With Omega’s desire to belong and Hunter’s impulse to protect her, The Bad Batch succeeds in establishing emotional stakes, but its set pieces lack the stylized sense of chaos that marks the more engrossing entries in the Star Wars universe. The duo’s healthy relationship is a stark contrast to the incendiary pairings of Star Wars lore, between Jedi masters and padawans, fathers and sons, and so on. The refreshingly mature Omega recognizes the burdens she places on the group and the mistakes she makes, and Hunter reciprocates her thoughtfulness with transparency, talking to her like an adult.
The squad occasionally offers thought-provoking reflections on their predicament, their programming, and the war (“Republic, Empire, what’s the difference?”), but such intriguing glimmers are drowned out by quickly repetitive arguments between Crosshair, who values orders and duty above all else, and Hunter, who clings to free will and righteousness.įar more compelling are Hunter’s interactions with Omega (Michelle Ang), a sheltered young girl who’s eager to leave the planet of Kamino, where clones are manufactured, and join the Bad Batch.
Hunter, who shares Rambo’s affinity for headbands, is joined by a retinue of cohorts seemingly picked out of a hat: Wrecker, the hulking strongman Tech, the genius Crosshair, the sharpshooter and Echo, the cyborg.Īll of the clones in the series are voiced, per animated Star Wars tradition, by Dee Bradley Baker, whose vocal flexibility is mostly wasted on overly broad, trite dialogue. Hunter, the Bad Batch’s head honcho, refuses, eventually sending the group on the run from the newly formed Galactic Empire and into the orbit of rebel factions. Unfortunately, over the two episodes provided to press for review, the show’s attempt to individualize its protagonists largely reduces them to predictable, banal archetypes.Įarly in the hour-plus first episode of The Bad Batch, clone troopers across the galaxy receive “Order 66,” instructing them to kill the Jedis they serve. The series centers on the titular Bad Batch, a crew of imperfect clones whose genetic deviations grant them both special skills and relative autonomy compared to their cookie-cutter compatriots. Created by longtime Star Wars director, writer, and animator Dave Filoni, Star Wars: The Bad Batch takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars, following the events of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars and George Lucas’s almost identically named follow-up, Star Wars: The Clone Wars.