action-packed climactic episode. Building up to a big battle blowoff episode can be good as we will be given more time to focus on the battle. IMHO the problem is that the setup and development can be a little frustrating.
* Here's the weird thing, despite the dozens of subplots and characters, these episodes feel a bit short to me. These aren't even legit 40-42 minute episodes. But like they are spending all this money to give us Syril and his sci-fi apartment and interstellar cocoa puffs. Arguably, if you cut out some of these extra subplots and gave these episodes another 20 minutes, we actually could've maybe had a big climax this episode instead of putting it off for the next one.
