Andor was boring for that reason. Got the impression that the filmmakers don't really like Star Wars and only used the IP to tell a story they otherwise couldn't. That's why the tone is so off from Star Wars. It wants to be complex political intrigue with grey areas like Game of Thrones or something. Pretentious.
"The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together."
No fantasy elements, total rejection of good and evil (Only grey, including the ones on the right side, who are all unlikable.) and this lifeforce that is supposed to be everywhere. Just a bland sci-fi. Anti-Star Wars.
Colored people everywhere, including Imperial leadership that was intentionally white men only in the OT (to contrast Rebels who had other colors, women and aliens -- more in Return of the Jedi, though), but still racist because no alien characters at all. Andor is in a prison block with 48 other inmates and not one alien. They only appear in the background. The fishermen could have been an abandoned ship. Ancillary. The only non-human character (Character, not background figures.) is the droid in the old woman's house, who doesn't matter. Every character that helps drive the story is human. Imperial leadership white men only in OT also because those austere uniforms in a room together don't suit black people and Asians at all. Like seeing a black man in a Nazi uniform and trying to pretend he was accepted as one of the fascists. It wasn't said in the OT, but it could be safely assumed. It was visual; the uniformity of their costumes, sex and skin color.
I don't care for this judgmental view the show has of arranged marriages. How the girl is matched with such a sense of doom. Seeking out partners oneself is working out SO well with most of those marriages (usually late into adulthood, after they've already been spoiled by unhappiness, grown cynical and defensive) ending in divorce, if they find someone at all. Arranged marriage would have been right in line with space fantasy inspired by the old fables, but of course this show rejects all of that.
The tease of the Death Star after the end credits made me think, "So what?" We know what happens, we've seen it destroyed. It doesn't need to be teased with such a sense of doom anymore. Prequels largely have nowhere to go, really. STILL staying in that safe place between the trilogies. Refusing the deviate one bit in space and time. Boring.
Guy who looks like Kyle MacLachlan's son wears a tie and works in a big office building. The tie doesn't hug a collar like ours. Too Earth-like, like the AK-47. They used, if I remember correctly, the Mauser C96 in Star Wars because it's not that well known by people who aren't into guns. You can't do that with the most famous rifle in the world. Thought the point was to make you feel like you're in a made-up world.
Buildup of Rebels feel stupidly rapid if this is supposed to lead up to CG characters from original movie attacking and communicating like they've done this plenty before in Rogue One (Shit movie.) and Diego Luna doesn't look any younger.
Escape was way too easy. I don't think the guards relying on the electric floors and being understaffed excuses it. The security was lacking.
I'm sick of Disney's dramatic speeches about hope and defiance with intensifying music in climaxes. Comes off as so fake, absolute cringe after the townspeople marched with their instruments (which was already friggin' cringe) in the last episode. Think it really got big after The Dark Knight, then slid its way into 007 with Skyfall.
Watched it faster than I normally do shows, but that's hardly impressive because it's highly serialized like almost all television drama now (as opposed to single stories that you enjoy but are fine following with another a few days or week(s) later). It's not good.