The “Star Wars” franchise has one of the largest and most detailed fictitious universes, with the first film presenting a world that is both recognizable and entirely foreign. Of course, we had a princess, a cowboy, a sorcerer, an empire and a rebellion, but it was firmly an extraterrestrial world that looked like ours in many ways. And yet, over time, the franchise has started to appear more and more familiar. The way Ewoks fought the Empire in “Return of the Jedi” was unequivocally inspired by the Viet Cong, and the prequels brought this to a new level, with an American restaurant in space, an opera, a Nascar race, and more.
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It is not necessarily a bad thing. The prequelles were more specific in their comments and used familiar images to tell the story of a very fictitious world which can nevertheless suffer from the same political problems to us. It brings us to “Andor”, the absolute story “Star Wars” the most shy. It is the most real franchise, with a story that could easily take place in our world, and is absolutely dismatureing in the way it approaches our current reality – even by always presenting stormtroopers and thirds. Throughout season 1, “Andor” scrambled the boundaries between the Galaxy far, far and ours. There were funny things like Space Miami (alias Niamos), but also the way in which the spectacle transformed the caricatural evil of the recognizable bureaucracy empire.
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In season 2, Tony Gilroy and his team double on “Andor” a very real and timely story that happens to be a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far. “The Clone Wars” had already given us an overview of the “Star Wars” equivalent of the Internet – The Holonet and its many entertainment uses. In episode 5, “Andor” was so dedicated to showing us the slower and more daily aspects of “Star Wars” that it gave us … day TV. It is true, in the midst of discussions on genocide, massacres’ mentions and very French coded resistance, we had an overview of what television looks like in the galaxy far, far. It’s as weird as you expect.
The imperial machine reaches as far as … day TV
Episode 5 concerns the resistance of Ghorman, which we know to be more than partially designed by the Empire in order to justify killing everyone on the planet in order to exploit an unlimited power. Suddenly, however, we get a new chapter in the most deliciously disturbed sitcom in the “Star Wars” universe – Syril’s mom’s mother’s time! It is true, we get another clumsy mother-son meal, but this time they have a television in the background, and we have a glimpse of what the people of “Star Wars” look while they eat.
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It turns out that it looks a lot like our own day television! We get a morning show with hosts (including Ruby Wax!) Dressed like the most country characters in “hunger games”. What are they talking about? Why, celebrity gossip, of course. One of the hosts mentions a senatorial party, and they immediately joke about the concern of politics, but loving parties involving politicians because of their outfits. It is a short scene, but it is used to paint an image of the type of bread and circuses that the Empire uses to keep the population distracted. We know that the government is planning a genocide on a planet’s scale, but all television guests can talk about celebrity outfits. Once again, it is extremely appropriate and also timeless: fascist propaganda and work distraction tactics.
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But that’s not all. For a completely different side of television in the universe “Star Wars”, we later get a flashing and yourself of two imperial guards distracted at work because they look at a broadcast of the largest sporting event in the whole galaxy – Podrace! Does this mean that they have the “Star Wars” equivalent of the Netflix F1 series “Drive to Survive?” Are the podacers great celebrities in the universe? Is Sebulba always a big star in the imperial era? Perhaps Ratts Tyerell is considered a legend, as Ayrton Senna is in our universe.
What does television look under the Empire look like?
“Star Wars” is great when it is a mystified fantasy with allusions to events, people and places that we never see (like Obi-Wan mentioning the wars of clones in the original film, or Luthen having a Rakatan Empire necklace in “Andor”). It’s great when everything we get is archetypes straight out of a fairy tale: heroes fighting comicly large chances.
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But programs like “Andor” like “Rebels” or “Clone Wars” show that the franchise is just as great when we see the minutations of the galaxy, and learn from apparently useless or stupid details on life. The Dexter Jettster dinner is a little wink to the cool Graffiti “of George Lucas, and it is also a nice contrast Cantina on Mos Eisley.
The inclusion of daytime television as an increase in imperial propaganda makes the immensity of the Empire more connected. This also contrasts what the people of Coruscant care (or are forced to worry) about the priorities of people on the outside edge. Dictatorship capitals are generally the most devout and most ignorant to atrocities. “Andor” shows how it works – how the distraction machine works to prevent people from achieving the truth.
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