With a few extra goodies you will only see as part of the recommended viewing here, here is how to have the most cinematic, resonant experience of one of the most cinematic, resonant screen projects in recent memory
(Traduce en español/translate to Spanish) By Brian E. Frydenborg (Twitter @bfry1981, LinkedIn, Facebook, Substack with exclusive informal content) September 14, 2025; because of YOU, Real Context News surpassed one million content views on January 1, 2023, but I still need your help, please keep sharing my work and consider also donating as I make my overdue comeback! Real Context News produces commissioned content for clients upon request at its discretion.
SILVER SPRING—Apologies for not posting this earlier, as my life has been too interesting lately, and I am not even going to try to treat this as any kind of review of the singularity knows as Andor, a Star Wars show on Disney+ starring Diego Luna as the titular Cassian Andor alongside the legendary Stellan Skarsgård and a soon-to-be-legendary ensemble cast..
Some Context on this Amazing Show You Definitely Should Watch
While I have certainly had my issues with Disney, I have so, SO much to say about the greatness of this show on so many level and its searing relevance to the crises consuming America and the world in 2025, so much so I that had to redo my GOAT list; quite simply put, Andor is one of the most amazing shows I’ve ever seen, tied for the best of all time on my list, actually (shared with Rome from HBO/BBC, with HBO’s The Sopranos a close second).
Nominated for 14 Emmy Awards this year—including the awards for best drama, writing, direction, and cinematography—it’s also one of the most unique shows I have ever seen, breaking convention and genre like it is fighting its own rebellious revolution. And Andor has been called the best dramatic show of 2025 by Hollywood press heavyweights Variety, Vanity Fair, and The Hollywood Reporter, along with The Guardian, just to name a few. Furthermore, it has some of the highest-rated television episodes in history and a special IMDB record. Even with the 14 Emmy nominations this year, The Hollywood Reporter was particularly snarky in its expressions of still feeling Andor was “robbed” of a bunch of acting nominations, and they are not alone.
Rather, this is simply a viewing guide to get the most out of your viewing experience, much like my popular guide for watching Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sithalongside the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series finale that thousands of you have appreciated (I did not see Disney matching the finale of Clone Warsas far as quality with any big Star Wars project, but wow, was I wrong, Andor being the proof!. And if you’ve seen Clone Wars through Season 5, check out my take on how the show sheds lights on lessons we can learn from 9/11).
Anyway, all you need to know is that the first season starts roughly five years before the events of the earliest-produced Star Wars movie, 1977’s original Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. The first scene of the first episode is introduced timeline-wise BBY 5, which stands for “before the Battle of Yavin,” referring to the events of the original 1977 film. It’s kind of like a BC/AD (CE preferred) year dating system.
That’s it, and even genius showrunner Tony Gilroy has made it clear you really don’t need to know about Star Wars, or even like Star Wars, to respond to the show well and many viewers have confirmed this.
THE BEST DAMN ANDOR VIEWING GUIDE IN THE GALAXY
If you’re curious about the show, whatever your politics or background, just trust me and watch it, but be PATIENT and PAY ATTENTION: if you missed a line, rewind, for the journey is so worth it and this is so sophisticated that you need to embrace the slowness of some earlier episodes. Details and people matter, even small seemingly ones! Watch on a big screen and with surround sound. Turn your phones off (genius showrunner Tony Gilroy says so—watch only 19:48 until 20:59 and ignore comments and other videos!). I’M SERIOUS, PHONES OFF! And Silent, no vibrating! Turn off the lights too, and minimize interruptions. Have some drinks. Immerse yourself. Also, the music is phenomenal, so I strongly suggest letting the credits for each episode play out (especially after S1 E11 and S2E9). Don’t skip the intro theme music, either, because it is different for each episode and give tantalizing clues as to what is coming as the show goes on. Now a big fan of the more general Disney Star Wars jingle, though, so personally choose I mute that little flourish…)
I HIGHLY recommend watching the main arcs as min-movies in single-sittings, without interrupting the arcs.
SO, for season 1, it’s mostly simple:
STEP 1—Andor Season 1
BBY 5 Episodes 1-3 uninterrupted, then Episodes 4-6 uninterrupted, then Episodes 7-10 uninterrupted, then Episodes 11-12 uninterrupted (don’t forget the END CRDITS SCENE at the end of Episode 12).
The only trick to remember is that the third arc works best as four episodes, with a tighter closing arc of two episodes.
For the second and final season, it’s easier, but I am adding twists. Each arc here is three episodes and jumps roughly a year forward (BBY4-BBY1).
STEP 2—Andor Season 2 part 1
BBY4 Episodes 1-3 uninterrupted, BBY 3 Episodes 4-6 uninterrupted, BBY 2 Episodes 7-9 uninterrupted (no matter what, do not break up Episodes 7 and 8, if you compromise elsewhere make sure to watch these two still in the same sitting)
STEP 3—brief interlude (21 minutes)
Now here is where things get complicated. In 2017, the animated show Star Wars: Rebels aired an episode—Season 3, Episode 18, Secret Cargo, a little over twenty-minutes long—that picks up almost immediately after Andor Season 2, Episode 9. The first few minutes you might be like WTF but just trust me and realize the episode is only 21 minutes without credits. You just need to know the main characters on that show are a secret rebel cell that is in the process of joining the larger rebellion, a cell that is led by a pilot named Hera, with her number-two in the form of Kanan, a grown-up Jedi trainee from the Republic, before it fell and became the Empire. They took in with their merry band a young potential Jedi, Ezra, form the planet of Lothal (which Ezra will mention to a key Andor character). The show is not as good as its precursor, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, so don’t judge all Star Wars animation by this, and it’s certainly tonally and stylistically different from Andor, but it’s still a solid episode featuring one of the main characters from Andor. I would dive into this interlude just after finishing STEP 2).
STEP 4—finishing interlude (about 6 minutes)
Then, jump ahead to Rebels Season 4, Episode 3. You can start at 3:29 and go to 9:27. This involves a very important conversation between the same character and another important character from Andor. Watch this just before you start up STEP 5, it is just about 6 minutes from that episode (if you’re interested in the backstories raised here, I will have more information on that in the future because there is more content with characters featured in Andor…)
STEP 5—Andor Season 2 final arc
BBY 1 Episodes 9-12 uninterrupted (only start if you can also do STEP 6 in the same viewing; don’t compromise here, either; worst case, make sure to watch at least Episode 12 just before STEP 6)
STEP 6—Rogue One
Watch 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (do not break and do this immediately after finishing the final episode of Andor. Again, no ifs, ands, or buts)
STEP 7—back to the OG
Go back to where it all began and knock out 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (with the actual Battle of Yavin at the end!).
Conclusion: A Call to Watch
Andor changed my life. I am a different and better person for it. I hope you understand after you watch. And if you watch this all in the ways I have recommended, you will feel the most emotional impact. Seriously, if you watch one show this year, make it this one.
I will close on this: art has a power to inspire like nothing else, and I experienced that with Andor. With all that is going on in the world today, the big names behind the U.S. television and film industry can take a real stand to help promote this exquisite meditation on collective consciousness, oppression, resistance, and the costs and nature of revolution, on the nature of fascism and its costs, on sacrifice and death, on hope and perseverance, on the nature of good and evil. To not recognize the powerful homages to forces contained in Andor would be doing our nation and humanity a disservice at a time when we need art desperately to move to action, provoke and inspire, not just entertain. To not do this is a choice to choose entertainment at the expense of helping people wake up, to choose relative frivolity by favoring stories detached from wider struggles mirroring those erupting around us, to numb and distract with bread and circuses when a true revelation is at hand, one that wallows gloriously for many hours with some of the toughest moral questions of our time. In too many ways, this year is the year of Andor, and the Emmys should have recognized this more in the acting categories yet still, tonight, during the Emmy Awards, there is still a chance justice will be done not simply for Andor and its awe-struck, rightly-fanatical fans, but for public audiences all around the world in times that try men’s souls.
© 2025 Brian E. Frydenborg all rights reserved, permission required for republication, attributed quotations welcome
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