Star Wars: The Bad Batch

'Bad' is absolutely not the word to use when describing this surprisingly good series.

Before I get started, I just want to note that I will be changing the format again to best reflect what fits me and my schedule.

As I've said in previous posts, writing out my thoughts about the media I've consumed really helps with my mental health and avoiding cluttering up my brain with thoughts that I don't need to carry around.

I really want each post to be more of an update each week rather than focusing on one thing and partial updates on everything else.

For movies, this means 'reviews' will be much shorter, although I will be listing everything I watched in the previous seven days and adding any new thoughts I might have after re-watching something.

For games and TV shows, each week will effectively be 'reviews in progress' (or re-reviews if needed) and write out how my feelings might change over however long it takes to get through them.

If I write enough about a game or TV show over time, then I may collate everything I wrote into a single post to save people having to trawl through a whole series of posts to see if I mention something they might want to know.

I think this will be especially useful for TV shows as I can hopefully highlight more about individual episodes than covering everything at the same time.

So, no movies or games section this week, with The Bad Batch getting a special solo spotlight this week and the new format will be in place for next week onwards.

Reminder for reviews: I'm only really going to talk about what stood out to me, so anything I don't bring up is most likely just fine.

If an issue isn't bad enough to detract from the experience, then that's a good thing - just like something not standing out as being noteworthy doesn't necessarily make it a bad thing.

It's perfectly fine for a thing to serve its purpose and nothing more.

TV

Star Wars: The Bad Batch

Series summary: Members of a squad of experimental clones make their way through an ever-changing galaxy in the aftermath of the Clone Wars. (IMDb)

I have to admit that I wasn't particularly looking forward to starting The Bad Batch after the reaction I saw online, although that apprehension vanished shortly into the first episode and I reminded myself of exactly what kind of people who shout the loudest about Star Wars - and especially since Disney bought the franchise from George Lucas - and was ready to judge the series on its own merits.

Season 1 is probably the weakest of the three seasons that make up the show and it really does feel a lot of the time like the creative team were still figuring out what kind of show they were making, although that's not to say it was a poor season.

Seasons 2 and 3 are pretty much equal in quality, although still with the occasional issue of making either the heroes or villains competent/incompetent as and when needed to move either an episode's story or the larger narrative arc in a certain direction.

It can be pretty frustrating as an adult and being able to notice this weaker part of the story-telling going on, especially when there's a particularly dreadful example that sets up the final arc of the series. Then I remind myself that Star Wars is a franchise primarily aimed at children who won't notice this problem and put it out of my mind.

The Bad Batch is an odd show though, as it's of such a consistent level of high quality that it might seem strange to comment on, but it very much reminded me of how I felt about the first Captain Marvel movie: while there aren't any lows that ruined things or broke my sense of immersion, neither were there any incredible highs that felt like they stood out as being iconic or defining of the series.

I definitely prefer it to The Clone Wars, which had far, far too many low points for the highs to overcome, although I will say that the original show also has sequences and entire episodes, if not entire arcs, that I'll remember far more fondly than anything in The Bad Batch.

I'm also now more interested in ever than watching Star Wars: Andor after finishing this series, as that show got a lot of praise for its depiction of the Empire's fascistic rule of the galaxy, yet The Bad Batch contains what is by far and away the most loathsome and evil depiction of the Empire I've seen in any Star Wars media so far - Andor is going to have to go some to beat some of what is shown here.

Andor and other Star Wars media is also going to have to go some way to beat how good The Bad Batch looks, especially when it comes to environments. The Last Jedi and Rogue One are the two best-looking live-action entries for me, but being just two movies, even they can't compare with the sheer range of locales this show visits over three seasons.

It isn't just the still stuff either, with most of the action sequences looking pretty damn incredible too, again often eclipsing the live-action material. There's one fist-fight with a Force user in the third season that is flat out jaw-dropping to watch for the choreography and, like What If...? with Marvel, makes me wonder why the lice-action creative teams don't borrow more action choreography from their animated teams.

Now, I've gone this far without mentioning the characters, because I wanted to save them for last so the final thoughts of anyone reading this would be about them and I definitely have to praise Dee Bradley Baker for his voice work on the titular team, as well as many other voices in the show. I'm really hoping he got well paid for this job!

Obviously, the writing helps to make each character distinct from the others, but Baker infuses them all with such personality that I think even if the material had been worse, his performances would've still elevated it.

Lastly, there's Michelle Ang as Omega, a female clone, who was the character I was most wary of, as a lot of kids in TV shows aren't written that well and become more of an irritation than anything else. Thankfully, the writing and performance again combines beautifully to make Omega a really enjoyable member of the cast and her relationship with the rest of the team provides most of the more emotional moments in the show.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a very good show that I think most people will enjoy while they're watching it, even with the slightly wobbly first season, ultimately building to be one of the better pieces of the Star Wars puzzle made so far. [8/10]