I like RLM and I like Andor, but listening to Mike talk about anything Star Wars related is frustrating. He has strong script doctor tendencies causing him to veer off into extended tangents about what he would have done, distracting him from talking about what he actually watched. I think these tendencies really come out in Star Wars because he's become jaded by 'Star Wars as a product'.
This was a fun watch b/c I feel like they’re on my level of SW fandom. First trilogy only (and that, with extensive caveats); Mando, and this. That’s it. Everything else is a travesty of justice. Lucas is a schmuck, Disney is a clusterfuck, and all we wanted was the greatest movie ever made to be unsullied. Yet here we are. At least Andor was pretty good. A little miserable, but ok.
While I have little personal affection for the sequels or the Disney canon generally, I make an effort to avoid spiraling into negativity.
If Star Wars has something good come out under its Disney control, then so be it. If it’s something bad, then I think the healthiest response is not to engage it obsessively.
There is always the old EU. Sure it was officially de-canonized by the current legal owners, but they can’t unwrite Heir To The Empire. The old EU had lots of good to keep somebody busy for a long time.
Circling back to Andor, I find healthy discussion and criticism to be a good thing (and encourage it here), but Mike in the video barely touched Andor. He seemed too busy venting what he wanted to stop and engage with what he got. Despite enjoying it, he had little to actually say about it.
He focuses on minutiae and then uses these small concerns as the basis for his criticism, often losing focus to the point that corrections are posted as hilarious inserts after the fact - it’s no wonder he has such strong support with Redditors.
Mike on Star Trek: "I always thought it was weird on the Voyager episode 'State Of Flux' how the officer at the secondary warp alignment station had two gold pips instead of a black and gold pip. That warp station seems like a job below a lieutenant's grade."
Mike on Star Wars: "The Phantom Menace? Was that the one with Jedi?"