Fun fact: I was already pretty deep into puberty when I watched the first Star Wars movie. I actually watched Spaceballs before it and didn’t quite get it.
Shocking, I know – but television didn’t have a big role in my family when I was growing up and given that I had access to a computer from single-digit ages and was an avid reader starting around the same time, I never really missed it all that much.

(I wrote about my first “real” cinema visit a couple of years ago.)

So, anyway: Star Wars isn’t really part of my childhood – I still enjoyed the original movies quite a lot and re-watched them multiple times, just like many of my nerdy contemporaries. I even read some of the books that are now suddenly not canon anymore.
But I never quite got enough of the deep seated nostalgia that seems to get people through the more cartoony parts of the movies and TV series that have been produced since.
Don’t get me wrong – I still really like the whole Star Wars universe. The world building is just the right amount of space fantasy cowboy setting for me. But I do always hope for better stories being told in that universe. If possible without weird space wizards, we’ve seen enough of those by now, thank you very much.

So it might come as no big surprise that I really like Andor. It is both very Star Wars and also not at all. It is basically what I was hoping The Mandalorian would be: a very adult version of Star Wars. (Not in that way, you muppet.)
It is well written and super dark. It is acted and filmed beautifully. It tells a coherent story and it really managed to make me look forward to the second and last season. If you haven’t seen it yet and are still wondering if you should do – go ahead. It is really good.