Simply terrific television Star Wars The Clone Wars is, and after five years the biggest, eye-popping change the 5th season finale brings.
The 5th season of Star Wars The Clone Wars which will start soon on The Cartoon Network (DStv 301) on MultiChoice's DStv in South Africa might seem like a "cartoon" or a "kids show" but it's absolutely not - and the latest season further expanding on that galaxy far, far away and which just concluded in America, was phenomenally good.
I cannot underscore what riveting and great television Star Wars The Clone Wars is and has been - one of the very few TV shows I diligently watch and follow as a TV critic not because I have too, but because I am amazed by its intricacy and extremely complex and adult storylines and its heartwrenching and deeply emotional plots - wonderful television I really enjoy.
The last few episodes of the 5th season of Star Wars The Clone Wars packed a massive punch - the penultimate episode caused me hours upon hours upon hours of research looking for arcane facts and character histories and clues to a massive mystery which South African viewers will see unfolding and which will have any Star Wars fan's rapt attention when the 5th season's 20 episodes start here soon.
Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker look sullen in the final moments of the 5th season of Star Wars The Clone Wars - but there's actually also a painful sense of self-awareness visible on their faces.
They're not just sad about something shocking, they're also suddenly, painfully, keenly self-aware about something terrible about the Jedi and the Jedi order. That they've made a mistake. That they're flawed. That something huge has changed. Dark times for the Republic, indeed.
If you want television storytelling at its best and complain about the overabundance of repeats and the lack of really intelligent television; and if you want good and intricate stories and fascinating character development, watch the 5th season of Star Wars The Clone Wars when it starts on The Cartoon Network soon.
Just like the Star Wars movies, Star Wars The Clone Wars is a complex but richly textured narrative with interesting characters set against a bigger backdrop of sweeping, epic change and socio-political powers which they are actually powerless to change - they're only actually reacting to it, and that is changing them.
It's wonderful that what is disguised as a kids show, a cartoon, is actually a powerful grown-up story. Like The Simpsons kids can watch it and enjoy a one dimensional aspect to it.
It's however as an adult (and if you've ever watched Star Wars) that Star Wars The Clone Wars come alive with introspection and relevations. The 5th season more than ever before fills in missing puzzle pieces for the viewer and Star Wars fan about the overall existing story which you never knew you needed to (and wanted to) know.
Similar to that iconic Star Wars zinger of "Luke ... I am your father" (and Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Best of Both Worlds Part I), the 5th season finale of Star Wars The Clone Wars contains a plot twist so extreme, so magnificently yet tragically huge, that it will take your breath away.
Invest in this show, watch the amazing 5th season, and I can promise you that you won't be disappointed.
