Ironically that narrative substitution is very Moffat in itself!

I wonder if this is to do with streamers (esp Netflix) visibly putting shows into defined boxes on their menus - True Crime-Brain viewers are watching this because it looks and feels like TC, even though it’s really a Something To Say show

Yes - well, he is fundamentally a lunatic, and I definitely admire him for trafficking in big ideas, even if they’re structurally unsound…

And re CS: I don’t know, but I agree with your point elsewhere about Lucas - I don’t trust a word he says about his own intentions and history, but in terms of the PT, his influences are obvious enough

Totally agree about wanting versus actually saying (altho haven’t seen ID). I would just suggest that the attempt in itself is enough to give a film a sense of aboutness. It’s no work of great political satire, but to your original point, it’s much more actively political than the OT

Although if Lucas had been in possession of all the facts, I also think a counterfactual approach is equally valid. Agree it’s thin - it’s handled infinitely more intelligently in Andor - but it’s there. How many summer blockbusters of the time were dealing in those ideas?

Agreed that it is both hamfisted (I would never accuse Lucas of being a subtle writer) and incorrect, but I also think it’s only fair to point out that it was written contemporaneously - it’s easy for us to look back on it now and say it it’s wrong, but it was still a political response

Nothing much! But I think it’s certainly true that that trilogy (particularly the latter two) is written in dialogue with contemporary America in a way the original trilogy wasn’t. Maybe it’s an issue of semantics - I would consider that aboutness, even if I don’t think it’s insightful!

Prequel trilogy - a politician confecting an emergency to grab dictatorial power and end a republic, released just after 9/11? Even if you don’t agree with it or think it’s particularly incisive, there’s a political point of view there (that I agree isn’t as present in the OT)

And the world more generally - the highest-grossing FB film was the one where the only real connection to the original stories, Grindelwald, was a twist reveal at the end. The first film did all its business simply on the premise of ‘more adventures in the wizarding world’!

It’s the best. Hope you have a great time with it!

I was the same, but Cassian himself is the single least interesting part of Andor. He’s more of a gateway into the wider world of the show, which is sublime

You’d hope it would inspire more soul-searching - it was a genuine feat to kill the enthusiasm for the franchise! You’ve made something so offputting that even fans don’t care about seeing Dumbledore vs Grindelwald?

They just took the wrong lesson from FB - ‘people don’t like when it’s different’ rather than the actual lesson, which is ‘people don’t like confused, dull messes’

Think this one’s reputation benefits from the shortened series length - classically executed Who but it has an outsize influence because it’s the only ‘normal’ episode in the series. Imagine getting three or four of these