It’s hard to know whether to love or hate the television show, The Clone Wars. Whatever there is to love is undone by much more I find myself loving to hate. There’s Jar Jar Binks, of course. And the new jedi padawan, Ahsoka “Snips” Tano, who is equally deserving of a Great Pit of Carkoon type fate. The biggest problem for the show, however, is it’s place in the time-line. Whatever fertile ground the Clone Wars period may offer for narrative points, any dramatic tension is diffused in the reality that we know how the story will end. In truth, it’s hard to care. Yet, it is still Star Wars. And the show isn’t getting some of the highest ratings on the Cartoon Network for nothing. It’s high production values and invigorating velocity have kept it above some of the other television chaff.
The “darker” second season may rescue some of these faults. The new trailer, first unveiled at Comic Con, introduces bounty hunters into the mix and a tone much closer to the inevitable live-action conclusion. While Cad Bane may be more Jonah Hex than Boba Fett, the mercenary world of rogues and blasters-for-hire should bring in all new kinds of awesome.
The second series will begin in the US autumn, later this year.
Christian Theist 