Star Wars ‘The Bad Batch’ Season Two Review – I’m Not Crying, You Are
Season Two of The Bad Batch left us with questions and some big feelings. But does the season hold up to The Clone Wars legacy?
The second season of The Bad Batch is officially behind us. What started in season one as a highly anticipated show about some of our favorite clones has had its ups and its downs. It’s introduced new characters and given us appearances from familiar faces. But does it hold up to The Clone Wars legacy?
The Bad
This season starts out slow. And not in a “wow the first episode was sort of dull way.” Season of The Bad Batch did this way other-thing where the entire first half of the season seemed to meander. Every single week felt like the sort of filler episodes we make fun of some anime for loading up on. For example, in one episode Tech temporarily becomes a pod racer. It was fun and a cameo from Ben Schwartz is never not delightful. But it didn’t feel like the episode was adding much to the story when other things are happening around the galaxy that should probably be more pressing matters on the Batch’s mind. Y’know, like the rise of violent fascism and their former team member lurking in the galaxy, ready to kill them. Little things like that.
The Good
The second half of the season revved everything up and honestly saved the rest of the show. Every single episode in the back half was smart, important, and meaningful and every episode worked to push the story forward and give us bigger and bigger glimpses of what was happening within the Empire. The second half of the season was so good, that it made me wonder why they botched the pacing in the first so badly.
And that’s when I realized that the first few episodes weren’t actually filler at all. Those episodes were used to introduce characters to the Batch who would become influential later, line up a lot of lines well in advance, start dropping hints, and make us feel emotionally invested in a character or two who we may not have thought much about before. The second half of the season would have been much less impactful and made much less sense without all of the exhaustive setups from the first half.
That said, technically the show was great. The Bad Batch uses the same art style and voice talent as The Clone Wars and neither disappoints very often at all. We’re all impressed by Dee Bradley Baker’s ability to play every clone and make them all sound individual, right?
The Rating
Based on the first half of this season I was ready to completely pan this show. It was fun, sure, but for a long time, it didn’t feel like it was going anywhere. These episodes are more or less redeemed by the quality and incorporation of the second half. But it’s still a weird feeling to watch half of an entire season while thinking that nothing is happening. I wish they had incorporated things more smoothly or sprinkled important moments earlier.
Entire scenes with Crosshair could have happened earlier to keep things engaging. Or episodes focused on character building could have been combined. Heck, character-building can happen organically while the plot is being laid out. And frankly, it’s bad writing that they had to spend multiple episodes telling us that Tech is a cool character who we should care about when they could have simply been not backburning this whole time instead.
And then the second half of the season was perfect. Every episode was a loving homage to a famous movie and every episode moved the plot forward beautifully. There were references back to the Legends books, the tension and danger were steadily amped up, and they even gave us an emotional kick in the teeth. There is literally nothing more I could have wanted from this show…. in the second half.
I’m giving this show a three out of five, and that feels harsh even to me considering how spectacularly they stuck the landing. But The Bad Batch deserves better and more consistent writing than they got this time around. The last few episodes proved this show worthy and maybe even in great need of a third (and final?) season. But I hope that the third season spends less time running errands and more time focused on the things that matter.
