It's fall 2026 and it seems there is no better time to take a look at the hit television series, Andor, and Hannah Arendt's concept of “the banality of evil." Marcelle begins this episode by considering the means by which evil becomes banal, routinized, and bureaucratic. She then leads us in a discussion about the way oppressed people under authoritarian rule are incorporated into the process of the regime’s management. Does this seem relevant... or rather, ZEITGEISTY? We thought so! Join us for an episode that may leave you feeling sick to your stomach (like Coach) OR motivated to prep for revolution (also Coach).
To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back next week with a Material Concerns episode!
Material Girls is a show that makes sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.
*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both.
Works Cited
“Adolf Eichmann.” Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2018. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/adolf-eichmann.
“Andor.” IMDb. September 21, 2022. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9253284/.
Arendt, Hannah. 2006. Eichmann in Jerusalem, A Report on the Banality of Evil. With an Introduction by Amos Elon. Penguin Books.
Butler, Judith. 2011. “Hannah Arendt’s Challenge to Adolf Eichmann.” The Guardian. August 29, 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/29/hannah-arendt-adolf-eichmann-banality-of-evil.
“Department of Government Efficiency.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Government_Efficiency#Actions_within_federal_government.
Elon, Amos. 2006. “Introduction.” Eichmann in Jerusalem, A Report on the Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt, Penguin Books, pp. vii–xxiii.
Marsh, Walter. 2025. “By Calling a Genocide a Genocide, Andor Just Made Its Most Political Point Yet.” The Guardian. May 7, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/07/by-calling-a-genocide-a-genocide-andor-just-made-its-most-political-point-yet.
“Nielsen Media Research.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Media_Research.
Porter, Rick. 2025. “Streaming Ratings: ‘Andor’ Concludes With No. 1 Overall Ranking.” The Hollywood Reporter. June 12, 2025. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/streaming-ratings-may-12-18-2025-1236263981/.
“Streaming Media.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streaming_media.
Music Credits
“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020
Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.
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