Star Wars: Andor was a slog.
I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan these days. Until recently I was a regular Star Wars fan, as are most Gen X-ers, having watched all the movies. But then I watched the Clone Wars series and then the Mandalorian, Boba Fett, Rebels, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka TV series and founds myself really enjoying the deeper Star Wars lore. And so I loved the recent switch to the High Republic era in the Acolyte. Oh, and the recent Star Wars Jedi games are also great.
But missing from that list was the Andor series. I watched three or four episodes when it came out and then gave up. It was just not interesting, a bore. But, after finishing the Acolyte and realising Andor was pretty much the only Star Wars I hadn't seen and as it is so loved critically, I decided to watch the rest of it.
And it was difficult. Realistically, out of the twelve episodes, only the final two or three were compelling. The rest was a slog and I found it incredibly hard to continue watching, although having just watched the finale, the ending almost makes up for it.
Firstly, twelve episodes is too many. It could have been six or eight, or perhaps 25-30 minutes per episode, and still had plenty of room for the story. The time recalling Cassian's childhood in the first few episodes was unneeded. The Syril character and his story with his overbearing mother were also superfluous. The heist on Aldhani could have been one episode instead of three, and to be brutally critical, the entire prison storyline could've been removed.
But then, if there is no Cassian as a kid parts, or Cassian in prison parts, and Aldhani is a single episode, what of his story is left? Not much, which leads me to think that this really is a story about Luthen, and would've been a much better series if written that way.
His relationship with Mon Mothma, with Saw Gerrera and with the fledgling rebellion in Vel, Cinta and Cassian were the most interesting parts of the show. Mon Mothma's story was well conceived and the villain in Dedra Meero was excellent. The escape by Luthen from the imperial patrol and their tractor beam and tie fighters was incredibly fun! And the finale was also fantastic.
So it's just a pity the show was drawn out over 12-odd hours of mostly irrelevant Cassian specific narrative (I admit here that I fast-forwarded most of the prison scenes -- I knew he must escape, how was of no real interest) and wasn't instead the story of Luthen and his efforts to spark rebellion throughout the empire.