All 5 live-action Star Wars shows ranked from worst to best

1. Andor

When looking at the four Star Wars live-action series as a collection, Andor sometimes feels like an outlier. Yes, The Mandalorian started off strong, and yes, there are solid moments in Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Book of Boba Fett, but the quality of Andor is just on another level.

The series debuted in Sept. 2022, right in the midst of my Star Wars fatigue, and it took me some time to even watch it. The Star Wars franchise is oversaturated to me now, sadly, so I wasn’t even excited about a new show. But after seeing the glowing reviews for Andor, I finally had to check it out. And thank goodness I did! It’s fantastic.

Andor takes place in the years leading up to the events of Rogue One and A New Hope, following Rebel spy Cassian Andor. I should’ve known Andor had a ton of potential considering how great and different Rogue One is, which follows the same character. Andor truly feels like a spinoff; yes, it takes place in the same world and features the current events of the galaxy, but it’s such a side story of its own. It doesn’t feel like it’s something Disney is using to get you to watch more shows. It takes risks, is written so well, and is such a departure from the live-action Star Wars series before it.

The show gets dark, and though it’s rated TV-14 like the other live-action Star Wars shows, it definitely deals with more mature topics and leans heavily into the politics and wrongdoings of the Empire. It gives us a raw look into how the Rebel Alliance feels and why they make the choices that they do. Sure, we can understand this from previous Star Wars shows and movies, but Andor gives us an almost uncensored look at it all. This is something I really didn’t expect from the franchise.

Andor season 2 will be coming out next summer in August 2024. Fingers crossed it’s just as good as the first season!