Star Wars: The Bad Batch

The bad batch returns to the characters first seen in clone wars season 7. This first episode is an amazing buildup to what I believe an even better rest of the season. It is packed with some nice action, big suprises and gasping for air moments. I am very interested to see where it is going. Definitely worth the watch.

My original review is below, and I'm happy to report the show does indeed go in interesting directions. Basically, half the episodes are standard "mission of the week" type filler that can be skipped. However, hidden away in this show about defective clones is some of the most important SW backstory and setup for plotlines that carry all the way through to the new First Order era of content. And it's fantastic. Not just the stories, but the style, animation, soundtrack, etc, are fabulous. I grew up with the original trilogy, and this is some of the best content I've seen in the entire franchise. Do yourself a favor and find a list of the essential Clone Wars and Bad Batch episodes and watch them. You don't have to sit through all the boring filler - there's still hours of epic stories and character arcs to be enjoyed.

____________

Interesting start to this new series, but it's already slipping into tired, formulaic plots that we've seen many times before. The characters already feel stale and annoying. There is promise here, so hopefully they will take the show in interesting directions. However it's worrying that episodes are already starting to seem like filler.

This show is really good. I understand why people don't like it, and they have some fair points that I agree with. I don't mind filler episodes if they are done well. Sometimes they're done well, other times, not so much. The plot centric episodes are really good though, and the characters are good, with crosshair being the show stealer in terms of writing, and the animation is incredible. Not all characters worked well. I feel like echo got sidelined, but he had his fair amount of development in the clone wars. This show's greatest strength is the world building. Seeing the Republic's transition to the empire from the clones point of view was great. Overall, it's the best first season out of any star wars animated show, but not one of the great ones YET. It's like a 7.8/10 for me.

This series is incredibly formulaic. Not exactly original but that doesn't mean it's bad. A good formula executed well can still equal a great show, which is what this is. It really speaks to how effective certain tropes are when even after seeing slight variations of the same things time and time again, still elicits feelings of satisfaction in the hearts of the audience.

For instance, the villain is someone that we've seen countless times before, but it's pulled off so well in such perfect form that it just works because he's who we want him to be. Our heroes also conform to such typical stereotypes but again, done so well that we don't mind and even welcome it. It can be argued that the uninspired roles they fill with personalities to match are reasoned away in the larger context of what it means to be a clone, but that's just another convenient variation of a theme that we're comfortable with. The entire show is filled with things like this, such as Omega being somehow special and needs to be guarded, but her guardians also recognize her as a full member of the team so that's different enough to accept as something fresh. Or how we see old characters make an appearance for arguably little more than nostalgia, yet as transparent as this is it's briefly explained away via story and we just accept it because we want to. This continues all the way through until the finish. The way things end up is exactly as expected. Outside of one event that the writers shockingly committed to, nothing else was surprising in the slightest and there's nothing wrong with that.

Now combine all of the above with superb animation, excellent lighting and atmosphere, A+ voice work, great scene composition, good pacing / transition and you end up with something fantastic.

I only have one complaint, and that's the inclusion of fillers. There may have been fillers in the original clone wars series, but that had far more episodes than this one and could allow for it. The ones present here would have benefited from being a little more focused and less freeform.

I really enjoyed The Bad Batch. If you were a fan of the series that came before it this is a must watch. Or if you simply like good storytelling, for which this is an excellent example of.

Yes there are filler episodes, but I urge you to remember The Clone Wars. Quit making excuses and watch The Bad Batch. What are you waiting for?