Each week, NPR TV critic Eric Deggans writes about what he's watching. Read last week's column here.
For a franchise that has been around since 1977 – centered on the story of plucky rebels resisting a brutally authoritarian Emperor – it is kind of amazing that Star Wars hasn't spent much time explaining exactly how that rebellion got started. At least, not until Disney+'s brilliant series Andor.
Despite that time lag, it seems that the show, featuring Diego Luna's charismatic performance as pragmatic-yet-idealist rebel operative Cassian Andor, has come at a perfect moment. While audiences have been underwhelmed by big-ticket Star Wars movies and TV shows filled with lightsabers, The Force and lots of Jedi mind tricks, Andor has succeeded with a gritty story focused on the ruthless, dangerous work of average people building a movement against an Empire run by vengeful, powerful wizards.
And this story of resistors facing an authoritarian regime that manipulates media to feed prejudices and turns a legislative body into a rubber stamp for its controlling ambitions has particular resonance in today's political climate.
Andor returns Tuesday with a 12-episode second (and final) season on Disney+, dropping three episodes a week until May 13, asking tough questions about what it takes to build a secret opposition to a merciless foe. Opening with Luna's Cassian Andor stealing an Imperial fighter, the series has lush production values – showing off detailed special effects as he struggles to fly the craft out of a starship hangar – while also revealing that the intelligence which supposedly prepared him for this mission may not have been so good.
Turns out, the many people opposed to this burgeoning Empire aren't yet organized into a cohesive group. They disagree on strategies and are well aware of the deadly consequences for exposure as resistors. Stellan Skarsgard's character, Luthen Rael – a clever, manipulative member of the Rebel Alliance who poses as an eccentric antiquities dealer – embodies those conflicts, never sharing his full plans with allies. He's also fully capable of sacrificing anyone to further his cause.
One of the most satisfying elements of the show is Skarsgard's work as the wily, enigmatic Rael. And a highlight of this season is the revelation of his background, detailing how and why he uses the tactics he does. Given that this series is a giant-sized prequel to the 2016 film Rogue One, the question hanging over every episode and each character is simple: How do they fit — or not — into the story fans saw in that movie?
What also occurred to me, watching each of these episodes, is how thoroughly Star Wars has argued against authoritarian rule for decades. It's an enduring franchise that makes heroes of resistance fighters and those advocating for a Republic ruled by elected leaders. The villains are led by an Emperor who rules with an iron fist via military power, cruel punishments, propaganda and fear.
It's not the only TV show treading in those waters right now. Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, Disney+'s Daredevil: Born Again and HBO's The Last of Us all have storylines resisting authoritarianism, lionizing rebels and/or elevating communities ruled by consensus.
At a time when American citizens are taking to the streets to protest Trump administration moves like illegally deporting people and ignoring rulings by judges, these stories highlight heroes who are fighting for a world where people can live without fear under systems where they all have a say.
In particular, Andor shows how victory for the rebels can only come when those opposed to tyranny unite their efforts and find common ground, pooling their resources while learning from the hard-won experience of ground-level operatives like Cassian Andor.
Fans of Andor who have also seen Rogue One know that many of the characters here will eventually meet terrible ends. But seeing the choices that led them there – and the courage it takes to join a fight they have little chance of winning – is the secret sauce which really makes Andor a thrilling watch.
What else is on TV this week
You
Season 5 debuts Thursday on Netflix
This series about a handsome serial killer has always felt a bit like Dexter-meets-a Lifetime drama, so it's no wonder the show started on the female-centered cable channel before Netflix picked it up for four more seasons. Now rolling out its fifth and final season, You features Penn Badgley's Joe Goldberg returning to New York City with a wealthy CEO as his wife and a new murder-free life beckoning. He's purchased the old, now-shuttered Mooney's bookstore where he worked in the first season and hired a pretty-if-flighty bookworm to help him reopen it. But this show always offers compelling twists, lending a few surprises to a storyline which is otherwise kind of predictable and a little overwrought — to say nothing of the whole "making viewers root for a serial killer" thing.
Étoile
Debuts Thursday on Prime Video
On her previous series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino perfected the art of moving high-strung characters around scenes like they were artfully recreating a Broadway play. So it's no surprise some of that energy has re-surfaced in the new series she's crafted with husband Daniel Palladino, this show named for the principal dancer in a ballet company. Luke Kirby, who played legendary standup comic Lenny Bruce in Maisel, leads the cast of Étoile as the director of an American ballet company forced to partner with a French group, swapping star performers. The characters lob insults and comebacks with rapid-fire intensity, haggling over trading dancers with a fierce energy typically reserved for geopolitical treaties. The result is a stylish, if self-important look at an industry on the ropes, led by people who have serious trouble admitting just how deep their problems go.
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