Randy Tolsma

5 stars. It's a great show on its own, which happens to be set in the Star Wars universe. If you like Dave Filoni's silliness, humor, and fan service centric Star Wars, I won't judge you, but Andor is decidedly not that. Andor is quality, inspired storytelling, and the acting elevates it even further. Stellan Skarsgard, Denise Gough, Diego Luna, Genevieve O'Reilly, and so many more deliver one solid scene after another. A flashback being placed in the first couple episodes was a small misstep in my opinion, as I could see it putting off viewers wary of a show with time-jumps as part of the main plot. But they thankfully left that behind and have stuck themselves firmly in a well paced timeline. I recommend this show to anyone who likes hard political sci-fi, Star Wars fans, and anyone who enjoys a good thriller. They somehow find a way to do it all. I can't wait to finish s2.

The Wheel of Time is my favorite book series, and easily stands with other giants of the fantasy genre. The first season of Amazon's The Wheel of Time was disappointing to say the least. Much has been made over the years of the potential difficulty of creating a worthy WoT adaptation, how to do service to such a rich and detailed fantasy world when you had the inherent limitations that TV has instead of print. In my view this wasn't seen as a difficult proposition at all for the showrunners, who instead of treading lightly, decided to cut in and hack away, lobotomizing the original work into some crude fan fiction that insults the story at best and spits in the main characters faces at worst. I would not feel good about making this TV show. Especially not with that budget and the quality framework they seemingly ignored.