'Andor' early review: Diego Luna's 'Star Wars' TV show is yawn-inducing so far

Except for 'The Mandalorian', the direction Disney is taking with 'Star Wars' TV shows does not look good to me. Even the appeal of 'Mandalorian' has a lot to do with the adorable character our hero befriends and an episode structure that is a lot like video games. Since I have not seen this written or spoken anywhere, let me be the one to tell this to Disney: not every character is interesting enough for a whole TV series about them that details the backstory and whatnot. I was under the impression that these shows will embellish the galaxy far, far away by introducing whole new worlds (literally), peoples, cultures, creatures, and so on.

But thus far, they have not only failed to do so, but they are also pretty bad at storytelling -- a cardinal sin for a show or movie set in this universe. 'Andor', sadly, continues this trend despite the best efforts of an excellent cast led by Diego Luna. The series centres on Cassian Andor, a character that Luna played in 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story', a standalone movie that was released in 2016. Andor in the movie was a brave Rebel Alliance officer. He was also the leader of 'Rogue One', which was a unit of rebel soldiers whose job is to steal the plans of Death Star. This directly led to the first ever 'Star Wars' movie to be released -- also called 'Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope'.

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'Andor' explores how the Rogue One commander came to be an important and influential opponent of the Galactic Empire from a cynical, small-time thief.

We see Andor coming under the radar of the Empire officials when he is found to have killed two soldiers. He is searching for his sister and we see flashbacks of his childhood in a remote community of children at a far-flung planet.

It is probably unfair to judge 'Andor' from the three episodes that have been released until now, and this may just be franchise-fatigue talking, but the serie does not inspire confidence thus far. Sure, for a fanatic of 'Star Wars' there is plenty to love. The CGI is solid, we see strange creatures, races, visuals of spacecrafts leaving planets or entering them, and the requisite droid character -- pretty much everything you would want from a 'Star Wars' show. Well, except for a good story and interesting characters.

The show may get better in the rest of the episodes, but don't hold your breath.

In India, 'Andor' is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.