Milo123

Star Wars at its most bland, boring and predictable since The Rise of Skywalker. This whole season has felt like a backdoor pilot: the TV series, falling into the same trap as the hot mess that was Titans Season 2, setting up too many characters' shows and losing interest in its own to the point where it ends with a tease for another series rather than the third season of its own show. It feels like it's ticking off checklists and resorting to lazy fanservice (in hindsight it's about what we should have expected with a script written by the director of Iron Man 2) instead of trying something new or different like with The Clone Wars' animated series, Rebels' later seasons, or The Last Jedi. The Mandalorian feels like a supporting character in his own show, and the big Deus Ex Machina with Luke Skywalker confirms that the franchise is far too reliant on one character to truly move forward: what was supposed to be the series' big moment just left me cold and soulless, completely empty. I knew this was coming the moment they teased another Jedi apart from Ahsoka and brought back Boba Fett, but did it have to be this uninteresting?

The bit where we got to see Mando's face in front of everyone was a cool culmination of his arc and all, and easily a high point of the episode for me with the right emotional beats working that features a terrific bit of acting from Pedro Pascal that feels like he's been waiting the whole show to to get to grips with. It's easily a series highlight. And the stuff where Moff Gideon was able to almost manipulate Bo Katan and Mando into a fight and coming to blows was a good thing that played to all three characters strengths. But what followed was a colossal let down that flat out killed my interest in Season 3 if this is the direction of where this show is headed, it just feels like Star Wars is playing it far too safe right now, focusing on the same one character in a way that is determined to tie everything together. I also love the subtle nuance where we get to see the brief personalities of the minor Empire pilots and their troopers that adds a bit of depth to the world and explores how the characters react to the changing events around them. That stuff is good!

Good to see everyone is enjoying this more than I am. It's not for me! And that's fine.

And with one episode left to go, The Clone Wars delivered another perfect episode that finally reached the moment that we were all expecting it to reach: Order 66.

Refreshingly avoiding the all-too easy option of repeating excessive scenes from the movie such as the montage of all the Clones turning on the Jedi and not featuring Obi-Wan and Anakin or any of the other Jedi at all full stop, The Clone Wars reminds us at the end what the show has always been about, Ahsoka and Rex. Their story. I'm not lying when I say that this episode full on wrecked me - there was no point in trying to hide Order 66 because we all knew it was coming, and instead, keeping the focus on these two characters rather than going for something much bigger led to a much more impactful moment with the scene where Rex gets his orders from the Darth Sidious being one of the strongest moments that the show has ever done. You can feel the emotion. You can see him trying to fight it and failing. And then there's that moment where he, like the entire army of the republic, switches into cold-blooded hunter the moment the Order is given. I mentioned last week about Revenge of the Sith hitting a little differently on a rewatch; it's not just that: Rebels is going to hit a little differently on a rewatch, a show which I fully plan on revisiting too.

The little touches designed to play to audience's emotions like having the clones in their Tano-coloured helmets salute Ahsoka, and the show reaffirming the bond between Rex and Ahsoka moments before Order 66 happened added up to this emotional gut-punch of a moment even further. We've all seen Revenge of the Sith, we all know this moment was what this season was building towards - yet it doesn't stop it from being arguably, the most emotional moment in the whole series and one of the most emotional moments in the entire franchise, thanks in no small part due to the fact that the writers know that we know what's coming next. The music played a huge role here, which is appropriate - arguably Order 66 wouldn't have had the same impression without that John Williams fanfare in Revenge of the Sith, and the little touches of silence before it lead create a sense of eeriness and fear. I was worried throughout the episode constantly for Ahsoka even if Rebels fans know her fate, and Rex's, after The Clone Wars.

The scenes that the show did include from Revenge of the Sith were chosen perfectly - the council meeting to reaffirm the fact that the Chancellor was involved in something dodgy and to remind us of where we were in the film's timeline (honestly, overlapping this show with the events of the film was the best decision ever - Claudia Gray's Lost Stars did something similiar with the original trilogy and that too worked perfectly so it's not without precedent in the Star Wars universe), and that scene where Ahsoka saw the vision of Anakin turning on Mace and joining Sidious, completing his tragic fall from grace, hit perfectly - especially using the voices of both actors who have played Anakin to sync it up. It was a big, operatic sequence that succeeded on every level.

And then there's Maul. Maul unleashed is Maul at his best, even once defeated the show never stopped reminding us how deadly he was; I love that Ahsoka was smart enough not to give her his lightsaber. We've seen this part so many times where the hero has to trust the villain to escape and the villain inevitably betrays them. Letting Maul go to unleash chaos was exactly what he did - in brutal, visceral fashion, tearing through the Clone army using only the force.

Things fall apart in the very next episode - which didn't take long at all - finding the treasure was always going to be the easy part if this show wanted to have any sense of a longer lifespan about it - there's a lot of scenes between John B. and Sarah's father Ward here that really work - of course Sarah's dad was always going to know more about the treasure than he was letting on, and that final shot of him climbing up the boat to - do something bad - to John B opens up a whole can of questions for the next episode. He has a dark past - that's clear - a past that he's willing to take drastic actions to stop his newly adopted son from talking.

JJ fell down pretty hard this episode and his stuff was pretty emotional and effective. I really like that the show doesn't use this as an excuse to force him apart from the rest of his friends, and that Kiara and Pope sympathise with him for his actions rather than cast him off - which would have been a bad move. It's the highlight of the episode for me, even considering the ending. Rudy Pankow was the MVP of this episode.

Maybe it's not the best idea to question a man who may have had something to do with your father's disappearance on a boat in the middle of nowhere, John B? Maybe wait until you're back on dry land? Either way - whatever happens next - most likely leaning in the direction that John B's going to either kill or heavily injure Ward out of self-defence - we've just found our hook for the rest of the episodes.

Proper good Doctor Who - one of the best of the current era, suitably chaotic and all over the place but I love the dog monster and both Vinder and Dan Lewis are more charismatic than both Ryan and Graham, who I admittedly quite like. The Doctor being a Liverpool fan I'm less of a fan of though.

Chibnall's best at serialisation and this is him playing to his strengths, the ending shots of all the major players involved felt very Broadchurch episode 1 ending-y. There's a lot going on - almost too much, but it's fairly simple to follow - The Doctor fighting the end of the universe, and I loved it. The bit about the alien Dogs being man's best friend was hilarious too (as was The Doctor being Trent Alexander Arnold's ball boy, and the nod to the Scottish accents) - very Moffat-y in tone and sheer amount of stuff going on. This feels like what Series 6 would have been like had it been allowed to be full serialised and I'm absolutely here for this Shada/Trial of the Time Lords approach. The smaller TARDIS crew works wonders for now, and Yaz has gone full Clara here - meaning her days are surely numbered (possible death of both The Doctor and Yaz at the same time but with The Doctor regenerating looking on the cards here?) - but I like that she's getting to call out The Doctor.

Also like - as one of the 5 people that didn't mind Timeless Children - that they're going full in with The Division plot. Hopefully this leads to more surprise cameos and it'd be rude to not see Ruth!Doctor one more time - Jo Martin was excellent in Fugitive of the Judoon. The Weeping Angels haven't been overused (they last appeared in Obama's first term) so I'm excited to see more of them especially under a different showrunner than Moffat. More to come with most of these - it's all set-up and so much is now riding on the payoff, but what a way to keep me hooked for next week.

Might actually rewatch this before next week's as I'm also in the middle of a Series 12 rewatch (just ran out of time to do it before Series 13, sadly) - and it's been a while since I watched a Who episode twice in the same week. Big fan. Will miss 13 when she goes...