Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

We have here a clip from Friday’s episode “The Senate Murders”, which was mysteriously added to iTunes for a brief time and I was able to catch it and review it for you here.

From the official press release:

When Senator Onaconda Farr dies under suspicious circumstances, Padmé Amidala sets out to find the person responsible – working independently of the efforts of the bureaucratic local inspector. Following a trail of clues, she delves into a dangerous world of backstabbing, lies and corruption. The tangled web of intrigue reaches to the highest levels of the Republic political hierarchy in “Senate Murders,” an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, March 19 on Cartoon Network.

“Many of Padmé’s episodes center around politics, for obvious reasons, and they’re sometimes a departure – to a degree – from the action-packed episodes,” says Catherine Taber, the voice of Padmé in the series. “We try to create a feeling of tension and suspense, but Dave [Filoni] and the writers always include a touch of comedy, as well. It’s an essential element of the classic detective genre that influenced ‘Senate Murders,’ but it’s also such a key ingredient of classic Star Wars. One of the nice things about The Clone Wars is that we hearken back to all of the classic elements that made Star Wars so great, including the political intrigue,” she continues.  “Diplomacy – or the lack thereof – is essential to The Clone Wars, and part of the foundation for the Star Wars Saga. Good and bad, the motivations are so important; these are the reasons people fight. I love the great battle sequences and I love watching things blow up, but it’s all so much better when we know about the quiet conflicts underneath.”

Through rarely in the series’ epic spaces battles or out on the front lines, Padmé’s behind-the-scenes role often serves to shine a light upon the character motivations, revealing the driving forces – and devious machinations – which propel the war itself. Additionally, her own investigations, ambitions and efforts tend to uncover aspects of the conflict altogether unseen by the swashbuckling, headlining heroes.

“In her own way, Padmé brings so much to the larger story. Of course, she’s the reason that Anakin eventually falls to the dark side, and she’s the mother of Luke and Leia – but what I think is really interesting is that she’s such an important foil to many of the characters. It is often through her that we see other central characters illuminated.”

Due to some form of clerical error, technical glitch, or unannounced surprise gift from Lucasfilm, next weeks episode of Clone Wars appeared in the iTunes store this morning for all to purchase and download.  (More info on that here.)  It didn’t really matter why the episode was available, what matters is that I’ve been dying for new Clone Wars during this extended break and this episode scratched that itch considerably.

This episode is a bit of a mixed bag in influences, characters, and animation, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.  Hell, after a month of not having any Clone Wars at all, even a mediocre episode is a breath of fresh air.

This episode follows a murder in the senate and is equal parts Pink Panther, Scooby Doo, and Clue.  The new characters in the episode play like a long suspect list for the Closeau-like Detective Divo (voiced by Tom Kenney), but he has to deal with the fact that Padme and Bail Organa take the investigation into their own hands and are almost killed in a shadowy dock-yard.

The macguffin in the episode is an amendment to a war spending authorization bill and Padme and her cadre of Senators are leading the opposition to funding the war, they’re called unpatriotic for not supporting the troops, but believe cutting funding off from the Kaminoans for more troops is the only way to allow diplomacy to resume.  It’s thin, but it’s just a macguffin, so it didn’t bother me at all.  Though I do very much like the back and forth between Padme and Senator Mee Deechi, where he calls into question her patriotism for wanting to cut off funding.  She rightly tells him that the only thing she sees that’s unpatriotic is his constant war-mongering.  If nothing else from this episode sinks in with kids, I hope it’s that one exchange.

Detective Divo bumbles passively through the episode like a mix between Inspector Closeau and Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express, but he looks decidedly like Peter Lorre.  He brings new exposition to light, but his voice was just too…normal?  I wanted to see some actual character in there, if they were going for Peter Lorre or Hercule Poirot, I would have liked to see them go in that direction with the character.  But we have what we have and this character isn’t going to go down as being incredibly memorable.

My other question mark about the episode was the Kaminoan Senator.  She was an aging wretch of a Kaminoan and my first question was, “Why do the Kaminoans, whom no one in the galaxy knew about before the war, have a full representative standing in the Senate now?” But that question was quickly answered by a throwaway line of dialogue.  Apparently, they leveraged for a seat because of their status as the makers of the clone army.  Having a planet in Republic space didn’t seem to be justification enough.  But what was odd is that she seemed out of character for what we’ve seen of the Kaminoans.  Taun We and Lama Su were incredibly gracious and polite and Senator Bertoni was anything but.  I shouldn’t profile an entire race of people based on their representation in the films, but it was a good lead to follow.

And then I had to roll my eyes a little bit when Padme and Bail Organa decided they wanted to play Fred and Daphne and investigate things on their own.  Jinkies!  They were getting shot at!

But that brings me to the last thing I wanted to bring up.  The animation in this episode was a little uneven, particularly when it came to Bail Organa.  He was very stiff and looked almost…rubbery.  And having Phil Lamarr voice him was fine, but he didn’t sound much like Bail Organa.  Though Detective Divo and Senator Deechi, I thought, were very well animated.  And I really like how they’ve decided to do the eyes of the Rodians.  So, as far as the animation in this episode, like everything else, was a bit of a mixed bag.

There were a lot of good things in this episode, and a lot of things I think needed a little bit more time in the oven.

Having said that, though, any episode of Clone Wars after this long break is a welcome respite and I’m glad for it.  Be sure not to miss it on TV (if nothing else for the preview of the next episode) when it airs on March 19, 2010 on Cartoon Network.

Hello technology enthusiasts! For those of you following the Geek Show Podcast on a regular basis, you may have heard Leigh George Kade a month ago make reference to an “article” that I had written and sent him and Kerry to check out for a possible chat on the show. As I found out from Swankmotron, this material was talked about in depth… when they weren’t recording and apparently drunk. And since then he’s been asking for a published copy for the website for both users and staff to peep out and comment on. …How could I disappoint.

For context reasons, I’m must note that this was not meant to be written up as an article, and will not read like one for the most part. It’s mainly comprised of footnotes, references and speculation on what will happen down the road in technology as related to Entertainment. This was written up specifically as a list of talking points for the Geek Show to chat about on the podcast and hopefully have a swear-filled discussion over. So please, bare with the poor formatting as I didn’t have two hours to fix it up proper.

The word going about is that 2010 will be a year of crossroads for media in all formats, and supposedly serious talk will start happening between major companies about the future of what they intend to do with each other, in areas of cross promotion and reformatting media. Right now it seems as if television is competing with streaming video, radio with podcasts, newspapers with blogs, and various other combinations where traditional formats are having to fight for their audience with the new. So here’s brief points on the talk that’s happening, and some thoughts over what might happen down the road. As a side note, I know I can’t see the future and neither can any of these companies, a lot is just guesswork and theory, especially since a lot of it is talk and not much funding has gone into these ideas yet. This is meant more for discussion, which I hope you the readers will provide plenty of.

TELEVISION

TV as a format is looking to lose the most in the coming years. The idea that a box in your house that you have to sit in front of to see select media (and that’s all it does) is becoming a taboo. Unless a show is a must-see program, people have become used to the idea that anything they need to see can be found on YouTube or Hulu in the morning. It didn’t help that the only major advancement in the past ten years has been High Definition and that the “move to digital” turned more people off from the format than brought them in. Even though DVR services are now provided to replace the old VCR, the propositions of forcing commercials into the program and removing the fast forward button from remotes is making people warry of TV in general. (And please, let’s not kid ourselves, 3DTV is NOT the future, it’s a sidestep.)

There’s been talk for about a year now that in the next few years, Google or Yahoo will launch their own online television station. Web exclusive, original programming and news, streaming to the entire world on a set schedule with the ability to look at a library of shows for a limited time. Unlike networks, both services use news from all current news sources including the AP, so logically they could put together newscasts from other news outlets with the ability for people to click on that story as the newscast goes on using their services. Programming like soaps, game shows, dramas and comedies would be easy picking since the majority of shows get six episode deals and are killed. Picture “Firefly” living beyond Season One with the online community that supported it so heavily. Since neither have ratings trends to meet, any hits they get from viewership would be a plus with no competition to fend off and the ability to advertise on the wings of the browser during the show. If planned out properly, a single online network could have worldwide appeal without having to cater to the FCC. The BBC has been experimenting with the idea, but have been exploring a way to gain immediate profit, which is near impossible.

The future talk for current broadcasters is that a traditional television set will become obsolete, and that the monitor itself will only play a part in seeing it. Some stations are experimenting with iPhone apps and downloadable broadcasts, but those are only in trials and not much is being done on a serious front. More on that down below.

RADIO

While my experience with radio is only minimal, the idea of radio has always been a bit of an enigma. While viewed as a free service that can’t compete with convenience, the overloaded commercial breaks and limited program by area hamper it. Satellite radio has its place, but again, paying for a service that isn’t regionalized or sounds generic makes it feel more as a passing fad than something sustaining for decades. Plus with the addition of digital radio stations trying to establish themselves and podcasts becoming downloaded more and more daily, competition is building.

The new ideal is taking the best of both and combining them into one. With the soon to be re-launched service for Sirius XM there is a plan for possibly expanding the US coverage and including sources from around the globe. Down the road you may soon see additional stations added from Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Spain and Australia. Not a wide selection, but enough to have at least singular stations from different areas in the world from fellow sat-radio company Eutelsat. There have been companies like Viacom and Time Warner making rumblings that they may join in the competition, but nothing has been invested. The closest competition would be 1worldspace, which is looking into the idea of getting select stations from across the US and making them available on their service. Picture (for us locals here) X96 on its own channel, referred to as “X96 – Utah: Channel 142” or something to that affect, being broadcast around the world with little delay. If it were to be successful, it could set in motion the revitalization of radio across the country and world as all signals would eventually be transferred to sat, and you could literally listen to the entire country (and maybe more) on your way into work.

Nationally there are a few people exploring this idea, but the only major company looking at this is Apple. Podcast Radio Stations. Basing it off the idea of finding some of the most popular across the country (let’s take Smodcast as an example), and giving them a timeslot on a weekly basis. Why download the episode when you can “tune in” on your PC or iPhone and listen to a new episode, then download it later when its convenient. Making it a reality is probably a long time off, especially since only dedicated people can pull off a new episode weekly, but the idea is at least being explored. (Incidentally, for those of you in the Utah area, I’d love to see a local version with all our local podcasts. Someone wanna give that a shot?) The closest to mixing marketing, advertizing, podcasting and information together would be NPR, specifically in their iPhone app giving you the ability to check their info out directly, as well as EVERY affiliate across the nation and their digital channels. As Swankmotron himself said to me, “Sure it’s government subsidized, but it’s a model worth looking at.” I couldn’t agree more.

PRINT

Clearly print is getting hit the hardest at the moment. And its not just in newspapers. Magazines, comics and even books are taking a blow in the age of digital media. While there is still a place in people’s hearts for a hard copy, generations coming up are viewing it as more of an inconvenience as they’re now living in an age where anything worth reading in their eyes can be found on the net. Sony’s eReader and Amazon’s Kindle are making strides on the book front, bringing latest titles for a subscription fee, but its not including the vast array of material you could get. The idea that they’re a store, not a library, is a bit hampering. The digital comic service is a big boom, but only Marvel seems to be on top of its game, leaving vast libraries untouched.

The ideal situation to come is to take all those formats and make them available in a single format to fit iPhone and Blackberry forms. Which most everyone is on their way to doing except for two… libraries and newspapers. The problem with papers is that for one to make the great leap would be for everyone to. The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News both use a source like the NYTimes as a reference. If the Times were to jump from paper to webpage tomorrow, the notion is that suddenly their credibility would be lost as they’d just be another “online source.” And very few have taken the same leap. Most are waiting to see how those select cities that have dropped the paper format work out over the next few years. The big advancement on the way is going to be from libraries. One in particular from Illinois (Oak Park Public Library) are using iPhones as both a library card and a downloadable source for content. Entire books scanned in as a PDF format to read, that can’t be passed around to transferred, and will expire when they need to be “returned.” Its only for books, no audio formats set up yet, and probably won’t be doing films, but it gives way for multiple people to have the same book out at once.

GAMING

Video games are sitting on the cusp of complete digitalization. You still have to go to a store and buy the game, yes. But all other forms of media that can be found on there are now downloadable. Netflix, Gamefiy, gaming sessions, content, etc. All you need is the internet connection and most everything can be downloaded to you. The only issue standing in the way is the ability for different platforms to make the games purchasable the same way iTunes makes music available. Assuring that they sell the game and the consumer gets it without issue, while being able to make a profit on it. Mega Man 9 is probably the best example to date of a game that was download only and was a major success. The only issue afterward is that of storage. Finding an affordable addition (either attached or installed down the road) for people to store the games and all their content so they run just as well as they would off disc.

ALL IN ONE

The dream at the moment, or at least for companies like Apple and Microsoft, is taking everything and making it available all in one direct format. Which logically is what you’d want your computer to be, but its not. Very few hook their tower up to their plasma or theater screen and watch material from there. The ideal situation would be to have the internet, television, films, literature, gaming and whatever else people can cram onto there for a home device, and smaller versions of it all for on-the-go mobility. As I said before, game consoles are being looked at as the closest to that dream with a few technical issues. You can’t see brand new films on them, you can’t watch broadcast or cable television, and net access is very limited. A Skype app would give it a home video phone appeal, but still limited to a degree. The closest that isn’t gaming is the iTV from Apple, but its still got issues with websites it will allow you to visit and content it will allow you to view.

What should happen is for all media sources to combined their efforts into all platforms and make their content available to all consumers. Picture the cable or dish box you have right now picking up streaming television stations, being able to check the email, listen to a radio station or podcast, play the latest video games, carry on a phone conversation, read a book (or have it read to you in audio format)… all from the living room. A laser remote and keyboard controlling it all. And give hookups so that you can transfer whatever you’re doing to your iPhone or Blackberry and continue with it as you go about your day. We’re so completely on the verge of making all that happen its insane, but the competition and uncooperative sense of greed between companies often makes it difficult for anyone to make the dream a reality. A lot of formats either need a change or are due to be left behind as something else comes along and leaves it far behind.

Proletaria-tron: Well this episode was decent in my opinion. I didn’t mind the alternate timeline story at all. We got to see what I would expect from Linus. His life sucked, and he was still a scheming little bastard. And this time he didn’t betray Alex. We also found out that that Dharma Initiative still exists in this timeline but somehow the island doesn’t hold the same properties that it did in the normal timeline.

As far as the regular timeline went we got an answer! Richard Alpert was “touched” by Jacob and thats what caused him to stay young forever. Hes immortal, he can’t even kill himself and apparently Jack has some sort protection from the dying by being a “Candidate”. So it seem that Richard came over on the Black Rock and hasn’t aged a day since. So 2 answers really. I don’t really have much else to say about this episode. It was solid but not a hell of a lot happened. Some more political manipulation by the Smoke Monster to what I’m thinking is tricking someone to take his place so he can leave. Also I was less drunk for this one. Not sober but less drink. Arse-bot how’d you feel about it?

Arse-bot: I actually have mixed feelings about this episode… I found it interesting and slightly boring all at the same time and I think that’s because of what Proletaria touched on already: It was a solid episode, but not a lot happened – but a few very profound things did.

The alternate time-line was pretty interesting, but more than the story the little tidbit about Linus still having been to the island, only this time they didn’t stay. So there it is again, the island is still playing a role even in this time-line – even if for now it’s minimal. I have a feeling though that the fact that Linus has been to the island may come into play in this alternate time-line.

The regular time-line was fairly good as well this episode. This Jack and Hurley adventure is probably what has me most interested right now and it seems the more they find out, the closer to the edge Jack gets – it took a lot of balls to just sit there with a lit stick of dynamite tempting fate. As Proletaria pointed out, Alpert is immortal because he has been “touched” by Jacob and somehow Jack’s candidacy appears to be protecting him. My guess is this is why the bomb never went off and how our favorite castaways have escaped certain death continuously since LOST began.

Ben Linus’ main time-line story was definitely interesting. We find out that everything that has happened has had a profound effect on him despite is portrayal of a constantly detached demeanor. His plea to spare his life and how he has given Jacob everything with little in return was a highlight of this episode for me. And now, we have Jack, Hurley and Alpert reuniting with Sun, Ben and the others on the beach – with Widmore in a damn submarine right off the beach.

Sound off in the comments with your thoughts of this week’s episode of LOST!

I’ll be the first to admit that I was really wary of this title. I’m not usually a television viewer, but Joseph Fiennes was Shakespeare in one of my favorite movies and it pushed my interest over the edge. I’ve watched the first five episodes of this show so far, and pretty ravenously. Though it can be cheesy at times, it’s very well put together and explores an interesting dilemma and, like Lost, raises a lot more questions that it answers. The show starts with a global event that most confuse for terrorism and the world essentially blacks out. Everyone has a dream that places them approximately six months in the future. This causes a problem for some people who see nothing, and it’s widely believed if they didn’t see a vision, it’s because they’ll be dead in six months.

The main character grappling with that is played by John Cho (who played Hikaru Sulu in the latest Star Trek picture), who’s a Federal Agent on the team trying to figure out what exactly happened and why the flashbacks happened.

All signs lead them to believe someone is responsible.

But as interesting as that whole part of the story is, it’s not as interesting as the dramatic interplay between characters. You see, Joseph Fiennes’ wife sees herself cheating on her husband with another man, someone whom she’s never even met…whom she meets in the next episode…

Though this show hasn’t grabbed me like Lost did by the time I was five episodes in, it seems really, really promising. And I’m glad to keep watching because it’s good. How they can keep it up, I don’t know, but at this point, I’m along for the ride.

Flash Forward: Season One: Part One comes out on DVD today.

This week’s episode promised a high-adventure thriller with the Duchess Satine dodging assassins on every corner, but instead we were treated with a thrilling Hitchcock sort of the wrong man story.

In order to advance the Separatist agenda, Dooku lays plans to force the Republics hand into occupying Mandalore so the Death Watch, Separatist sympathizers, can take control of the planet.  Satine heads to the Senate to insist that they respect Mandalorian neutrality. Unfortunately, her second in command has allegedly recorded a message to the senate saying that the Republic had to intervene and occupy the planet.

That’s when there’s a first attempt on Satine’s life, but is made to look like an accident and people think she’s crazy.  Soon she’s on the run and wanted for murder and Obi-wan is the only one who believes her enough to help her.

The Mandalorian action was actually pretty yawn worthy, there wasn’t much of it at all.  There was a great fist fight with Obi-wan and a Mando, but aside from that, the rest of the episode was all Hitchcockian suspense.

To be honest, I was pretty bored for the first third of the episode, but, like a Hitchcock film, it was building very carefully to a boiling point.  Satine is essentially Cary Grant in North by Northwest, telling everyone in the world she didn’t kill that guy, but no one will listen.  (Except Obi-wan, obviously.)  They captured that desperate feeling of being called a liar when you’re telling the truth in situations that are life or death incredibly well and it was almost suffocating.  The scenes with the Mandalorian assassin looking out over the fountain in the courtyard looking out for Satine while the police droids were doing the same and she and Obi-wan were trying to meet up with the secret information were straight out of an old school Hitchcock film and I was left clamoring for more.

Having said that, this episode was pretty much a giant tease for a conflict that was never going to happen.  And for that, I am sad.  I want to see more Mandalorian Death Watch on the show and I want to see the war they were aiming for.  On the other hand, I’d also love to see more Hitchcock homages on Clone Wars as well.

I hope it doesn’t seem obnoxious that on most weeks I seem to find something that I love that Clone Wars is homaging in my reviews.  I love Star Wars, and when I see it paying respect to other classic things that I love, it makes me incredibly giddy.  From Kurosawa to Hitchcock, it seems like the crew writing and directing these episodes have impeccable taste and if ever I were to meet them, I would certainly owe them a beer.

The last thing I’d like to say is to reiterate something Anakin said to me while we were watching, “Where is Ahsoka?”  Seriously.  Where the hell is Ahsoka?  I miss Snips, damn it.

And with that question, I’ll leave you until March, when Clone Wars returns.

In the meantime, I’ll be doing an interview with James Arnold Taylor (the voice of Obi-wan Kenobi) so you’ll have that to look forward to.

To catch up on Season 1, you can order The Clone Wars: The Complete Season One at Amazon by clicking the link.

For other Clone Wars news and reviews of previous episodes, click this link.

A lot of people have been buzzing about, talking about Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s zombie masterpiece The Walking Dead.

What not a lot of people have been talking about is casting of the lead, Rick Grimes.

Big Shiny Robot! has talked to a few different sources about names that are in the ring for the series and we’re pretty happy.  There are a couple of sources we talked to with varying reliability, but these names all made a lot of sense, so we want to throw these out there and get the conversation going.  If you don’t know about Walking Dead and have never read it, it’s perhaps one of the best comics being published today.  Grab the first trade from Amazon right here and you won’t regret it.

The most reliable sources point us to Jamie Bamber as in the running for Rick.  You might remember him from Battlestar Galactica playing Lee Adama.

I’m in the midst of watching BSG for the first time now and I have to say, this would be a great choice.  He’s a strong actor, has the right look and handles televised drama really well.

Next on the list is Mark Pellegrino, who is on Dexter and plays Jacob on Lost.

He has a little bit less of the look, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t work.  He’s an incredibly talented actor and any show would do well with him at the helm.  And really, doesn’t he look like a guy that would make the hard choices in a zombie apocolypse?

And then the last name on the list.  Stuart Townsend.  The “would-be”  King of Middle Earth.  The “would-be” Asgardian….

I’m assuming he could work, but I haven’t seen him in much of anything as he seems to always get replaced at the last minute.  If he does get cast, I’d expect that to happen again.  But who knows.

As far as all three of these possibilities, I’d actually be really happy with any of them.

What do you guys think?

Proletaria-tron: Well…what to say about last nights episode? There was a whole hell of a lot of this episode dedicated to Kate. Kate just so happens to be my least favorite character. So much so I don’t even think shes hot anymore, and she used to be sexy. Sometime around the beginning of last season she just got really boring. Its nothing but pouting from her. Not only did we have to deal with her “Never Crashed” story but we had to deal with her “I still want Sawyers Southern Ass” story.

Sidenote: I hate the alternate timeline and think its a waste, I dont care about whats happening to them because they are not the people I’ve been watching for years, they are the people that never met and never crashed and never did anything.

I did like the “Sayid is some sort of Zombie” story line, because its the only thing that seems to actual be going somewhere. Sayid is infected and is going to go crazy. There is nothing about that not to like. He is going to fuck shit up. It seems like there is a whole lot of build up going on in the past 3 hours of show so I’m hoping stuff actual happens real soon. I’m slightly optimistic. Slightly.

Arse-bot: Shit! I forgot to watch it! Uhm… Kill-tacular-tron, what did YOU think?

Kill-Tacular-Tron: I enjoyed last night’s episode. It is moving a little slow, but it is the beginning of the season. After it gets some steam everyone will start complaining that too much is going on and there are too many questions. Lolz.

Kate is awful. If she would have died instead of Juliet I would be a happy man-bot. Although, unlike my counterpart, I am really enjoying the alternate time line. Showing how the characters would have intersected and how their lives are still intertwined is interesting to me. I like Kate and Clare living through a very similar experience while Clare gives birth. My money is on the two stories intersecting about two-thirds of the way through this season.

Sayid actually really frustrated me. Its cool that he’s back from the dead and ready to kick some ass, but he seemed like kind of a pussy while he was getting tortured. He kept screaming and yelling, “I don’t know anything!” If I recall, the last time he was getting tortured he didn’t scream like a girl or spill his guts.

Best part of this episode:

Super cool that they poked fun at his original role as an extra. I kinda wish it would have been Charlie. Oh, and did I mention the “cliff hanger” for this episode? Oh, that’s ’cause it wasn’t that memorable. We all knew Clare was chilling on the island somewhere. And we all figured she went bat shit crazy. This was more of a “retaining wall hanger”.

Picking up from the events of the last episode, “Voyage of Temptation” follows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker escorting the Mandalorian Duchess Satine to Coruscant to plead her case about remaining neutral during the war.

Things get complicated when it is learned that the Death Watch have subverted a Senator aboard the ship and have helped him smuggle assassin droids to kill the Jedi and the Duchess.

While that is the major plot developing in this episode, an interesting sub-plot involves Obi-Wan’s past involvement with Satine.  It turns out that he and Qui-Gon had been tasked with protecting her while he was still a padawan.  They kindled a romance that went nowhere, but Obi-Wan claims that he would have left the Jedi Order had she asked him to.

That whole subplot shades the conversation that Obi-Wan and Anakin had in Attack of the Clones in an incredibly interesting way. (”Be mindful of your thoughts, Anakin, they betray you.  You’ve made a commitment to the Jedi Order, a commitment not easily broken.”, etc.) I’d always wondered why Obi-Wan hadn’t dealt with those feelings a little more sternly, but it seems as though, from past experience, that he knew it was something that Jedi struggle with.

In fact, that’s one thing I loved about the prequels that a lot of people had a hard time with, and that was Anakin’s struggle with his feelings for Padme.  ”He’s just a big whiny baby,” people would say, but it’s a hard thing for a celibate monk to go through puberty and not have feelings for the opposite sex.  How else was he supposed to act?  Think back to how awkward you were when you were first trying to date, and then add to that the fact that you’d been placed in what was essentially an asexual environment and in a religion that forbids romantic contact with the opposite sex.  It would have probably  been too much for me to deal with. In any case, it’s was incredibly compelling drama and it was refreshing to see hints of that reinforced with Obi-Wan’s past experience.

There was nothing to complain about as far as the action sequences in the episode were concerned, Anakin and the Clones fighting the droids in the cargo hold and Obi-Wan and Satine holding them off in the dining area were very fun to watch.  Perhaps the coolest part of the episode, action-wise anyway, was when the Death Watch sent in reinforcements and had a cadre of Super Battle Droids smash into the side of the ship and are unleashed, wreaking havoc for the Jedi.  Why there weren’t Mandalorian Commando’s pouring out, I don’t know.

I my guess?

They’re saving that for the finale of the arc.  Which looks pretty cool.

Again, at the end of the day though, there felt like something was missing from this episode.  It was well written and well animated, the concept was fun…  But there was something off about it.  And the more I think about it, it feels like it might have been the pacing again.

And another question I have here: Does this take place before Ahsoka is Anakin’s padawan?  Where the hell is she?  I don’t mind being skipped around on the timeline, I’d just like to know where we stand.  Is there any chance that they’ll come up with a list of the episodes if we wanted to watch them all in chronological order?  I think that would be incredibly helpful.

Next week’s episode looks like it might be the coup de grace for the Mandalore Plot and I’m looking forward to it more than I could imagine.

Let’s see if it blows my hair back more than these last two entries have.

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For other Clone Wars news and reviews of previous episodes, click this link.

From the official press release:

Reunited with a former flame while on a mission of vital importance to the war effort, Obi-Wan Kenobi must defend his convictions and fight for his beliefs – even though taking up arms drives him further from the woman he once loved. The Mandalorian saga takes a personal turn in “Voyage of Temptation,” an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, February 5 on Cartoon Network.

Traveling to Coruscant aboard the palatial royal vessel of the beautiful Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore, Obi-Wan and Anakin discover a plot to assassinate the powerful political figure before she reaches her destination. As the Jedi and their clones fight to protect the Duchess from a deadly cargo of assassin droids, Anakin discovers that his former Master has a history with the Mandalorian emissary – and that the elder Jedi is not without personal attachments of his own.

“I always wondered what would happen if Obi-Wan had been put in the same position as Anakin – specifically meeting and falling in love with a woman,” says series writer Henry Gilroy. “Would he be able to maintain his vow to the Jedi at the cost of true love? We know how Anakin dealt with this, but how would Obi-Wan fare against the same temptation? I think a lot of people have had relationships that never really got a chance to flourish, and there’s always that ‘what if…’ sort of feeling. Even people in healthy, happy relationships ponder their old flames and think about what might have been. I think it really broadens Obi-Wan as a character. He’s revealed as a man – someone we relate to because he has romantic feelings like the rest of us, even though he’s a Jedi.”

Of course, the vows of the Jedi Order are not taken lightly, and it takes a truly remarkable woman to turn the head and test the heart of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Resolute in her own pacifist ideologies, Satine provides a counterpoint to Obi-Wan’s notions of peace-keeping and conflict resolution.

“Satine’s a formidable woman in all regards – extremely intelligent, incorruptible, passionate and beautiful, with a great devotion to peace. She might come off as stuffy, but that is because she knows she’s in a den of wolves and must appear powerful and unshakable,” Gilroy says. “Throughout history, some of the most powerful figures – like Gandhi and Dr. King – were pacifists who literally changed the world by refusing to fight. There’s so much fighting in The Clone Wars; when someone is brave enough to speak up to try and stop it, that voice becomes like a light in the darkness, strong and memorable. Satine’s resolved to always use peaceful means to end conflicts. The Jedi are peacekeepers, but they carry swords; if they have to use violence to end conflict, they will. That’s unacceptable to Satine; she believes that if you bring a weapon to negotiations, you don’t want peace. So, she’s upset that the Jedi have allowed themselves to be drawn into the war, because it is everything that they are supposed to be against.”

Together, the two consistently challenge one another, each steadfast in their respective beliefs. It is this mutual respect which draws them together, even as their convictions keep them apart.