'Andor' review: 'Rogue One' prequel continues to thrill

WHAT IT'S ABOUT The Empire has big plans for Ghorman -- an otherwise peaceful planet that has already suffered at the hands of the Imperial forces. The rebel's leader, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård), and his protege, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), are in a race to find out what those plans are. But first, Andor's close friend (lover?) Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona) is in peril, and he needs to turn his attention to her. This second and final 12-episode season (created by Tony Gilroy) is the prequel to 2016's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story."

MY SAY With the first and now second season, "Andor" has officially become the anti-"Star Wars" franchise for the anti-"Star Wars" crowd. Expect no hokey comic relief, or "May the force be with you" stuff — no "Force" in evidence at all, really. No C-3PO or Baby Yoda to lighten the mood, no Jedi Knight to the rescue.

No plush toys will be forthcoming either because there's nothing (and no one) remotely warm and fuzzy in "Andor." Gilroy has taken the playbook, and page by page — or movie by movie — put them through the shredder. He tossed out the formula, scrambled that cosmic Good versus Evil thing, and otherwise turned this into something that's a galaxy removed from all that's come before. It bears pointing out that the shredding was long overdue, which may be why the outcome here is so thrilling.

"Andor" is a full circle series because it leads directly to "Rogue One" which itself ends up right where 1977's original "A New Hope" begins. The stakes were galactic then, and the same here, but on a human scale. The "good" characters of "Andor" aren't entirely good nor the "bad" bad, but various shades in between or (in some cases) blended together. The Force may bind all living beings — binds the whole universe in fact — but that doesn't mean it also has to be logical or consistent. "People fail," says Luthen. "That's our curse." To an extent that is everyone's curse in "Andor," or to paraphrase the old line: Humans plan, the Force laughs.

"Andor" — both seasons — has turned this most famous and stodgy of cinematic universes into something that's immediately recognizable, also part of the right-here-and-now. It’s a fully realized world of politics, backroom intrigue, spycraft and totalitarian diktats. The Rebel Alliance is an alliance in name only — a squabbling group of misfits who jockey for position and power, led by someone (Luthen) every bit as cruel as some counterpart on the Imperial Ruling Council. "Revolution is not for the sane," explains Forest Whitaker's hard-core militant rebel Saw Gerrera, and easy to see why in this context.

These 12 episodes are divided into four parts, each nearly a self-contained movie that plays as an extended character study. For example, Luthen and his assistant, Kleya Marki (Elizabeth Dulau), get their close-up in the last part while Genevieve O’Reilly's Sen. Mon Mothma gets hers through the early episodes.

All the performances are outstanding — O'Reilly has played Mothma in various movies and series for two decades — but the ones that'll knock your socks off are by Kyle Soller and Denise Gough. He's back as Syril Karn, the obsessive and psychically wounded functionary with the Imperial Bureau of Standards, and she as Dedra Meero, the cold-blooded officer with the Imperial Security Bureau. They are "Andor's" least sympathetic but most intensely human characters — tortured, self-loathing monsters in thrall to an Imperial wizard they've never laid eyes upon. The Force has nothing good in store for them, and their fates deeply moving.

BOTTOM LINE A shame all this brilliance has to end up at something as frivolous as "Rogue One." At least "Andor" makes the journey worthwhile.