Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Disney+) TV Show Premiere Review & Comments

Yeah good stuff yet again. The primary storyline this week felt a bit filler-ish, but it was nice to see the squad continuing to bond with Omega. And Wrecker's oafish charm is starting to settle with me. The secondary, wider story continues to impress with some dark character moments and sinister machinations. The growing rift between Tarkin and the Kaminoans is fascinating and Crosshair is a superb character that could go in a number of directions. I noticed his helmet is beginning to resemble that of a modern Stormtrooper.
 
Episode 3 I enjoyed much more. It's throwing up some really interesting issues and already hinting at the ultimate fate of all clones. Nice little tie ins here and there with stuff from the Mandalorian and I think I can sense an effort to try and tidy up the mess of the sequels with a future role for cloning. All very nicely done.

I wonder who else the Bad Batch might encounter from the known Star Wars characters...
 
Episode 3 I enjoyed much more. It's throwing up some really interesting issues and already hinting at the ultimate fate of all clones. Nice little tie ins here and there with stuff from the Mandalorian and I think I can sense an effort to try and tidy up the mess of the sequels with a future role for cloning. All very nicely done.

I wonder who else the Bad Batch might encounter from the known Star Wars characters...

Your feelings betray you. You might be projecting there.
 
Nice little tie ins here and there with stuff from the Mandalorian and I think I can sense an effort to try and tidy up the mess of the sequels with a future role for cloning. All very nicely done.
Feels like there's definitely a tie-in with the reveal on the Imperial base in Mando Season 2 and, of course, Palpatine. Filoni once again fixing the problems/filling the holes of the main films.

Much as I enjoyed TLJ, they missed a trick by not getting him to run the new trilogy - or at least work with the directors on them (although he did fix Maul in Solo).
 
Your feelings betray you. You might be projecting there.
Basically my feelings are exactly as gavin describes - yet again Filoni having to flesh out skinny narratives from the films.
Feels like there's definitely a tie-in with the reveal on the Imperial base in Mando Season 2 and, of course, Palpatine. Filoni once again fixing the problems/filling the holes of the main films.

Much as I enjoyed TLJ, they missed a trick by not getting him to run the new trilogy - or at least work with the directors on them (although he did fix Maul in Solo).
 
Also see Anakin’s entire character in The Clone Wars, which covers both IMO.

Agreed, TCW Anakin is a significant improvement on the Anakin of the movies imo and in the opinion of many people. Lucas himself as well as Filioni played a key role in making that happen. Whilst sometimes legitimately needed, on the whole it’s too easy to immediately dismiss any fleshing out as fixing a mess purely based on one‘s own dislike of a previous movie. In doing so, by extension, it places an intention on the writer/show-runner which I don‘t think is fair.
 
Last edited:
Theres a difference between fleshing out and tidying up messes though.
Filoni has done a bit of both with the prequels/clone wars so it's not a reach to imagine he'll be doing the same with this/the sequels, particularly given some of that groundwork has been laid in the Mandalorian. This goes on a lot with novels which come out filling in details or building on details. I don't think I'm being unfair in saying the writing on the prequels was largely dire and a lot of the writing in the clone wars helped fix and flesh.
 
Agree about Filoni. Obi Wan's claim to Luke that Anakin was 'the best star pilot in the galaxy', 'a cunning warrior' and (most importantly) 'a good friend', only makes sense thanks to Filoni's work on the character in Clone Wars. The man is literally a saviour.
 
Filoni has done a bit of both with the prequels/clone wars so it's not a reach to imagine he'll be doing the same with this/the sequels, particularly given some of that groundwork has been laid in the Mandalorian. This goes on a lot with novels which come out filling in details or building on details. I don't think I'm being unfair in saying the writing on the prequels was largely dire and a lot of the writing in the clone wars helped fix and flesh.

Agree about Filoni. Obi Wan's claim to Luke that Anakin was 'the best star pilot in the galaxy', 'a cunning warrior' and (most importantly) 'a good friend', only makes sense thanks to Filoni's work on the character in Clone Wars. The man is literally a saviour.

He certainly appears to has a wholistic approach to Star Wars, so any fleshing out is done in a constructive context, rather than (for example) “the ST was a mess so I’m going to fix it“ attitude. That only exists in the minds of those who hated them. And of course the OT itself has been subject to several “fixes”, by Lucas himself.

On the comments above, TCW was the best thing to come out of the PT era imo, though as noted, Lucas himself oversaw and agreed to this fleshing out in TCW.

On the Mandalorian groundwork, and Luke in particular, I enjoyed seeing a Luke whose sole interest was in recruiting Grogu and was not interested in getting involved in the wider conflict. I know this received some criticism, but for me it showed consistency with the Luke from the OT and where he was heading in the PT.
 
He certainly appears to has a wholistic approach to Star Wars, so any fleshing out is done in a constructive context, rather than (for example) “the ST was a mess so I’m going to fix it“ attitude. That only exists in the minds of those who hated them. And of course the OT itself has been subject to several “fixes”, by Lucas himself.

On the comments above, TCW was the best thing to come out of the PT era imo, though as noted, Lucas himself oversaw and agreed to this fleshing out in TCW.

On the Mandalorian groundwork, and Luke in particular, I enjoyed seeing a Luke whose sole interest was in recruiting Grogu and was not interested in getting involved in the wider conflict. I know this received some criticism, but for me it showed consistency with the Luke from the OT and where he was heading in the PT.
Hate is a strong word - I don't hate them but I'm certainly ambivalent to them. I found it frustrating that Lucas set out so many interesting threads via dialogue in the originals and seemed to ignore them in the prequels.

It strikes me Lucas' story and script work is at it's best in collaboration with other writers - there's some interesting footage around of Filoni consulting with Lucas and the reverence is pretty clear to see. Filoni is respectful and whether it's by accident or design he's done a grand job at saving the prequel era. Maybe he can do the same for the JJ/Johnson stories.
 
The thing I keep being reminded of as the weeks go by are how great this show looks.
Watching Rebels again from the beginning in my spare time and the leaps forward in the animation are nuts.
 
The thing I keep being reminded of as the weeks go by are how great this show looks.
Watching Rebels again from the beginning in my spare time and the leaps forward in the animation are nuts.
True, though the animation in Rebels was a fair step down from where it had got to by season 5 of TCW.
 
Another fun episode. Apparently Muchi isn’t the same Rancor Luke meets in ROTJ. It was interesting hearing slavey being described to Omega. I always felt there could be an argument made that the clones were slaves, but then again this is Star Wars, not Star Trek.
 
How many episodes are there going to be? So far I’m not convinced by it at all. Really feels like it’s not got going.
 
How many episodes are there going to be? So far I’m not convinced by it at all. Really feels like it’s not got going.
Probably 12 or 13 like TCW S7 or Rebels S4.

I'm also on the fence - there have been elements I've really liked but there's been too much filler. Fennec Shand was kind of a fun cameo I guess but it felt like unnecessary stitching. The SW galaxy feels miniscule as it is without having to tie every episode of every series to every other episode of every other series. (Having said that, I actually thought the dumb Moochi story was pretty fun). The gradual switch from clones to recruits is a pretty great story line. That's mostly what's keeping me involved at the moment. I still think they're missing a trick not making a big deal out of Echo. I'd much rather spend an episode with him than Wrecker, who is already getting a little bit tiresome.
 
So episode 6. The galaxy really is a small place. Question though - where are the serious bounty hunters like Bossk, Dengar, 4-Lom et al? And where’s the 70s haircuts?
 
So episode 6. The galaxy really is a small place. Question though - where are the serious bounty hunters like Bossk, Dengar, 4-Lom et al? And where’s the 70s haircuts?
Even the dedicated story in the Kevin J Anderson edited "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" book that was just about 4LOM and Zuckuss couldn't make 4LOM seem like a serious bounty hunter.
 
Even the dedicated story in the Kevin J Anderson edited "Tales of the Bounty Hunters" book that was just about 4LOM and Zuckuss couldn't make 4LOM seem like a serious bounty hunter.
Looked serious on the deck of Vader’s star destroyer. Plus he was a lovely toy figure back in the old days. The two ‘recurring characters’ in episode 6 - i guess they may have been tasked by someone less unsavoury than an imperial or gangster type.
 
Still about 19 years before a new hope, plenty time for 70s haircuts to get in fashion.
 
Really enjoyed Battle Scars. Stunning visuals this episode, nice tie in to a certain video game.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom