I’ve been watching The Clone Wars for the past couple of months and I’m happy that it’s actually good. I was skeptical. A Star Wars kids show actually being good? Aside from the occasional appearance from Jar Jar Binks, the episodes that are a part of the Clone Wars series are where I wanted the Star Wars prequels to go story and character wise. There’s lots of space action, no cheesy love scenes and even the occasional scene of good guy anguish thrown in (for example General Grievous killing the Mon Cal Jedi in the “Lair of Grievous” episode). Having the good guys fail adds immensely to the realism [some might say verisimilitude] that the series creates with each passing episode. I’m also a big fan of the Clones and the personalities that they’ve been given and the major role that they play in each episode.

Like the original Star Wars movies, I like that the series focuses on seemingly minor events within a much larger universe. To me, that’s what made Episodes IV – Vi so enjoyable and rewatchable and the very reason why I wasn’t able to connect with Episodes I – III.

George, thanks for giving this series the thumbs up and for sticking to trimming your beard and pressing your plaid shirts (except when you’ve emailed the producers at two in the morning to ask them to put Jar Jar Binks in the occasional episode).

Adding to my Star Wars nerdery, I also recently beat the Force Unleashed for the XBOX 360. Holy crap is this game awesome. This game lets me live out my childhood fantasies of being an ass kicking Jedi Master (or Sith Lord) when I was a proud member of the Star Wars Fan Club back in Britain, religiously wore my Return Of The Jedi patch on my favourite jean jacket and wanted to change my name to Luke.

Starting off the game as Vader is probably the coolest opening level ever created. On top of actually being Vader, getting to throw around Storm Troopers with your Force powers is also mind blowingly awesome. Add the ability to choose your own ending, kill Rancors and Jedi and play as a guy named Starkiller and you’ve got one of the best games of 2008. Of course there are some control issues and some weird bugs that froze game every once in a while, but by large and far this is an amazing experience from start to end and has totally got me back into Star Wars again. Mad props again George!