I just got to watch this week's episode tonight... and yeah, I didn't care for it.
I actually liked the political story for what it was, but as far as excitement, it was a big empty waste.
I thought the story also was so far removed from the central theme of "The Clone Wars" as well... It may play out more in the next episode that it ties to the war a bit more than was led on, but it really just was this pretty wholely separate bunch of **** going on, very loosely having anything to do with the war.
The only cool thing were Satine's personal guard and their somewhat badass behavior...
I was ok with the new species being introduced though, actually. It was one of the few positives. There are only so many species seen in the film before the redundancy of a galaxy comprised of, "a million million worlds" becomes comical because you only see so many species in the toon. That's what I like about some EU, when they introduce the Chiss, or the freaky guy Maul had to kill in an arena-type situation to prove himself to Palpatine back in the day.
You can only re-use Gotals, Ithorians, Quarren and the like, so often, and seeing movie aliens all the time is still highly limited. Though I did think the new alien guys were kind of lame looking. Maybe if they didn't have the ancient Egyptian outfits on, they'd have been cooler. What's wrong with clothes like Han for these guys to wear, ya know? Jackets, a shirt, and pants, with some boots. Simple.
This episode really was wanting though... It felt like there was some previous episode missing that may turn up later showing that Padme's being used in part of a greater plot to undermine Mandalore and bring them back into the Republic flock. I dunno.
The fact their planet is all blue-eyed and blonde is getting a little weird too. There's hardly anyone else... Though there was that very Jango-like guy that got questioned by the Dutchess and Padme.
I dunno though, this one just stunk to me too. Next week is a continuation of it, so I hope it is an improvement of the episode, and not just more of the same junk. It looks slightly more interesting, but not much, so I'm holding only a sliver of hope at this time.