ANDOR landed last week with its first three episodes, followed by another this week. It's generated immediate attention particularly for the ways in which it feels like STAR WARS while not having a lot of the things we attribute to the property. There's nothing to do with the Force, with Jedi or Sith. There's only one character who is at all familiar, Mon Mothma, and her existence is radically different than what we're used to. In some ways most importantly, it has a whole different kind of sound to it; the score feels very BLADE RUNNER adjacent, which is a whole different kind of thing than STAR WARS.
And yet, it absolutely does feel like STAR WARS. How does it accomplish that?
1) It populates the corners of the story with lots of stuff that's familiar: we have droids; we have pistols that behave and sound like what we're used to; we have hovercraft-y speeders; in episode four we also get Imperial uniforms, TIE fighters and Luthen's ship, whose interiors are so similar to the Millennium Falcon.
These may seem like details, but as Walt Disney so often insisted about his parks, it's the very smallest things that is the difference between a world seeming seem real or fake. And in some cases those "details" aren't quite so small, either; the Andor family droid Bee is not just any robot; it has the look and feel of a STAR WARS droid, and behaves in the aide-but-also-protective-friend way that we've been taught is proper for a droid.
2) Everyone we meet has a story of their own: Obviously this is mostly Andor's story. His name is the title. But lots of other characters get stories and conflicts of their own: his friend Bix; her boyfriend Timm; Andor's mom Maarva; Syril (the guy trying to arrest Andor); Luthen; Bee. Even that random guy who tells the town when it's time to leave work or go to work by banging hammers on metal gets some real moments.
For me, he and Bee are probably the most STAR WARS when it comes to character touches. Because neither is totally necessary. Yes, of course there should be droids, but writer Tony Gilroy gives him a legitimate conflict between helping Andor and telling his mother what's going on. And Hammer Guy could just as easily have been a sound that we hear ringing in the distance without attribution. But this is STAR WARS, and STAR WARS is always teeming with characters with stories we'll only get a glimpse of. STAR WARS is always telling a story that is only one small part of what is going on in the universe.
And here director Toby Haynes really leans into it, too; he lets that guy have enough time that we see his ritual and learn in a roundabout way from his stretches something of his hardship. It's not easy pounding that metal every day.
3) It has a very STAR WARS-type battle: When it comes to on-the-ground battles, STAR WARS has a kind of type that tend to be its very best. And those are occasions where the setting itself becomes part of the battle. In EMPIRE Luke is crawling around in air ducts; Vader is throwing random shit at him; Luke gets blown out a window where the winds are massive. In CLONES we've got the insane sequence where the characters are all trying to move through a droid factory without getting crushed or burned alive. REVENGE has Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting while floating down a lava field, and as shit is collapsing around them.
In Episode 3, ANDOR gives us its own addition to this canon, the fight in the abandoned warehouse, and it's pretty marvelous. It starts like just a shoot 'em up, with no hint that this is going to be something special. (So often in STAR WARS they'll give you a hint that this is going to be something nuts; the lights or shapes will echo something from EMPIRE, or they'll just put you in an environment that you instinctively know means it's one of those fights, like the end of MENACE.)
But then suddenly we've got things that had been hung from the ceiling, engines maybe, starting to fly down. And it's a total accident at first—again, a very STAR WARS beat, the unintended consequence. Then they're shooting things on purpose (and on accident) as they try to get to the device Andor left. And it keeps generating further complications—first there's a thing to dodge, then it's multiple things, then the whole goddamn ceiling is coming down. It's absolutely brilliant.
Obviously there's other stuff you could say that are reminiscent of STAR WARS. It has an older dude with a sword! A handsome reluctant hero, and a middle management villain with fascist tendencies! A rag tag bunch! And the handsome reluctant hero character-type is definitely something I am going to write about at some point, because Andor does not feel anything like Han Solo, and yet I wonder if there's still connective tissue in their DNA (wow, mixed metaphor much?) that makes it feel STAR WARS anyway?
While I know this reads like a STAR WARS post, it's really about coming onto a show as the newbie. Your job is going to be to pitch and write stuff that seems consistent with the house style. And how do you do that? By taking note of the things that make your show the show that is. Sometimes it's obvious stuff, like make sure you have surgery scenes on GREY'S ANATOMY. Sometimes it's a bit more subtle, maybe even stuff that some of the writers of the show themselves don't know they all do. (Probably they do though.) And the more of that you can bring, alongside your own voice, the more you'll have to offer.
