STAR WARS: ANDOR: Episodes 2.1 through 2.3
Handsome, well-acted — and, by our lights, not worth your time.
Should You Watch It?
Here's our answer up front: skip these episodes. There are things done well here — a couple of genuinely nice action scenes, capable acting, and even some funny moments in the petty bickering among stranded rebels. But the good is buried under stretches where little happens, and we found ourselves ceasing to care about these characters.
More seriously, these three episodes push a strong politically correct agenda in an arbitrary, gratuitous and mindless way — with overt, silly swipes at policies on illegal immigration and energy independence. The lowest point is a scene in Episode 2.3 where an immigration officer attached to the Imperial Army tries to rape Andor's friend Bix. That scene doesn't belong in a Star Wars story, a franchise built as a child-friendly space-opera fairy tale.
Creators can make whatever they wish, however illogical or wicked. That doesn't mean we have to watch it, approve of it, or let our children and grandchildren see it. Despite their positive qualities, we judge these episodes excessive and unacceptable overall. Skip them.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESSeason Two opens with Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) on a dangerous errand: steal an experimental TIE fighter out from under the Empire. His plan runs into trouble immediately, and the mission drops him somewhere he didn't intend to land.
Back on an agricultural planet, his friends Bix, Brasso and Wil hide from the Empire, posing as techies — their immigration papers forged. Elsewhere, Andor's handler Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) attends a lavish arranged wedding for Mon Mothma's daughter, and imperial climbers Syril and Dedra sit through a tense dinner with Syril's overbearing mother. Several worlds, one tightening net.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars says the craft is here. The action scenes are nicely staged — the theft of the experimental ship, a hangar shootout, a rebel encampment turning on itself. The performances hold, and the pettiness of the stranded rebels squabbling among themselves is genuinely funny because it's so small.
But the momentum sags. For every strong sequence there's a stretch of boring scenes where not much happens, and the effect over three episodes is that we simply stopped caring about the people onscreen. There's a well-made show buried in here; these particular episodes don't let it breathe.
The Worldview
These episodes carry a strong mixed pagan worldview and, layered over it, a strongly politically correct one. The messaging isn't subtle: the Empire's villains speak of wanting "energy independence" and plot to seize a planet's resources by any means, complete with an allusion attacking fracking. The series leans into a modern leftist posture against colonialism and seems to promote pro-socialist ideas about society, with strong Romantic notions of what society should be.
The clearest example of the agenda pushed too far is the attempted-rape scene in Episode 2.3, staged around an officer rounding up "illegal" immigrants — and pointedly cross-cut with wedding guests dancing wildly at Mon Mothma's reception. It's gratuitous and obnoxious, and it doesn't belong in Star Wars. A minor character also mentions a recently ended lesbian relationship.
To be fair, the show isn't all one note. Running underneath is a real and worthy theme: opposition to totalitarianism and a longing for liberty. That instinct is good. But it's yoked to so much arbitrary messaging that the good gets lost.
The show's ache is for freedom from tyranny — a longing Scripture answers not with revolution but with the God who breaks every yoke: "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free" (Galatians 5:1).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Strong mixed pagan worldview with strong politically correct content with one army officer rounding up the illegal immigrants tries to rape a young woman although he doesn’t know whether she’s illegal or not (earlier it’s revealed that her visa papers are forged because she’s a rebel hiding out from the evil empire), some villains representing the evil empire mention in one scene the empire’s desire to have “energy independence,” and they plot to steal a planet’s resources by hook or by crook (the scene even has an allusion attacking fracking for gas and oil), and series seems to promote a modern leftist attitude against colonialism, with strong Romantic elements about society, series seems to promote pro-socialist ideas about society, but the negative elements are mitigated by strong moral elements against totalitarianism and promoting liberty, plus a minor female character mentions her past lesbian relationship (she’s recently broken up with her lover)
Foul Language
An “s” word is used in Episode 2.1, someone calls a group of villains “bastards” in Episode 2.2, and Episode 2.3 has no foul language
Violence
Strong and light action violence in all three episodes include young woman in Episode 2.3 desperately fights off an army officer acting as an immigration policeman trying to rape her where they both hit one another, and he flings her, but she hits him with some objects, would-be rape victim eventually mortally wounds her attacker, and he stumbles and collapses outside the single-level building where she was living and working, pilot steals an experimental spaceship fighter, but the controls are unexpectedly new to him, and the ship bumps around a hangar while some storm troopers in white armor shoot at him, and the hero makes the ship fire back at them, pilot eventually blows a hole in the hangar and escapes with the stolen ship into outer space, pilot lands on another planet and rebels surround and capture him because they are stranded and want to steal his ship (they doubt his story about having stolen the ship for the Rebellion), the rebels fight among one another and divide into two camps that try to shoot one another dead with their space blasters, pilot hero is tied up and held captive, pilot hero subdues the man holding him captive and escapes with his stolen spaceship while the pirates are too occupied fighting with one another, an unknown monster attacks a camp of people one night, and people are shot dead and wounded by laser guns and other futuristic weapons
Sex
Episode 2.3 has a scene where an Imperial officer tries to rape one of the heroines in the story (she lacks proper visa papers so she’s an “illegal migrant”) but she successfully fights him off but with great difficulty, a wealthy woman with financial problems who’s secretly part of a political resistance movement is accused of having an adulterous fling, and one minor character mentions her lesbian relationship that recently ended, but there are no depicted or implied sex scenes
Nudity
No nudity
Alcohol Use
Some alcohol use and there’s a wild dance revelry after a wedding and a person is drunk in Episode 2.3
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
No smoking or drugs;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Some strong miscellaneous immorality such as bureaucrats and military/security officers serving an evil empire oppress citizens and plot to take a planet’s energy resources, woman angrily warns her make lover’s annoying mother to be nice or else, pilot hero steals a small experimental enemy spaceship for the resistance movement against the evil empire, and woman and teenage daughter seem to have a strained relationship, as does the girl’s mother and her father.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The series clearly believes tyranny is evil and liberty is worth fighting for — and it's right to. Where does true freedom come from, and what kind of freedom does the gospel promise?
Galatians 5:1 · John 8:36Storytellers can dress up any message as entertainment. How do we stay discerning about the ideas a story quietly asks us to accept?
1 Thessalonians 5:21 · Proverbs 14:15The show mixes real moral concern with an agenda it pushes in a heavy-handed way. How can Christians affirm what's genuinely good in a work while still turning away from what's harmful?
Philippians 4:8 · Romans 12:9Several relationships here are strained — spouses, a mother and daughter, a girlfriend and her partner's mother. What does Scripture ask of us when family bonds fray?
Ephesians 4:2–3 · Colossians 3:12–14The Final Word
There's talent on display here, and even a worthy anti-tyranny streak. But these episodes are excessive and, by our lights, unacceptable — dead air, an aggressive agenda, and a gratuitous attempted-rape scene that has no business in Star Wars. So our verdict stands: skip it. Looking for something the whole household can enjoy instead? Try our latest family-friendly picks.
