I finally got a chance to watch the first four episodes of The Clone Wars, and I have to say, this is some good TV.

The movie that premiered this August was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it, in spite of the really creepy Hutt that made an appearance.  In the TV show, there has yet to be an equivalent random and over-the-top silly thing that detracts from the overall story.  The show writers like to throw in a lot of nods to the films, especially the original trilogy, in the ways that certain shots are set up, and the way random lines are re-worked into the episodes, a la, “Somebody has to save *her* skin,” etc.  Things like that could start to feel forced after a while, but so far they haven’t really bothered me.

The other strike against the show is that, based on the nature of the timeline, there are certain things we know will and won’t happen; the war won’t end or really move in a significant direction one way or the other; Yoda, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Dooku, Sidious, and Grievous will always survive to fight another day, and Ashoka and Ventress are likely to not make it through the entire run.

That said, the Clone Wars makes perfect sense for a television show, and I can see the format working really well over the show’s run.  The show can follow various battles, Jedi adventures, and clone missions, all without focusing solely on Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the usual cast of characters.  So far, Jedi Master Plo Koon has been given a real chance to shine, and that’s something we ALL have been waiting for.  All right, no one cares about him, but after spending a couple of episodes with the guy, you start to care about him, and having a large cast of characters in this show is only going to make it more enjoyable.  After all, it’s a big galaxy, and a big war that is tearing it apart.   So far, there has been only one”two-parter,” but there is potential for many more longer arcs that carry on from episode to episode, and the show’s serialized nature means that once you start watching, it will be easy to get hooked.

Of course, some haters will refuse to watch it, or will tune out the first time a battle droid says, “Roger roger!”  But the fact is that the kids nature of the show isn’t ridiculously silly and it doesn’t get in the way of the story-telling.  Think of it as less Jar Jar and more Harry Potter.  If yo’ve missed any of the episodes so far, you can watch them online, and Cartoon Network has been rerunning them plenty.