Andor Season 2 Reveals What TV Is Like In The Star Wars Universe

The “Star Wars” franchise has one of many largest and most detailed fictional universes on the market, with the primary film introducing a world that was each recognizable and fully alien. Positive, we had a princess, a cowboy, a wizard, an empire, and a rebel, however it was firmly an alien world that felt not like ours in most methods. And but, in time, the franchise began trying increasingly acquainted. The best way the Ewoks fought the Empire in “Return of the Jedi” was unequivocally impressed by the Viet Cong, and the prequels took this to a brand new degree, that includes an American diner in area, an opera home, a NASCAR race, and extra.

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This isn’t a nasty factor, essentially. The prequels had been extra particular of their commentary and used acquainted imagery to inform a narrative of a really fictional world that nonetheless can endure the identical political points ours does. This brings us to “Andor,” absolutely the timeliest “Star Wars” story. That is the franchise at its most actual, with a narrative that might simply happen in our world, and is totally unsubtle in the way in which it addresses our present-day actuality — even whereas nonetheless that includes stormtroopers and TIE Fighters. All through season 1, “Andor” blurred the traces between the galaxy far, distant and our personal. There was enjoyable stuff like Area Miami (aka Niamos), but in addition the way in which the present turned the cartoonish evil of the empire into recognizably mundane paperwork. 

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In season 2, Tony Gilroy and his staff double down on making “Andor” a really actual and well timed story that simply occurs to be set a very long time in the past, in a galaxy far, distant. “The Clone Wars” had already given us an on-screen have a look at the “Star Wars” equal of the web — the HoloNet and its many leisure makes use of. In episode 5, “Andor” was so dedicated to displaying us the slower, extra day-to-day elements of “Star Wars” that it simply gave us … daytime TV. That is proper, in the midst of talks about genocide, mentions of massacres, and a really French-coded resistance, we received a glimpse of what tv appears like within the galaxy far, distant. It is as bizarre as you’d count on.

Episode 5 is all concerning the Ghorman Resistance, which we all know to be extra than simply partially engineered by the Empire in an effort to justify killing everybody on the planet in an effort to mine for limitless energy. Abruptly, nevertheless, we get a brand new chapter in essentially the most delightfully deranged sitcom within the “Star Wars” universe — the Syril’s mother power-hour! That is proper, we get one more awkward mother-son meal, solely this time they’ve a TV on within the background, and we get a glimpse of what individuals in “Star Wars” watch whereas they eat.

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Seems, it appears lots like our personal daytime TV! We get a morning present full with hosts (together with Ruby Wax!) dressed just like the campiest “Starvation Video games” characters. What do they speak about? Why, celeb gossip, after all. One of many hosts mentions a senatorial social gathering, they usually instantly joke about now caring about politics, however loving events involving politicians, due to their outfits. It is a quick scene, however it serves to color an image of the form of bread and circuses the Empire makes use of to maintain the populace distracted. We all know that the federal government is within the midst of planning a planet-wide genocide, but all of the TV hosts can speak about is celeb outfits. Once more, it is extraordinarily well timed and likewise timeless: fascist propaganda and distraction techniques at work.

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However that is not all. For a completely completely different aspect of TV within the “Star Wars” universe, we later get a blink-and-you-miss-it shot of two Imperial guards distracted on the job as a result of they’re watching a broadcast of the best sporting occasion in all the galaxy — podracing! Does that imply they’ve the “Star Wars” equal of Netflix’s F1 docu-series “Drive to Survive?” Are podracers large celebrities in-universe? Is Sebulba nonetheless a giant star throughout the Imperial period? Maybe Ratts Tyerell is considered a legend, like Ayrton Senna is in our universe.

“Star Wars” is nice when it’s a mystified fantasy with allusions to occasions, individuals, and locations we by no means see (like Obi-Wan mentioning the Clone Wars within the authentic film, or Luthen having a Rakatan Empire necklace in “Andor”). It is nice when all we get are archetypes straight out of a fairy story: heroes combating comically large odds.

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However reveals like “Andor,” like “Rebels” or “Clone Wars” present that the franchise is simply as nice after we see the trivialities of the galaxy, and study seemingly pointless or foolish particulars about how life is. Dexter Jettster’s diner is a cool little nod to George Lucas’ “American Graffiti,” and it is usually a pleasant distinction to the seediness of the cantina on Mos Eisley. 

The inclusion of daytime TV as an extension of Imperial propaganda makes the vastness of the Empire really feel extra related. It additionally contrasts what individuals on Coruscant care about (or are pressured to care about) with the priorities of individuals on the Outer Rim. The capital cities of dictatorships are normally essentially the most religious and essentially the most ignorant to the atrocities. “Andor” reveals how that works — how the distraction machine works to maintain individuals from realizing the reality. 

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