I was late to the ANDOR party, but I’m glad I had the chance to remedy that. A gritty political thriller set in the STAR WARS universe, ANDOR goes far deeper in terms of ideas than pretty much the rest of the STAR WARS franchise, producing something strong and different enough that it really doesn’t need its source material.

The show is really about empire and rebellion, fascism and the the desire to resist it, and how resistance requires sacrifice and often resorting to tactics that mirror the evils of the oppressive regime. In this show, we primarily follow Andor, an orphan looking for a shortcut to a comfortable life who through circumstance winds up pushed to radicalism, one man’s journey to rebellion. While he simply wants to be left alone, the police state will not allow it, pushing him and others until they put their lives on the line to resist. For them, there’s little inspirational talk about democracy and way more base resistance to being dominated, used, and destroyed.

Speaking of the show’s themes, apparently, ANDOR was responsible for quite a few domestic arguments among viewers. I have to wonder who the hell watches STAR WARS and roots for the fascists enough to argue about it.

Anyway, back to the show: Connecting to Andor through a wider web, we have agents of Empire, from bureaucrats trying to get ahead to minor police wanting to prove themselves to gain approval from an authority figure, and the rebel network itself, made up of sympathizers, leaders, and hardcore operatives. In this early rebellion, it’s hard to know who to trust–as you’re doing so with your life and the cause–and you often don’t know what the big plan is. There’s a terrific speech by a rebel leader about sacrifice, how he will only know suffering and won’t survive to see the final victory. The methods and tactics used on both sides are fairly realistic, such as the Rebels provoking a brutal reaction by the Empire to further inflame the populace against it.

The show took a while to get rolling for me, but once it did, it fired on all cylinders, and I was fairly gripped.

The actors are all solid, notably Diego Luna as Andor and Stellan Skarsgård as Luthen Rael (the aforementioned rebel leader). The sets and effects are fairly good, notably the prison, while Andor’s hometown appears to be recycled from several scenes in THE MANDALORIAN, so striking I’m wondering if it’s intentional, as THE MANDALORIAN is set in ANDOR’s future. Otherwise, there’s the usual STAR WARS set design where people seem to have to walk miles to get to work and everything either looks blank, bright white, and uncomfortable or stuck in a futuristic Middle Ages.

Overall, ANDOR takes on the rebellion against the Empire as a concept and takes it seriously, going way beyond the usual superficial to offer a story that is gritty, real, dramatic, and compelling.

THE CREATOR (2023) is an okay story wrapped in one hell of a stunning package.

It’s the future, and after a nuclear bomb destroys most of Los Angeles and AI gets blamed for it, America not only outlaws AI but becomes hostile to any country harboring it. This primarily puts America at odds with a country called New Asia, where AI androids and robots live side by side with humans and are valued as living things.

In the midst of this, a Special Forces operative (John David Washington) with divided loyalties is recruited to go back to New Asia to hunt down and kill the Creator, a software engineer responsible for the most advanced AI, and also a mysterious weapon that has the potential to end the war and possibly humanity.

Washington was in TENET, and this movie has the same gravitas-laden feel. While that worked tonally for TENET, which is primarily a plot-driven movie, it doesn’t work as well here, where we’re clearly intended to feel invested in the protagonist and his relationship with his wife and an android child. Oddly, however, the AI entities seem to have more humanity than the human characters.

Regarding the themes, there’s little regarding the ethical considerations for AI beyond whether an AI entity that is programmed to feel emotions and act human is actually a person and therefore has rights. AI is the likable underdog in this movie, though far more interesting about AI is the same quandary as with genetic engineering. If you can make a superior person–genetically enhanced, AI-supplemented, or entirely AI–doesn’t this make the rest of humanity a permanent underclass? The movie keeps it simple: The AI people act like people and therefore shouldn’t be persecuted.

Now to my favorite part, which was the visuals. Many of the scenes look like something Simon Stalenhag would come up with if he included Asia in his paintings. The CGI appears lived in, lifelike, and absolutely stunning. The action scenes are absolutely epic, titillating, and pack some fun surprises. America, the baddie, unleashes incredible machines to win the war.

It all wraps up in a last act that defies probability here and there and produces a victory that didn’t quite have me cheering.

Despite some criticisms of the how the story translated onto the screen, I really liked THE CREATOR. In the end, the story was okay, if a bit lifeless. The ride, however, is pretty thrilling, particularly in the action and gorgeous visuals.

A MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD is a series about an amateur sleuth who attends a retreat of brilliant minds, only to find herself trying to solve a murder. Part Arctic noir, part mystery, and a whole lot of offbeat storytelling one expects from Brit Marling and Zal Batmaglij, it was pretty good but not great for me.

Darby is a young woman seemingly haunted by her experience hunting a serial killer with her partner and lover Bill. When she receives an invitation from a tech billionaire to attend a secret, exclusive retreat, she can’t resist–she’s also pretty obsessive. When one of the guests dies, she suspects foul play and soon realizes they all may be in danger.

The show has a lot going for it. Marling and Batmaglij are always good for challenging, provocative ideas and striking a slightly unsettling mood. The idea of a group of online sleuths tracking down a serial killer made for a pretty cool backstory. The Arctic noir setting was quite beautiful and isolating. The story has a great setup filled with intrigue, and the last act gets to the end with a strong pace and a touching denouement. Clive Owen, who plays the tech billionaire, is particularly good and shows us his more menacing side.

I had a few problems with it, though. For one, I found the dips into the backstory far more interesting than what was going on in the present at the retreat, the real purpose of which is never really explained. There are themes about late-stage capitalism and the temptations and dangers of technology, but they’re never really explored to a point. The characters at the retreat aren’t particularly interesting, including Darby herself, who mostly scowls at everything and appears to know everything. Coming out in 2023, the show presents tech that isn’t all that crazy mind blowing, given the explosion of AI earlier in the year. The ending twist isn’t all that surprising.

Overall, I liked it. Honestly, I would have preferred a series that was just the backstory–that could have been a lot of fun to watch as a more developed story. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly entertaining and fairly well done, and I found it worth the watch.

Created by and starring Donald Glover, ATLANTA is a laid-back and quirky comedy-drama series about a college dropout who works his way into his rapper cousin’s entourage to become his manager and take him to the next level. I just finished the first season and liked it a lot, though I didn’t quite fall in love with it the way some critics did.

The first season starts off really well. There is so much charm and comedy to be found in little interactions in daily life, and Glover mines it to great effect. We’re introduced to Earnest (“Earn,” played by Glover), his friend and co-parent Van (Zazie Beetz), rapper cousin Alfred (“Paper Boi,” played by Brian Tyree Henry), and Alfred’s eccentric buddy Darius (LaKeith Stanfield). I fell in love with the characters pretty quickly, which made it easy to laugh at the numerous little funny bits.

The show is described as highly episodic, more like short stories than an overall story arc. That worked fine for me. In the second half of the season, though, the show became more experimental, adding touches of the surreal and some subtle social commentary. That’s all good, though it wasn’t as strong as that terrific setup and doesn’t quite pay it off. In later episodes, Earn becomes somewhat one note, playing eternal straight man to the weirdness. No longer quite strong as a dramedy and not quite pointed enough to be the next SEINFELD.

This aside, I liked this one a lot and will be checking out the next three seasons. While the first season’s second half didn’t quite live up to what I thought the show could be, it’s a ton of fun, and I look forward to see what else these characters get up to.