johnnymonsarrat

Andor is well acted with stunning scenes, but the writers took two wrong lessons from Star Wars.

First, I guess someone told them that conflict makes a plot interesting. Joseph Campbell famously inspired George Lucas that a hero must accept the task reluctantly. So Luke Skywalker at first doesn't want to join Ben Kenobi in Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

But Andor is full of empty conflict that's not driven by character. Wow! Everyone REALLY doesn't want to work together and they keep saying it over and over. It's boring. Luke Skywalker decided to join Ben Kenobi after just a few minutes of film time because of the emotional character arc of his parents dying. Character arcs in Andor are few.

The second rule of Hollywood is that plots should turn based on character. Luke Skywalker doesn't win in Star Wars VI because he's a good light saber fighter. He wins because he believes that his father still has good in him.

Andor is too full of plot twists that turn on irrelevant things. It's about character, people. Why are we rooting for these characters? Why is everything so grey and uninteresting?

Finally, I think to like this series you have to come in already knowing a lot about Star Wars. You have to begin watching hating the Empire and loving The Rebellion. Because the show doesn't really give you enough reasons to hate the badguys and root for the good guys. Cassian's allies are generic. Who is Bix to him, really? Bix's boyfriend, a tangential character, has more depth.

I have to say that I'm disappointed that some people feel this is a great TV show. I'm not some out of touch intellectual. If you want to make an action series where nothing makes sense but a lot of stuff blows up I'm actually fine with that! But Andor doesn't have the fun adventure of Rogue One.

Instead, Andor is a slow-paced drama. It's not fast moving enough to be powered by action. It rests on the plot and character and there is not enough of either. The whole world is grey and depressing. How does that have any connection to what we think of as Star Wars?

Why do women date bad men? Because they are drawn to confidence. Arrogant people and criminals aren't good partners, but they have confidence.

So why are TV audiences drawn to heist movies and gang shows? It's because the main characters have confidence.

This is excusable in shows like Breaking Bad, which show the ugliness of crime. But I really didn't like Pulp Fiction where we are drawn to love the characters though their witty banter and then find out they're horrible, sadistic, and cruel.

Similarly, with Tulsa King and previously with The Sopranos, I just can't stomach the show's portayal of Dwight as a really good guy who cares about everyone but is also violent.

I can forgive this with con man shows like Sneaky Pete, who is non-violent. Or Banshee, which is like a comic book. Like Batman we know that they only hurt bad guys. Or with comedies that signal there will be no real pain.

Good hearted people aren't violent. That's not layered characterization. It's nonsensical. It means that the show doesn't make emotional sense. It also robs me of, why am I rooting for this character?

On top of that, the character choices of the supporting cast don't make sense either. A wimpy guy wants to join a rumble? Dwight breaks laws and nobody calls the police? The biker gang and Mafia family are stereotypes with manufactured conflict that doesn't come from character.

Finally, I don't know that this show is interesting or unique in any way, compared to shows like Banshee and Ozark and Justified, which are also set in rural communities.

I dropped out after one too many emotional scenes where Dwight is portrayed as wise and sensitive. I felt the same way about Yellowstone with its patronizing "wisdom" about cowboy life coming from murderers and truly awful parents.

I just refuse that human quirk that makes us want to respect abusers. Most people seem to love this show but it's just not for me.

The "Rule of Cool" in Hollywood says that if something is cool enough, it doesn't matter if it makes sense.

For example, Star Wars is so cool that you never stop to realize that The Force doesn't make any sense and that everyone who owns a droid is a slaveholder.

Yellowstone is full of cool. The acting, the scenery, the earnest yearning for nature and the past are aces.

But, especially after Season One, ugly writing builds up and the cool just can't cover it. The heroes of the show are murderers, and even the most innocent are violent and we're supposed to root for them, for example starting a bar fight for no reason.

The second rule they break is "Don't be preachy". It's like poison to a script. Yellowstone, especially after Season One, becomes too much about arrogant, terrible advice on parenting and life.

For example, to keep peace in a group "let them fight it out". Weak characters are brought it for straw man arguments about environmentalists and tourism. The show is drowning in overconfident pronouncements about tradition that lack nuance.

I guess Beth is supposed to be cool because she's tough. Actually, she's just violent and rude. Even the nicest character, Monica, is condescending and insulting to her students.

On top of this, plot points happen for random reasons instead of character arcs... for example car accidents. Everything with the farmhands is boring.

It's just too much. Yellowstone is not cool enough to cover the rising ugliness in its characters and the soap opera quality of its writing.