Season 2 - 16 episodes (2023)
Watch Star Wars: The Bad Batch on Disney+
Created by: Jennifer Corbett, Dave Filoni
Starring: Ming-Na Wen, Dee Bradley Baker, Michelle Ang, Noshir Dalal, Rhea Perlman
Rated: TV-PG
Watch the trailer
Plot
The 'Bad Batch' of elite and experimental clones make their way through an ever-changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars.
Verdict
The Clone Wars is the easy comparison due to subject and art style. This show often feels detached from the world at large as these troopers are trying to get away from the Empire and start a life after the war. While there is an undercurrent of clone rights, it's not something our main crew fights for or even knows about. I wish this show felt as big as The Clone Wars. In that show this story would be woven in as a sub-plot. With this show focusing on just one element, it makes the focus narrower.
It depends.
Review
The first season wasn't bad, but it reminds me of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, making me miss the sprawling story of the latter. You don't need The Clone Wars to watch this, but the series did help me appreciate this show a lot more. More than a few episodes of The Clone Wars focus on a detachment of clone troopers.
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| Omega and the Bad Batch troopers |
This starts out with the Bad Batch after a war chest to fund their new life. They want to steal from Dooku and cash out. They're trying to find their place in a new world after the war. They are stuck between who they were and who they are. Most clones fight for the Empire, ravaging lands and pushing inhabitants out. Because of that the Bad Batch aren't trusted as all of the clones look similar. They have to continually gain the trust of everyone they meet because of that as they do frequently need help.
Omega is a clone and their charge. Her good heart and willingness to help keeps getting them in trouble.
The Empire sees the clones as property while many in the republic are fighting to grant them rights. The Bad Batch are uninvolved in this discussion. Linking these two plots, could give their plight more meaning.
The Clone Wars would do a clone trooper episode every so often, and I really liked them. Those episodes help show the sprawling war and who was involved in the broader context. Generals and soldiers all had a part in the war. The war is what united all plot elements. This made the show and world feel big, and the troopers represented a socio-political divides from upper and lower levels as well as both sides of the war.. This show feels narrow in comparison. We're not watching a galaxy at war, but a group of soldiers trying to move on.
This season has a strong finish that begins to bring the plot elements together. The Bad Batch are trying to find their place, besieged by those that want to use them for their own means and others that want to give them rights. The third season seems poised to bring the show's story to a new level.
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