Ah, Clone Wars...
Like any TV series, there are hits and misses...last year had a lot more "misses" for me...boring, new characters (yeah Bad Name, er, Cad Bane I'm lookin' at you), trampling on established continuity (granted, it's novel & comic-based continuity, but it's those mediums that maintain interest in SW for many fans and viewers of this show) with the horrible take on the Mandolorians (pacifists on a neoclassical mall planet with another overdressed, brittle dame calling the shots...wha? Obi-Wan, the king of Jedi principles had/has a girl friend...wha?) Would've been one thing if either of these significant changes felt original or added anything new but instead, they just seemed like uninspired stabs at being "different". The Boba Fett episodes had some signs of life...but they too kind of trampled over established (movie) continuity in a few spots, most notably the split helmet...you know the one that AOTC so carefully established the visual cue for, right down to it's dented dome, only to render that whole exercise pointless by destroying the helmet and the episode arc ended with Fett being led away by the Jedi...so is he a prisoner? What's up here?
Well, we don't find out in the season 3 openers...two episodes that work really hard at giving viewers what they "want" by re-visiting a popular first season episode "Rookies", giving us a "slice of life" look at clones and their training...and also turns into another exercise of ignoring established behavior with the Clones via some very popular books from Karen Traviss. ARC Troopers are mentioned and briefly shown, but not a Mando in sight. There were some inspired moments here...the "99" character seemed an odd fit here, performing duties one would expect to see droids doing, but he ended up generating most of the emotional punch of the episodes. The quick visual of the embryo containers smashing to pieces during the attack had a great intensity.
While the animation shows clear improvement, (Shaak Ti was as radiant as Ventress was snarled) some things fell very flat...Kamino looked stiff and lifeless.
I want to like this show...I do. But with planned visits featuring characters I feel like I already know well from other mediums (Quinlan Vos, the Delta Squad), I'm trying to remain hopeful that these characters will keep their edge and not go the weak way of the Mandos.
We'll know more in the weeks ahead....