Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Episode One Review

Quick Thoughts about Episode One – Star Wars: The Bad Batch is a welcome addition to the Star Wars animated world, and is refreshingly unique as it follows Clone Force 99, a group of defectively born, and battle-hardened clones throughout the post-Clone Wars universe. 

The official synopsis for the show is “Members of a unique squad of clones find their way in a changing galaxy in the aftermath of the Clone War.” Originally conceived in 2012 by George Lucas, who wanted to create clones who were “more unique than their counterparts,” the group had a rough road to the screen as The Clone Wars was cancelled by the Cartoon Network shortly after Disney acquired LucasFilm in 2013. The delay was unfortunate, but the end result is a fun new show that will expand Star Wars-lore, and give the world a crew of Dirty Dozen-esque clones who beat people (and robots) up around the galaxy

What makes the first two episodes so enjoyable is watching how the crew deals with the regime change after Order-66 shakes the universe to its core. In the first episode, The Bad Batch made up of Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, Crosshair and Echo (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), return from a mission, and have to deal with changing times under the watchful eye of General Tarkin (Stephen Stanton), who is inspecting the clone army. He isn’t a fan of The Bad Batch because they can disobey direct orders, which makes them wildcards on the battlefield, and possibly unable to obey specific directives. What follows is a lot of fun, as each character begins to show more personality as they engage in a lot of fun action scenes and wild moments which won’t be spoiled here. 

If you are a fan of Star Wars, you will love these refreshingly gruff, sullen and violent characters. Why? They offer a change of pace, as they aren’t as serious as the Jedi, or as stoic as the heroes of The Mandalorian. It’s nice seeing a grittier galaxy be explored, and it’s a lot of fun watching the crew deal galactic trouble.

Final thoughts: if you are a fan of the Star Wars animated world, you will love this show. Also, the show is executive produced by Dave Filoni, a man who lives-and-breathes Star Wars, so you know you are going to get a quality product by someone who loves the world.