Lucas has basically devolved into making serial episodes. Not making great films that drew upon the serial tradition to craft smart pieces of entertainment--but a literal serial episode. The serials were weekly produced 20 minute episodes that were made as cheaply and quickly as possible; they were awful. None of them have anything significant to say, and they have the plotting, construction, acting level and production values of a high school play. The purpose of these episodes was to grab the short-lived attention span of a ten year old boy and keep it on the screen for twenty minutes. The stories were idiotic but the audience of ten year olds didn't realise how bad they were because they were, well, ten years old.

Lucas has not just emulated a serial episode--he has actually made one, with all the second rate corner-cutting, B-movie acting, low production value and meaningless plotting. Stuff like Clone Wars is pretty much as close as you can come to a modern-day serial.