I’m going to refrain from saying too much about episode #8 because there isn’t really much I can honestly say – it wasn’t as awful as it could have been but I found myself impatient as I just simply didn’t appeal to my sense of humour.
I understand exactly why it was developed as an episode and I think the portrayal of Jar Jar was far better than in Episode II but it’s still not something that really appeals to me. If anything, the combination of bumbling alien + C3-PO made this a lot more like one of the duller episodes of Droids, rather than a Clone Wars story.
Episode #9 was, likewise, a very mixed bag…though for very different reasons.
Whilst the central action set-piece of the episode was very well done, the surrounding story was somewhat weak – in particular it felt like Ahsoka had suddenly become a stand in for the angst!Anakin of (again) Episode II whilst Luminara simply became Helena Bonham Carter-lite as the story did its best to devalue her standing in favour of showing that an old dog can still learn new tricks. For the most part, the worst crime of this episode was that, due to the constraints of the EU’s continuity, it was already clear how it was going to end.
By far the best of the three episodes was episode #10 which featured Kit Fisto and another, less interesting Mon Calamari Jedi, taking on Mister Grievous in his own home.
Whilst Fisto spent most of the episode sounding like Hermes from Futurama, the story did a good job of improving his character and telling a really exciting and dramatic story without breaking the format of the show. By far the best episode in a long time!
