Star Wars -- The Clone Wars: Season 4

Season one had many stand alone episodes with a few three parters. But when we had three parters they each focused on different Jedi or different parts of a battle. Season did the same. Season three had some multi-part episodes and also added some episodes meant to be before or after ones in season one and two and thus turn those into multi-part stories.

Season four doesn't have episodes that take place ones in previous seasons. We get many multi-part stories and quite often they are set in the same place with the same characters. So in a way you are getting fewer stories, but longer ones. And that is both good and bad. Being able to do the same story arc over multiple episodes does allow for a more complicated story but it can also make it feel like they are padding things out a tad. It also means you get a lot of some characters in some stories but then nothing else about them in others. When I was viewing the one episode a week, it did feel really drawn out, but once they were all on Teletoon On Demand, it was much more enjoyable watching the episodes back to back so you could better appreciate the multi-part stories. So the DVDs should be more enjoyable than they had been on TV.

The season starts with the weakest stories of the lot - a three parter about a battle on Mon Calamari. There's a one off featuring JarJar and the gungans on Naboo, not an overly memorable episode. Next are two little adventures featuring 3P0 and R2.

Next is an interesting 4-part story about the clones and a jedi leader who is a deliberately trying to get the Clones killed. While it moves a bit slow, this 4-parter does have an interesting story to it as the tension mounts as the Clones loyalty is tested.

There's a stand alone episode with Ahsoka and Lux, the boy she met in seasons three, it seems there could be another episode set before this because it seems the Nightwatch are upset with Dooku,but last time we saw them in season two we were not led to think they wanted revenge on him. This episode is one of the best of the season.

There is rather good three-part story about Anakin dealing with a slave empire.

There's a four-part one where Obi Wan goes undercover, featuring Cad Bane. This story line takes a while to get interesting, but is still fairly good.

The final four episodes are more loosely joined. It picks up from where season three ended with Ventress and the Nightsisters, sees her next joining Boba Fett on a mission, then the final two episodes feature Savage Opress picking up from season three, continuing his search for Maul and finding him (the mad half of him that servived.) Those final four episodes are rather good.

So all in all there are some good stories in this season but because of the way they are drawn out over more episodes they do move along slower, but we also get a bit more in depth. So it a different sort of season. And though it started off a bit slow, got better as went - which is true of previous seasons too. The animation continues to improve as well.

This was on my son's Christmas wish list. When the product didn't arrive by mail, a quick email to the seller brought results FAST! They promptly resent the item with no questions asked and it arrived as promised. For the ultimate Star Wars fan, this CD collection is a must.

My son loves Star Wars and has all seasons of the clone wars. It is a must for all Star Wars fans.