Portraying an all too familiar pattern, this episode of the Clone Wars once again represents a dip in quality. Despite following a stellar episode, Pursuit of Peace fails to achieve the political and emotional heights that it aims for.

After the terrorist attack on Coruscant, the Senate once again finds itself in a deadlock. The bill surrounding the expansion of the clone army still stands as an issue of hot debate, with Padme and her small band of political allies taking center stage. As she struggles to find support from the senate, Padme becomes the target of some rather unsavory individuals and comes face to face with just how dangerous politics can be.

Although the premise for Pursuit of Peace sounds promising, it fails to fully reach its potential. While the political issues surrounding the nature of the conflict are interesting and realistic, many of the other elements in this episode feel bizarrely off kilter. Padme is as frustrating as ever, her unshakeable idealism and peace loving ways become annoyingly unhuman and even irritating to watch. However, her interactions with the other senators are well handled and do offer some memorable moments.

Plot wise the oddest decision is the inclusion of the two mercenaries that target Padme and her supporters. While the episode would be devoid of any action if the two had not appeared, this may have actually been preferrable to the sloppy and poorly animated sequences we were given. Both villains are uncompelling, incompetent, and feel out of place. Perhaps most frustrating of all is an incredibly slow paced and unnecessary chase sequence that dominates the second act. Devoid of tension or good set peices, the chase drags even more then the politically charged scenes.

The dialogue in Pursuit of Peace also experiences a dip in quality. Bail Organa still stands as one of the more awkwardly handled characters in this series, and Padme's speech at the end feels too cliched to be effective.

Despite this, there is one very effective scene at the episodes end surrounding Palpatine. Its the best we've seen of this character during the course of the series, and the consistently stellar animation does much to heigthen the mood of this disturbing closer.

Overall, despite featuring some well handled political intrigue and a fantastic ending, Pursuit of Peace feels disingenous and cluttered. Further proof that this season must find its legs soon, or risk losing the fanbase it so readily one back last year.

Score C

Despite the quality of the previous installment of The Clone Wars, Evil Plans may be one of the worst episodes of the show ever produced.

The plot of the episode follows C-3P0 and his trust companion R2D2 as they struggle to find supplies for a party being planned by Padme Amidala. Meanwhile, the bounty hunter Cad Bane hunts the two to gain the schematics for the senate building.

This episode made the bizarre choice of acting as a prequel to the season one finale Hostage Crisis. While Hostage Crisis was a generally well liked episode, the fact that it could possibly warrant a prequel is absurd. The episode was incredibly self explanatory and lacked any true need for further exploration of the plot.

The plot itself feels incredibly unnecessary, and this is compounded by the fact that nothing substantial happens in the episode. There are no interesting action set peices, no unique characterization, and little long term plot development. Cad Bane recovers his plans, which comes as no surprise to the audience. At the end our heroes are whiped of memory of the entire incident so any character development is lost. The only interseting development is a talk between Jabba the Hutt and his bretheren regarding their wayward brother Ziro. This comes off as interesting as Ziro has always stood as an odd inclusion to the Star Wars mythos, and this may lead the end of his inclusion in the series.

Perhaps the most asinine and annoying sub plot developed in this episode is the inclusion of a droid spa. Yes. A droid spa. Its as stupid as it sounds. Obviously created as a type of poorly conceived gag R2D2 goes through a spa treatment that serves absolutely nothing to the episode as a whole. Humor is welcome, and even whole episodes focusing on the more light hearted aspects of Star Wars are apprecaited. However, back dropped with a darker plot and executed to the poorest degree does nothing but hurt the series as a whole.

The only two real plusses to this episode are the continually stellar animation and Anthony Daniels portrayel of 3P0. Despite the chaos and terrible scripting, 3P0 comes off as the only thing in this episode that actually seems to work. Daniels has spent decades playing this character and he continues to feel genuine.

Overall though this is an incredible disappointment and a low mark for the series as a whole.

Score D+

Lost craeted a vacuum in television. Revolutionary in its expansive mythology and serialized storytelling, the ending of Lost's six season journey has left millions of viewers stranded without a series to follow. It also leaves room for a new contender to pick up where Lost left off, and carry on its mantle.

Enter NBC's The Event, a serialized science fiction drama that first entered the public consciousness this summer with a crushingly oppressive marketing campaign. The Event had potential to be big, and the corporate brass behind the series recognized this.

The Event follows several different characters as they struggle to cope with a massive government conspiracy surrounding a mysterious prison in Alaska. The President struggles with the revelation and moral implications of such a facility, and Sean Walker and his future father in law Michael Buchanan struggle to find his girlfriend.

The Event wastes no time in creating tension and mystery. It begins with a pump of adrenaline and intrigue and continues almost full steam to the episode's end. Perhaps the show's most interesting and frustrating aspect is its style of storytelling. The Event is told in a series of out of sequence scenes that must be pieced together by the viewer. While this gimmick is originally jarring and incredibly frustrating, it is oddly effective. You want to figure out the mystery as much as the characters in the episode, which is a plus for a show whose major focus is its mythology.

While The Event is great at creating tension and mystery it utterly fails in creating interesting and genuine characters. While empathy and depth may grow over time, the show's cast of characters are all incredibly dull or cliched. While we are given apparent motives for the characters seen, they do not feel genuine. What shows like The Event fail to realize is that shows such as Lost did not succeed solely on their mythology. They told interesting character stories as well as a compelling mystery.

Despite its flaws, The Event is still attention grabbing television. One that will certainly merit another weeks viewing.

Score: B

Chuck is back. Once again saved by a devoted fanbase from near cancellation, the kind hearted espionage comedy has returned for its fourth season.

Picking up after the dramatic conclusion to the third season, Chuck Vs. The Anniversary finds our kind hearted hero struggling to find his mother, who has been missing since he was a child. Teaming up with his childhood friend Morgan,Chuck struggles to accomplish his global search without tipping off his sister of his friends in the government, who are dealing with an issue of their own.

Despite being the fourth season of a sucessful series, the season opener to Chuck feels bizarrely disjointed and frustrating. While the acting and production values are as spectacular as always, the pacing and plot feel annoyingly disjointed.

Like the lackluster Season 3 opener, Chuck vs. The Anniversary takes place over the course over several months. However, we are unable to see the effects of this time period due to the lackluster writing and editing. The entire episode feels chaotic and hard to follow.

The humor has also evolved into something that is not typical of the series. While it is certainly funny, it does not feel like it belongs in an episode of Chuck.

Despite all these changes, Chuck also seems to have another foot planted firmly in the past. Despite being fired several times, Chuck has returned to work at the Buy More. Despite a rather nice conclusion to this plot point at the end of Season 3, Chuck seems determined to include this now tiresome plot point in the series.

However, even though the episode is deeply flawed, there are moments where the show we have come to love shines through. The action scenes continue to be fun and creative, and there are numerous character moments that feel refreshing and emotionally satisfying.

Score: C+

While the first episode of last night's season opener acted as a prequel to the fan favorite Rookies, Arc Troopers acts as a continuation to both episodes. Numerous characters, story arcs, and locales come back into play in this episode that nicely wraps out the trilogy made by the two previous episodes.

Arc Troopers picks up several months after the events in Rookies, telling the story of General Grievous's invasion of Kamino, and the Republic's attempts to defend it. Certain plot points, including Asajj Ventress's covert operations on Kamino, are brought back from previous episodes and reach their ultimate climax.

Arc Troopers tales a fast past and exciting story that does not shie away from delving into great character peices as well. The clones from Domino Squadron return for a powerful conclusion to their story arc. General Grievous also provides some of his personal best scenes in the series to date. However, the two true stars of this episode are 99 and Asajj Ventress. 99's emotional and relatable arc, which was first touched on during the previous episode, reaches its powerful climax, delivering one of the most memorable sequences in the entire series. Ventress is also a scene stealer. No longer the incompetent Dark Jedi seen in Season One, the bald headed force user has involved into a complex and disturbing villainess. Unfortunatley, one of her most powerful scenes from this episode was cut during post production due to interference on Cartoon Network's part.

While Clone Cadets was lacking in the level of action that is common in this series, Arc Troopers delivers, showing the most intense battle sense the season two standout Landing at Point Rain. The action is frantic, well animated, and includes dozens of memorable moments. The episode, surprisingly, also includes some of the best lightsaber combat in the series, showing both a duel between Grievous and Obiwan and Anakin and Ventress. The improved animation lends much to this episode allowing it to deliver on the high octane scenes that its premise demands.

The music, which was annoyingly flat earlier in the series, has also evolved into great orchestral pieces that help to flesh out some of the more emotional aspects of the story.

However, Arc Troopers is not perfect. One of the most frustrating aspects of the series since day one has been its run time. While numerous television series manage to juggle a half hour timeslot perfectly, The Clone Wars has always struggled. Arc Troopers begins and ends with almost break neck speed, and this becomes frustrating to watch at times. This constraint of time leads to sloppy dialogue and awkward scenes that could have been powerful given more time to evolve.

Despite this minor complaint, Arc Trooper stands out as one of the series best.

Score: -A

Delted Scene:

Here is the scene that was omitted from the final version of the episode.

Despite a frustrating five month wait, The Clone Wars has finally returned to television. With high expectations and a ever growing fanbase, this season has alot to live up to. Luckily, last night's two part season opener delivered.

When Season One first aired in 2008, fans were blown away by a particular episode (Rookies) surrounding a group of rookie clone troopers. Dark, compelling, and unique this episode became a fan favorite and a turning point for the series. The Season Three opener acts as both a prequel and a sequel to this classic installment, and both are equally strong episodes on their own.

The first out of the two was the prequel episode Clone Cadets. Picking up several months before the events seen in Rookies, the audience follows the tumultuous training and origin of the ill fated Domino Squadron.

The plot for Clone Cadets is enjoyable, but not wholey original. The story of teamwork and graduation into adulthood is one that has been seen numerous times in multiple military tales.

While it may not have been the most action packed episode in the series, Clone Cadets is noteworthy for being one of the most character driven. The story of Domino Squadron is interesting and compelling in its own right, but oddly its the side characters who are the most interesting here. The first being the bounty hunter Bric. Acting as a mentor for the clones, this ill tempered and surprising deep character is a welcome inclusion to the Star Wars mythos and easily becomes a scene stealer.

However, perhaps the most interesting character introduced in this episode is the malformed clone 99. Mishapen during a mistake in the cloning progress, 99 acts as a lowly janitor for the training station on Kamino. Despite this, he acts as an older brother and watchful eye for the trainees. 99's arc throughout this episode and the follow up, Arc Troopers, is surprisingly heavy and deep material for the series. Regardless of any original reluctance towards the idea of 99, he wins you over and is the true star of this episode.

The animation has also improved significantly from the previous seasons. Characters no longer stand stone faced and passive during dialogue, and environments are incredibly detailed. However, there are some points, especially during several fist fight sequences, that experience some noticeable difficulties.

The dialogue also occasionally slips into cliches and tropes typical of the story it tells.

Overall, Clone Cadets is a worthy addition to the series and a promising start to a new season.

Score: B+

Star Wars: The Clone Wars rockets into its second season with an explosive three episode arc, but does it soar or crash? The Clone Wars ended last season with the introduction of the show created bad-ass bounty hunter, Cad Bane. Bane became an overnight fan favorite due to his original design, and his sadistic brutality. Smartly, Dave Filoni, supervising director of The Clone Wars, decided to feature him even more heavily in the opener to the shows sophomore season. Filoni promised darker and more mature storytelling, and to take multiple steps away from the mixed reviewed first season.

Holocron Heist



“Holocron Heist” follows the efforts of Cad Bane, and a small team of other bounty hunters to steal a valuable Jedi holocron, that contains information on all the galaxies force sensitive children. However, Ahsoka, who has been assigned to guard duty for disobeying orders, leads a counter attack to prevent the thievery.

“Holocron Heist” is a mixed bag of an episode. Thankfully, it doesn't delve into stupidity or lame jokes like some episodes in the first season, but instead flounders on several plot points and design flaws. (Problems I'd take any day over the former.) The first major issue is Ahsoka's punishment. While leading a ground assault on Felucia, she refuses to retreat despite her master's urgings that she is about to be overwhelmed by a much larger attack force. Although the battle scene is beautifully animated, and well designed, Ahsoka's attitude seems out of place. In season one, Ahsoka faced a similar situation that ended up killing her entire squad. This experience scarred her deeply, and it was much of a struggle to take up her position of leadership again. However, to have her take part in a similar action in this episode felt counter productive. You would have though such a traumatic event in her character's history would have lead to some change in behavior.

Another problem “Holocron Heist” faces is Cad Bane. Yes, Cad Bane. The same character I was raving about earlier becomes a strange liability to this episode. Bane's introduction scene includes some of the best imagery seen so far in the series, and it really stands out from the rest of the episode. However, the first main problem with Bane comes in the form of his employer, Darth Sidious. Darth Sidious is very much the central villain to the entire Star Wars saga. His appearances are always marked by a sense of dark royalty, and secrecy. To see such a powerful and central character resorting to hiring a bounty hunter to do his bidding seems out of character. At the very least, he would have Dooku, or one of his other subordinates take care of the actual dirty work. Resorting directly to Bane seems like a liability that Sidious wouldn't be willing to take. Another issue with Bane is how the episode frequently depicts him stumbling into various traps or situations that could kill him. These situations feel out of place seeing as Bane is not only a cool and collected character, but a villain. Why should the audience care at all if he is sucked into a wind turbine? He's trying to kill our heroes.

However, on the plus side “Holocron Heist” is a well crafted, and interesting story that plays out very much like a crime drama, but one that includes shapeshifting aliens and robots voice by Seth Green. Despite it's shortcomings, “Holocron Heist” is an enjoyable episode, and sets the tone for episodes to come.

Score: B

Cargo of Doom



Picking up right where the previous episode left off, the episode follows Cad Bane as he steals the second piece to the holocron he stole in the previous episode. While attempting to escape with his cargo and a captured Jedi, Bane is ambushed by Anakin Skywalker and his fleet. After quickly destroying Bane's ragtag group of frigates, Anakin and Ahsoka are forced to board his smoldering capital ship to rescue their capture comrade and holocron.

Unlike the previous episode Bane is once again at the top of his game. He pulls off a series of interesting and devilish traps and moves that like his debut episode, “Hostage Crisis” are fun to watch. At the top of his badassery, Bane deals with his opponents with deadly skill. He even tortures a character to death, a moment that is shocking to see in a series that is primarily aimed to all ages. However, once again aspects of Bane's character seem out of place. The fact that the Separatists would entrust an entire battle fleet to a bounty hunter seems not only uncharacteristic, but just stupid. The Clone Wars series seems to not realize that the Separatists aren't just a group of droids, but a coalition of organic species who have realized that the Republic can no longer sustain itself. They are a political entity, not some mindless group of evil beings, and this episode strays from that idea more then any.

Another issue with the episode was how it handled some of the issues with space. There are two instances in the episode where a character is direclty exposed to space, and survives. In one scene, Anakin and Ahsoka board Cad Bane's vessel wearing little more then space helmets. Later, Bane opens an airlock in an attempt to kill the two Jedi, but the two face little more then being sucked outwards. Realistically, just being exposed to space in those instances would have killed the two instantly.

A highlight of the episode was Anakin's forces first encounter with Bane. Using a device on one of his hand gauntlets, Bane deactivated the gravity in the hanger where he had been corner. Leading to a unique and well designed battle sequences. Droids were shot in half only to find their bodies drifting away from them. Clones were killed and floated upwards like dead fish. And Anakin and Bane dueled like two martial arts fighters. The action overall in this episode was well done, and the whole story had a feeling of urgency.

Overall, this episode was a step up from the previous, and the best of the Bane episodes so far.

Score: -A


Children of the Force



The conclusion to Season 2's opening arc delivers with everything that is right with the Clone Wars and very little that is wrong. This epsiode followed Bane's escape from Anakin's custody, and his and Sidious attempts to capture the Force sensitive children listed in the stolen Holocron. Playing out like a game of cat and mouse between the two sides, the struggle of power between both sides is handled well and actually sees equally matched.

As the chase between both sides spills across the galaxy a wide range of locales are shown, the most ever seen in the series so far. Ranging from the swamp planet of Rodia, Naboo, Bane's space station hideout, and Mustafar, the locations add an epic scope to the episode that actually adds the Jedi's feelings of desperation. Although every one of these locales are portrayed nicely, especially Naboo, the inclusion of Mustafar seems like an odd decision. As the planet where Anakin and Obi-wan held their fateful duel, Mustafar seems like an odd choice. It is utterly bizarre to see the now heroic Anakin jumping about on the planet that symbolizes his fall from grace.

Another noteworthy aspect is the inclusion of Darth Sidious. Although Sidious had played a minor role in the two prior levels, this is the most active role he has had in the series to date. Although he still never appears in person, Sidious's plans for the force sensitive children are stated explicitly and openly by the Sith master himself. Having the shadowy figure play such an open and active role in this episode once again seems like a bizarre link to Revenge of the Sith, that wasn't completely necessary. Dooku, a character already well established in the show, could have carried out the role just as easily. Sidious identity is also made painfully obvious in this episode, which is no surprise to the viewers, but it distracts from the episode at a whole. There is one scene were Palpatine confronts Anakin about the crisis with the Jedi children in which only the ignorant could doubt his identity.

Yet another distraction to the episode was just how cutesy the child Jedi were. With bulbous eyes and bodies that resembled those of Care Bear, the children came off as distraction as a whole. A geek part of me also finds it annoying that Rodian children cry exactly like a human baby.
Despite these complaints Children of the Force was a strong episode. There is a scene in which Mace Windu, Obi-wan, and Anakin attempt to crack Bane's mind with the Force that is incredibly eerie and effective. Bane is once again a show stealer, and it is impressive to see how he turns even losses into victories. The ending scene at Mustafar is also surprisingly climactic and exciting.

Overall while not as strong as the episode prior, Children of the Force is another example of how the Clone Wars is beginning to find its footing.


Score: B+

Sorry for the delay, I've been working on a lot of things lately, and haven't had time to write reviews. The next pod of episodes which deal with the Second Battle of Geonosis should have a review up by the end of next week.