Last night Star Wars: The Clone Wars premiered on Cartoon Network with two episodes. I saw the movie that was out in theaters in August, so I already had a good idea of what to expect. The series uses a unique style of animation that seems to be about halfway between realism and cartoon. The style seems to work pretty well in combination with the style of action, dialog, and plot that are targeted more or less at children.

For me, watching a children’s animated series as an adult is kind of a strange experience. I find myself thinking how much I would have loved this series when I was eleven and just discovering Star Wars. But now, it can be a bit of a struggle to get past the heavily cliched and cheesy dialog.

Nonetheless, the two episodes were somewhat enjoyable. The first episode followed Yoda as he and three Clone Troopers battled legions of the Seperatist’s Droid Army in order to prove the worth of siding with the Republic to the Toydarian king. The plot made little sense and the attempts at comic relief with the Battle Droid dialog were pathetic. However, Yoda kicked some serious butt and the action scenes were pretty cool.

The second episode followed Anakin Skywalker and his new apprentice, Ahsoka, as they searched for survivors of recent space battle. The episode also featured Jedi Master Plo Koon who was in command of a  small Republic fleet when it came up against the Seperatist’s new weapon, a huge battle cruiser armed with a gigantic ion cannon (reminiscent of the one on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back). When the ion cannon hit the Republic ships, they all lost power and the Seperatist cruiser blasted them to pieces. Plo Koon and three Clone Troopers managed to escape in a life pod and were eventually found by Anakin and Ahsoka.

Though the second episode didn’t contain the same level of action as the first, I found that I enjoyed it more. The plot was a lot more believable and compelling. It was also interesting to follow Plo Koon for much of episode, who proved to be a fairly interesting character. Luckily, it also had less cheesiness than the first episode, so that helped too.

Overall, I think the series will probably end up being something that children may enjoy quite a lot. Fortunately, I think there is also enough positive factors that adults can also enjoy the show as well, but probably to a lesser extent.

The third episode of Heroes, entitled “One of Us, One of Them” aired yesterday on NBC and I thought it was fantastic. The two part season premiere that aired last week was very fast paced with very short scenes and incorporated almost all of the major characters. The episodes were both exciting and enjoyable, but weren’t amazing. I thought this week’s episode was a considerable improvement.

The finale of season two left a lot of loose ends and I think the writers tried to tie them all up as quickly as possible in the premiere. The writers are obviously ready to take the show in a new direction and they started pushing those changes immediately last week. So between wrapping up the loose ends and pushing the new ideas at such as fast pace, the episodes suffered. Many of the characters seemed to change drastically or were immediately thrown into new situations. Mohinder and Maya was just weird and disconcerting.

I had started to worry that things were going amiss, but yesterday’s episode has quelled my fears significantly. The first week left me reeling a little, but I am beginning to think it actually did a pretty good job to set the stage for this season’s plot line. The third episode slowed things down and gave more time to individual characters. Other characters were ignored completely. I think this approach is crucial, because when the writers try to factor in every character, the episodes are just insane.

The episode started back in Sylar’s cell in Level 5 with Angela Petrelli revealing that she is his mother. I thought this scene came off a lot better with extended dialog. It had already been speculated that Angela was Sylar’s mother, so the revelation at the end of the premiere didn’t end up being much of a cliffhanger for me. In fact, I thought it was just kind of lame, but I like how the third episode began to play things out. Angela starts by leaving Sylar some “food” and we see just how nasty she can be. I mean, what a bitch!

Sylar is assigned to be Mr. Bennet’s partner as they attempt to track down the escaped prisoners from Level 5. Obviously this works out for Sylar, because he’ll have the chance to steal powers from some of the most dangerous villains in the world. I really liked how Bennet baited Sylar into helping bring them down, but it was not surprise that Sylar stole one of their powers. What was surprising was that he was willing to go back to Level 5 when they were down.

During the confrontation, future Peter shows up and removes present Peter from the body he is trapped inside and promptly whisks him away to the future. To be honest I’m getting a little tired of all the time travel. Does there always have to be some impending disaster that the heroes are trying to stop? We did that for the first two seasons and I’m ready for something different. It will probably work well enough, but I think the writers might try to be a little more creative next time around.

We also saw Hiro and Ando continue to track down the speedster Daphne. This plotline is nice because it brings some fun and humor to an otherwise somber show. It look forward to seeing more of this plot line.

And thankfully, we saw the whole Nikki/Tracy situation laid to rest. Literally. Tracy actually shows up at Nikki’s funeral and bumps into Micah. Seriously awkward. Through Micah, Tracy finds out that she is Nikki’s sister and track’s down the doctor that birthed them, or in his words “created them.”

Overall, I thought the third episode was the strongest of this season. It was very dramatic and enjoyable. I really like seeing expanded segments for each character, so the slightly slower pace seemed to work a lot better. I’m really looking forward to next week.

The fourth episode of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles was entitled “Allison from Palmdale” and was centered around Cameron. In this episode, Cameron randomly forgot her identity and began to remember her life before she was a Terminator, or maybe it’s more accurate to say, the life of the woman that was used to create her model. This was a really powerful and dramatic episode and I thought it was great.

As Cameron began to relive these memories, she also began to take on the personality and emotions of Allison, the girl who was captured by the machines in the future and was used to create Cameron’s model. I found it very compelling to see Cameron convey these powerful emotions.

On the other hand, it was also somewhat confusing, because it was difficult to comprehend how Cameron was able to have these memories that belonged to Allison. It became even more strange, but no less dramatic, when Cameron’s memories of Allison crossed paths with her own memories and switched back. At some point she stop reliving these memories of Allison’s imprisonment through the eyes of Allison and, instead, began reliving them through her own.

Meanwhile, Sarah has had to take the pregnant neighbor girl to the hospital and we are subjected with a number of symbolic, yet typical, allegories between her hopes and fears as a mother and Sarah’s. The scenes helped reinforce Sarah’s character, but didn’t bring much else to the table.

By the end of the episode, Cameron has become fully engulfed in the memory and nearly kills an innocent girl as she relives killing Allison. John storms in just too late to stop Cameron, but luckily the girl survived. At that moment, Cameron seems to come back into her own and flees the scene with John.

To sum up my thoughts, this episode was awesome. I really liked how the story alternated between the present day and the future. It created a really cohesive parallel story arch that I thought worked perfectly. I’ve been intrigued by Cameron’s character since the start of the show and I really like when the plot allows for her to show emotion. It makes her character more than just a Terminator, more than a killing machine, and think that is a crucial piece in the evolution of the series.

The third episode of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, “Mousetrap,” was not only exciting, but it also had great acting and an interesting plot. I’ve been very impressed with Terminator this season. It has really begun to evolve and mature with time, expanding the overarching storyline and the emotional ranges of the characters.

One thing that I really like in this season is how the show’s villainry has been expanded upon. Not only do we still have Cromartie chasing down John Conner, but now we also have a new villain, Catherine Weaver, another Terminator. Weaver is the CEO of ZeiraCorp, a technology company that has been attempting to reverse engineer Terminator technology. In this episode, Weaver even attempts to enlist Agent Ellison to her campaign. I have to assume that she is really just attempting to use Ellison as a pawn to get closer to John Conner or in some other way. Either way, it will be a bad deal for Ellison.

Speaking of bad deals, Charley’s wife got one hell of a bad deal. In this episode, Cromartie catches up with Charley and his wife, Michelle, as they flee and kidnaps Michelle to use her as bait to draw Sarah away from John. Sarah proved her resiliance once again as she, Derek, Charley, and Michelle escape from his trap, but Michelle is wounded and dies before they can get her to a hospital. Michelle’s death felt a little forced. I didn’t like the timing of it, but at the same time she had quickly become a useless character. With her out of the picture, it frees up Charley to take on a larger role in the series. I believe he will become something of a father figure for John.

Despite a pretty well laid plan, Cromartie is also eluded by John. He lures John to the Pier, pretending to be Sarah, to kill him. John’s Spidey sense went off though and he ran off, making a desperate plunge into the water. It worked out well because Terminators don’t float. My only question is, why didn’t Cromartie just tell John to meet him at home? Wouldn’t that have been a lot easier?

Nonetheless, week three produced another stellar episode. For me, this show is a bit of surprise. Given, it doesn’t always take a rocket scientist to follow, the plot has progressed and developed better than I had expected. I’ve really grown to like the show quite a lot. And after Heroes‘ shakey premiere, Terminator may end up being my favorite show of the year.

Heroes kicked off its third season with a three hour premiere. The first hour was a recap and behind-the-scenes episode. The next two hours consisted of the first two episodes of the season, “Second Coming” and “The Butterfly Effect.

With the start of the new season, began the start of a new volume entitled “Villains.” Already with the first two episodes, we have seen a significant darkening in the series. Many new villainous characters have been introduced and several other baddies returned. We also began to see how some of the more noble characters may become tempted or corrupted by their power.

It seems this will be a season of change with many of the central characters undergoing some dramatic change in the first two episodes. Suresh has injected himself with what he believes is the source of all human evolution and what creates the powers of all the Heroes. Peter has become trapped in the body of a man who has recently escaped from the Level 5 prison where the Company kept the most dangerous individuals. Nathan has been cured by Linderman, who only he can see, and been offered the chance to become a New York state senator. Nikki is back, but as Tracy Stroud and with the power to freeze. I could go on, but I won’t.

It seems that the writers really wanted to make a drastic change from last season and wipe the slate clean. That is probably because last season was not that well received and, with the writer’s strike, felt rushed and incomplete. I’m glad to see that, but I almost wonder if they weren’t a little too eager to make progress. The first two episodes have done a lot to jump start the story, so much that it kind of felt like not one character really got the screen time that he or she deserved. Just when I was getting into a plot line, it would switch over to another. The premiere was very fast paced, but, overall, it was very good.

I’m looking forward to see what is in store for the characters this season. I think season three will definitely have a better plot than last season. Not many of the original characters from season two are still around, so everyone’s favorite characters should get the screen time that they lacked last year. Overall, I think I would say I was satisfied with the premiere. I wasn’t blown away (like with the first season), but I definitely wasn’t disappointed either.