Cid sends the Bad Batch to Serenno…

We hit season 2 of The Bad Batch running. Kamino looms large in the background but, for the most part, the squad are busy trying to make life work.

One of the clever things this show does is to situate its stories in among the events Star Wars fans know well without making it nostalgic or requiring you to have an abundance of knowledge of what else is happening in the wider universe.

I think a lot of people see both the tag Star Wars and The Bad Batch and elect not to watch it. Star Wars has run the gauntlet of being tiresome enough that many have simply taken to avoiding it. Which is a shame.

The Bad Batch deserves your time. Just like Rebels it does good story telling and emotional investment while looking, at times, extraordinarily pretty.

In some ways I would say that the emotional high point of the Star Wars universe is in its recent animation.

I found season 1 engaging but ultimately a little weightless. The end of the series was excellent – with the fall of Kamino at the hands of the Empire showing us firsthand just what the consequences of its rise mean for those involved in what came before (trying to avoid too many spoilers).

It has chosen to deal with dark and quite difficult themes and, largely, does so with tact and sensitivity meaning that people of any age can watch without feeling patronised.

Back to these first two episodes though whose central narrative forms a short arc.

The central story here is fairly mundane Saturday morning fare. However, it’s the worldbuilding and the side characters that elevate it. We see more of how the galaxy is changing under a fascist regime and we see how that skews power, relationships and the idea of what is normal.

Through it all the clones are trying to survive, knowing that they will almost inevitably be crushed under the wheel – it’s only a matter of when.

Verdict: The Bad Batch is a worthy thematic companion to Andor. It has many of the same concerns and, on occasion, the same intensity. The main difference is that the squad are likeable, people who are trying to figure out how to live and do what is right when they know they’re both complicit in a universal catastrophe but also that they’re entirely outnumbered.

Rating? 8 heists out of 10

Stewart Hotston