Star Wars: Bad Batch
Here’s the opinion on the Bad Batch on Disney+. Spoilers below.
Ok, spoilery review. This is honestly not a new show. It’s just new characters in the Clone Wars series. Basically it’s the next chapter… Clone Wars season 8. You might disagree with me, but the timing taking place right after Revenge of the Sith, the tone, the style, etc. It all just screamed The Clone Wars, but in a good way. For a movie like length of 72 minutes. That being said, The Clone Wars is not required viewing before diving into The Bad Batch.
The basic premise of the show is what is an elite team of outcasts, who are bred for war, are supposed to do when the war ends? And Palpatine’s new Empire has no room for them. All while staying somewhat geared towards children and young teens.
Let’s start with the Bad Batch themselves, who make up the special commando team of Clone Force 99. Clone Force 99 is a group of clones who have genetic modifications. Not sure why this would make them a bad batch per se… maybe super batch? Bad Batch sounds better.
Overall, my feeling is that the characters are pretty uninspired. Starting with the Rambo inspired leader, Hunter. Who as you might expect hunts. He uses small arms and knives mostly. He is strong minded, compassionate leader. His strong morals will get him into trouble down the road. Then theres Tech, who unsurprisingly deals with Tech. There is Wrecker, who is a big bald brawler and super strong, yet pretty dim. Can there ever be a strong and smart person? Or someone at least of normal intelligence? Maybe he doesn’t have to be smart, but maybe he sucks at shooting? I don’t know. I just feel like this is a lazy choice. Moving on, theres Echo. The Reg (alar clone trooper) who joined the team. Queue imposter syndrome story arc. And lastly, the ying to Hunters yang, is Crosshair. He is the main antagonist at this point, unless you count Tarkin. Crosshair leaves the group/batch because his programming to remain loyal to empire remains partially intact. His “super power” is incredible aim, unless he is aiming at one of the Bad Batch.
And the last member of the Bad Batch is a late comer to the team. Her name is Omega. She’s a mystery. And a child. She meets the team on Kamino, and instantly befriends them. BFF’s so hard that she starts fights for them minutes after meeting them. My bet is she is a combination of all the clones. Good hunter, super strong, smart af with tech, and can shoot like a mofo. And immediately forms a father/daughter attachment to Hunter.
There are plenty of franchise tie-ins this episode. We meet a younger Grand Moff Tarkin and a young Saw Gerrera. We also saw a young Caleb Dume, the Jedi from the Star Wars Rebels show. I am expecting all these character to be fleshed out more in this series. I know this is the first episode which needs to set the lay of the land to people not familiar with the Clone Wars series, but hopefully there will be something worth investing in emotionally in besides just looking for Easter eggs for other series. This foundation building did slow the pace somewhat, but over all it did not bother me. I am more interested in seeing a good story than a bunch of stuff blow up or clones ducking for cover.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is pretty good. A solid B. And a worthy successor to The Clone Wars. As long as you set your expectations going in, you should be pretty happy with it. Clone Wars fans will probably love this show, and rip apart my opinions on it. If you shed a tear when Clone Wars ended in 2021, The Bad Batch is definitely the show for you. And here’s to hoping that shoe horning in of Omega does not F everything up. I will watch the show with great interest.