I'm one of those guys who grew up in the 80s, saw the first 2 SW films and definitely enjoyed them (never had any toys though) and with ROJ got put off enough by the Ewoks that I was happy to be done with it (to be honest I was always just far more of a Tron guy personally).
Then of course the prequels, I went to see the new one in 1999 and then, well, I knew I really didn't need to watch any more new SW things ever again. Ever.
Rogue One came out several years ago and the nerds realllllly hit it home about how "you have GOT to see this film!" Ok fine, I broke my vow at last and gave it a watch awhile later (pandemic boredom). Movie was ok, had some interesting sequences and such, but not really anything that was lighting a fire within me.
Went to a friend's get together to watch the first few episodes of Mando - ok those were pretty good, after a couple I was pretty tired of Baby Yoda (plus just seeing it evvvvverywherrrrre on the Internet otherwise) so that was that.
And then this.. well I'm not so sure how Andor got on my radar. Obviously I heard of it just like it's impossible not to hear of all of the other big SW goings on if you are any kind of a respectable nerd, but nothing sounded like I should care. Then I guess on FB, people started posting some screen grabs and right off I could tell that something special was happening here. Just a couple screens and it really looked like they were paying homage to the SW that I was into as a kid, design-wise, in a way that I'd not really seen elsewhere. With those pics of course the usual clamor about "holy shit this show is actually quite well done" and as my queue is relatively quiet right now, I thought I'd give a watch as it might be fun to at least look at for a bit. Watched the first episode... uhhh, that was interesting, but really slow, do I really care about this? Ok we will check out number 2.. ok that's about the same speed. Stuff is definitely nice to look at but, this shit is just plodding on and it's hard to feel drawn in really.
Then. I dunno what happened. I talked to a friend who was lapping this up and decided to give it another chance. Watched third episode and then alright, that was it, I found the spot.
This show is legit great. One of the best things I've seen all year, easily. Can't believe I have any interest in a Star Wars thing not made in the 70s or 80s but here I am. And the ties to SW are honestly the Cherry on top (Tie fighters, storm troopers, etc). All those things that I dug as a kid are being so lovingly and perfectly handled here. All the characters are very well fleshed out and reasonable. The stuff I would expect to be bored by, is all quite captivating. Somehow the impossible has happened and even to me, Star Wars has become fascinating again. Well done, excited for the finale and BRING ON SEASON 2!!!!