This is why it took me like 4 tries to actually watch all of Andor. It's like 4 episodes of prologue where nothing much really happens and then the actual story starts in episode 5 lol
Cassian: kills a man in the literal first 5 minutes of the series that triggers a chain reaction that will ultimately lead to the destruction of the biggest massive planet destroyer ever created.
The first two episodes do kinda meander. It was so slowly paced they released the entire first arc (three eps) at once rather than make people wait two weeks.
It's 4 episodes of contrived nonsense with almost zero plot or character development for anyone until episode 5 when they actually started telling the story. It took me so many attempts to get through it because I'd keep getting to episode three and realizing that I genuinely didn't care what happens to any of them. They could have easily condensed all of the events of the first four episodes into one episode but it just kept dragging on forever
The whole point of the series is that first half Cass is an entirely different man from second half Cass. And by the final chapter he has fully transformed into the rebel spy and leader he is in Rogue One. You see him deal with conflict in three entirely different ways and mindsets through the series. All main characters change profoundly by having their whole worldview challenged is kind of the point of the plot.
He kills those guards, then kind of just wanders around aimlessly with the vague goal of selling something, then he agrees to escape with that old guy who only speaks in catchphrases and sound bites, then he finally accidentally walks into a pretty good spy story. Don't get me wrong, once it really got going I enjoyed watching it, but the whole first part of the series was like a chore I had to endure to see why people were saying the show was so good.