This week on The Clone Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, General Grievous, and Jedi Kids Join a Space Circus! This week, you're going to be infuriated that we aren't getting more Clone Wars toys. Do you know what "Bound For Rescue" has? A circus. I was delighted to see a bunch of the obscure Star Wars creatures from a few of the lavish hardcover books, but we also got to see a Gamorrean Clown. OH MY GOD THIS IS AWESOME WHY AREN'T YOU WATCHIIIIIIIIIING? As always, spoilers and video await you!

The amazing thing about this episode was how it felt like it was a TV show from the 1980s. A bunch of Jedi kids infiltrate the circus to rescue Ahsoka from pirates, and even Hondo Ohnaka acknowledges how his role seems to be rather inconsistent as of late. Wow. You gotta see this, but keep an eye out for weirdness in the background. I also dug seeing creatures from The Wildlife of Star Wars: A Field Guide in the circus.

Click here for "Bound For Rescue" trailers and videos on YouTube

This episode integrates back into the show as a whole a lot better, as we get a "B" story with Obi-Wan Kenobi trying to send Commander Cody to help the kids, and they're all intercepted by General Grievous on a big ship-to-ship battle sequence which actually looks better than anything we've seen for a while, although the reasoning for said battle was probably simply "because we haven't seen these guys in a few weeks."

While by no means experimental, The Clone Wars has taken some new and interesting risks in making episodes about characters we've never seen before, or by transforming our heroes into a completely different person, or even focusing on in-fighting between villains. It keeps the show from getting stale, and it works on occasion. This is an occasion where it works but, like the last chunk of Return of the Jedi, it plays out basically exactly like you would expect. The kids sneak in, Hondo gets wasted, Ahsoka is freed, and everything is A-OK in 22 minutes. I can't say it feels natural that six kids, in the Star Wars tradition, could break into a pirate stronghold without the help of R2-D2 or some other divine hand, but whatever. It was fun.

I'm really not sure what to make of Hondo after this one, as we saw a tipsy Ohnaka flying in the air, getting some slapstick action after being dragged up on stage by a couple of fly Twi'lek honeys. He didn't seem overwhelmingly angry by his defeat, and his comical acceptance at the hands of a new friend was pretty out of character for the tone of this particular series. (It is, however, classic cartoon stuff.) At this rate, I figure we'll see Hondo impersonate a Jedi between now and when the show ends. Which doesn't feel that far off.

Takeaway from this week: