Andor - Season Two: TV Review – A New Hope

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!****

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SEE IT. A truly remarkable television series that is everything franchise entertainment should be, but isn’t….namely, art.

I have a confession to make…I’ve been in a very deep funk of late when it comes to film and television…a funk so deep it could be diagnosed as depression.

The truth is that I have been despairing over the abysmal state of film and television for some time now, but recently, in this age of raging sub-mediocrity in art and entertainment, that despair has manifested as intense disinterest, which is a shocking thing to admit considering watching this mind-numbingly predictable shit is how I make my living.

An example of how things have been going for me is that in recent months there have been three big prestige tv shows that have come out, White Lotus – Season Three, Severance – Season Two, and The Last of Us – Season Two.

My reaction to these shows speaks volumes to not only the state of entertainment in our current era, but more importantly to my state of mind.

When it came to HBO’s White Lotus Season Three, I skipped it completely…I had zero interest in it after suffering through seasons one and two, which I found to be painfully trite and much too try-hard-to-be-cool-and-edgy.

I enjoyed the first season of AppleTV’s Severance when it came out in 2022, but when the new season premiered this winter, I couldn’t have cared less. Out of duty I watched the first two episodes and then I bailed on the show because I simply didn’t care about anything or anyone on it. I know I was supposed to be dazzled by Severance – Season Two but it seems to me the thrill is most definitely gone, lost somewhere in its long three-year absence between season one and two.

And as for The Last of Us – Season Two…I haven’t even contemplated watching it. I watched season one and thought it was a bit “meh”, so for season two I find myself just not caring one iota no matter how much the pop culture gods demand that I do.

Which brings us to Andor – Season Two. Even though I am admittedly not a huge Star Wars guy, I loved the first season of Andor so much that I thought it was the best Star Wars series of all-time, and, dare I say it, the best Star Wars anything of all-time.

But being in my current funk, I did not watch Andor’s second season as it rolled out its episodes on Disney + three at a time per week starting on April 22, and ending on May 13. I was going to skip Andor entirely out of sheer self-deluded ambivalence but then the gods intervened…and I got sick.

I was bed-ridden with some grievous virus or something and really couldn’t do much else so I figured I’d give Andor season two a try since I had nothing else to do…and boy am I ever glad that I did.

Andor is exactly what Star Wars, or any franchise intellectual property (I’m looking at you Marvel and DC!!), should be. It is not fan service or a nostalgia delivery system, rather it is a finely crafted, dramatic, pop culture vehicle through which to illuminate the complexity and tragedy of the human experience.

The show’s creator, Tony Gilroy, who also wrote the Star Wars film Rogue One (which I think is the best Star Wars film), has constructed a rich, compelling, captivating and brilliant series that never, ever, relies on cheap gimmicks or franchise fan service, but instead creates deeply moving drama by plumbing the depths of human frailty.

To get into the plot of Andor would be a fool’s errand as it is a rich tapestry of spy thriller/political intrigue wrapped around interpersonal drama, but the basics of it are thus…the rebellion against the evil empire is in its infancy, and people on both sides of the divide must make choices that have enormous personal and political consequences.

Andor is masterfully put together by Gilroy, who weaves multiple storylines together and treats the audience like adults, never showing them everything but instead letting them infer what has happened without spoon-feeding it.

The cast of Andor is spectacular, with remarkable performances from Diego Luna (as Cassian Andor), Kyle Soller, Denise Gough, Adria Arjona, Stelland Skarsgard, Elizabeth Dulua, and most particularly Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma.

I’ve never been a huge Diego Luna fan, but he does superb work as Andor, the spy-soldier trying to navigate the paranoid world of anti-imperial rebellion and his own personal life. Adria Arjona plays Andor’s wife Bix, and she is an undeniably captivating screen presence.

Kyle Soller and Denise Gough play Syril and Dedra respectively, two ambitious Imperial bureaucrats who climb career ladders due to their moral and ethical flexible. Soller and Gough are so good in these roles it is difficult to adequately describe it. They both bring these complex characters to life exquisitely when in lesser hands they’d be nothing more than mustache-twirling villains.

Stellan Skarsgard is phenomenal as Luthen Rael, a morally dubious spy-master for the rebellion, as is Elizabeth Dulua as his “daughter”, Kleya. Skarsgard brings such skill and talent to bear to this role that it really is remarkable to behold, and Dulua is simply a revelation in her role.

And finally, Genevieve O’Reilly gives an exquisite performance as Mon Mothma, a Galactic Senator who is a lonely dissenting voice against the Empire. O’Reilly’s performance is so internalized and subdued yet so powerful and vibrating with life that it is a joy to behold.

What strikes me about Andor is that it is so good because it feels only coincidental that it is set in the Star Wars universe. If you set the show in modern times on planet earth, it would be just as compelling and just as relevant.

In terms of relevancy, no doubt viewers could project whatever political beliefs they have onto the show and would feel seen, a crafty piece of work by the series’ creators. What is most striking to me is that the series expertly dramatizes the notion of manufacturing consent through media manipulation, and the soul-crushing, dehumanization that animates all bureaucracies…two topics quite relevant in our fallen, and falling-ever-faster-and-farther, world.

Andor’s political relevancy is much less important to me though than its dramatic potency, which is monumental. I found the second season to be deeply, incredibly moving, which is a very bizarre thing to say about a corporate franchise tv show set in a galaxy far, far away.

The reality is that Andor’s second season is so good it actually made me believe once again. Well, that’s not actually accurate, Andor didn’t give me belief in film and television again…that would be a very tall task…but it did give me something…let’s call it “hope”…or dare I say it…”A New Hope”. Hope that all is not lost. Hope that things could actually…just maybe…get better.

That hope may be misplaced and completely delusional, but for me it is real, and it is all thanks to Tony Gilroy and his masterwork, Andor. I highly recommend you check it out.

©2025

Ghosted: A Review – Apple TV+ Action Rom-Com Scrapes the Bottom of the Barrel

****THIS IS A SPOILER FREE REVIEW!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS ZERO SPOILERS!!***

My Rating: ½ out of 5 stars

My Recommendation: SKIP IT. Don’t even contemplate watching this stupid movie.

Ghosted, which premiered on Apple TV+ this past Friday, is an action rom-com starring Marilyn Monroe and Captain America…oops…I mean Ana de Armas and Chris Evans.

I feel conflicted in labeling the film an action romantic comedy because the action is decidedly derivative and dull, the romance flaccid and the comedy non-existent, but the film identifies itself as an action rom-com so I’m respecting its pronouns, so to speak.

The film does have a plot, although I’m not going to insult your intelligence by trying too hard to recount it as it’s so idiotic as to be insulting. The basics of it are that after a meet cute that isn’t cute, world-traveling woman-of-action Sadie (Ana de Armas) and needy, home body Cole (Chris Evans) have a whirlwind 24-hour romance, which is followed by a globe-hopping, fish-out-of-water, spy/action-adventure. It’s basically a Hallmark Movie with disturbing amounts of killing and some very bad action set pieces.

The film has a run time of 116 minutes that feel like 116 hours because the writing is an abomination, the acting atrocious and the action choreography and execution ridiculous. But besides that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln…oh…it was so bad that Mr. Lincoln would’ve shot himself in the head if John Wilkes Booth didn’t do him the favor first.

A major issue with Ghosted is that the core of the film is the relationship between Ana de Armas and Chris Evans, and they have absolutely zero chemistry. Although to be fair, this script is such crap that you could’ve put Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in this sack of shit and still would’ve stunk to high heaven.

De Armas at least has a light in her eyes and is obviously working hard to make the best of a bad situation, but Evans has such dead eyes and does such lifeless line readings the movie feels like a Weekend at Bernie’s reboot with de Armas dragging Evans’ corpse all over the world.

Evans, who made a name for himself playing Captain America in the Marvel movies, is such a buff buffoon one wonders how he got his famed physique while eating so many of his own boogers.

Hollywood has been trying forever to make Evans a movie star but the only thing that worked was the Captain America stuff because Captain America is just as bland as Evans.

Evans’s last two films are the instantaneously forgettable streaming duds Ghosted and The Gray Man, which might be the worst double-feature in the recent history of cinema. One can only hope that in short order some new meat-headed moron would take Evans’ place in Hollywood rolodex of dumb-ass hunks but you never know.

I actually felt bad for Ana de Armas watching this movie. Unlike Evans, she’s not a terrible actress…she’s not a good one either…but she deserves better than this.

It felt like the makers of this movie saw de Armas in the last James Bond movie, where she had a small but scintillating role as a sexy and silly CIA agent, and thought they’d try and replicate that energy. The problem though is that character was pretty paper thin and barely got us through ten minutes of screen time in Bond, so trying to put her on-screen for two hours in Ghosted is beyond a stretch.

Some movie stars and famous Marvel men, like Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie, show up in Ghosted in order to inject some life and laughs into the festivities, but not surprisingly that all falls as flat as Chris Evans’ sculpted abs.

The director of Ghosted is Dexter Fletcher, whose previous work includes the Elton John bio-pic Rocketman, which made me think that this movie should’ve starred Elton John and Debbie Harry for some random reason. At least then it would’ve been funny even if unintentionally so.

The writers of the film are Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who wrote the Deadpool movies, and Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, who wrote a bunch of Marvel stuff. Reese and Wernick’s distinctive style is easy to spot in the movie, but with Evans and de Armas spouting it and not Ryan Reynolds, it all feels forced and fails.

Apple TV+ is desperate to be a player in the streaming world, which is sort of amusing since it’s a gigantic tech company but still can’t even develop a barely usable streaming site. Despite some occasional hits like Ted Lasso and Severance, Apple has done little to distinguish itself in the crowded streaming world.

Apple seems to not understand that we aren’t in Old Hollywood or even Hollywood of the 1970s, as their approach seems to be to get stars and put them in shitty movies and people will tune in regardless of quality. As an aside, Netlfix has the same approach except they don’t even use movie stars, they just throw any piece of shit up on their service because they need content.

If Apple wants to become a Hollywood player, and to be honest I don’t really understand why they would want to be, they’re going to have to use their tech bazillions to bully buy somebody else…like Netflix or Disney or God help us HBO Max/Discovery. Because the truth is churning out third-rate garbage like Ghosted with second-rate stars like Ana de Armas and Chris Evans, isn’t gonna move the needle for a fourth-rate streaming site like Apple TV+.

The bottom line is that Ghosted is garbage and wholly deserves to not only be ghosted, but blocked before first contact. Do yourself a favor and don’t even give this pile of shit a single second of your attention.

 Follow me on Twitter: @MPMActingCo

©2023