Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 3

The most common feeling I had as the third season of this show was winding down was that I couldn't even remember why I ever liked Star Wars. And that's a pretty bad thing to be thinking about one of your favorite film series. The Clone Wars is not completely terrible - it looks pretty nice, and there will occasionally be a well crafted action scene, and it will sometimes pay homage to a classic moment from Star Wars or just another old adventure movie which can be fun. But I just find it a drag to turn it on every week, not knowing if it will be tolerable or just completely irritating. There was enough of the former to keep me watching through three seasons, but now that I'm working forty hours a week and have to get the most out of my free time, a half-tolerable show based on a favorite property is not nearly worth it. I now feel that a show is only worth my time if I'm actually excited to see a new episode every week, and there are a number of series that don't fit that bill that I'll be dropping as their latest seasons end this Spring. The Clone Wars is the first.

I just don't identify with hardcore Star Wars fans, I guess. I get no joy out of a universe expanding to the point where it's unrecognizable, or seeing every possible idea from the movies being revisited even if it makes no sense, or learning the origins of every single god damn bit character from the movies that happened to be alive when the show takes place. And some of the original stuff is even worse. Ziro the Hutt returned this season, and watching him and his mother and his interspecies girlfriend was an exercise in seeing how much a cartoon could make me wish I was dead in just 22 minutes. There was a little story arc where Obi Wan and Anakin visited a planet where a family of extremely force sensitive people talked to Anakin about his destiny and all of this nonsense and I felt like I was watching a direct to video fantasy film you'd find buried under stacks of The Land Before Time sequels at the rental store. The show has no real direction, it's basically an anthology series of vaguely Star Wars-related story ideas rather than something that actually has a goal to accomplish. It's filler, a way for kids who think light sabers are awesome to pass time, and there is really no reason in the world for me to watch it, so I won't anymore.