This is why it took me like 4 tries to actually watch all of Andor. It's like 4 episodes of prologue where nothing much really happens and then the actual story starts in episode 5 lol
Cassian: kills a man in the literal first 5 minutes of the series that triggers a chain reaction that will ultimately lead to the destruction of the biggest massive planet destroyer ever created.
This guy: nothing happened!
The first two episodes do kinda meander. It was so slowly paced they released the entire first arc (three eps) at once rather than make people wait two weeks.
It's 4 episodes of contrived nonsense with almost zero plot or character development for anyone until episode 5 when they actually started telling the story. It took me so many attempts to get through it because I'd keep getting to episode three and realizing that I genuinely didn't care what happens to any of them. They could have easily condensed all of the events of the first four episodes into one episode but it just kept dragging on forever
The whole point of the series is that first half Cass is an entirely different man from second half Cass. And by the final chapter he has fully transformed into the rebel spy and leader he is in Rogue One. You see him deal with conflict in three entirely different ways and mindsets through the series. All main characters change profoundly by having their whole worldview challenged is kind of the point of the plot.
He kills those guards, then kind of just wanders around aimlessly with the vague goal of selling something, then he agrees to escape with that old guy who only speaks in catchphrases and sound bites, then he finally accidentally walks into a pretty good spy story. Don't get me wrong, once it really got going I enjoyed watching it, but the whole first part of the series was like a chore I had to endure to see why people were saying the show was so good.
He was running away. There are three beats. Cass is a street rat, a gambler. When he gets in trouble he lies and runs away aimlessly. Second beat, he is a rebellion pawn, a mercenary. He does things for money. He still wants to run away, but now he has an aim of exploiting the rebellion for personal gain, he's learned focus. Third beat is rebel spy Cass. He has felt first hand the oppression and evil schemes of the empire. He loses a loved one due to the empire and now, instead of running away, as old Cass would've done. He is ready to face the empire and act, he's acquired purpose and conviction. The third arc makes no sense and is not compelling in the slightest without the first and second arcs.
So your take is that it's just a poorly written story that's overly reliant on an excessively drawn out and tedious prologue? That sounds like we're in agreement! I understand why all the things that happen at the beginning of the story are there, I just don't understand why they took 4 full episodes to tell us 20 minutes worth of backstory. It feels like they didn't have enough written to fill 12 episodes so someone panicked and just dragged it out as long as possible.
Half the season not wanting the burden of having to surf. Why him? He's just wants to be a regular Dracula. Let someone else have to surf through these adventures!
"Back in the day" The Wire came out. I love that show now, but damn. It was basically my introduction to a "slow burn." The show literally starts with a murder, but it took me like 2 weeks to stay awake through the first episode of season 1. RIP Snot Boogie.
Yeah, it started slow, but the last half of season one was fucking tense. I saw it almost ten years ago, and I haven't gotten to the other seasons yet, because I know I'd have to block off a week on my calendar, and that's not an option right now.
I feel like a whole generation of writers were told that in medias res was a worn out trope and they all fled to the extreme opposite.
