SiftPop

by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer

Though perhaps less in the pop culture bloodstream, I actually think the animated projects have been outstripping the live-action Star Wars projects by quite a significant margin recently — Visions, The Bad Batch, and Tales of the Jedihave all been enjoyable canon entries — a recent track record the live-action side cannot boast. (Though, admittedly, I am still unbelievably giddy for the eventual arrival of Acolyte.)

So, when The Bad Batch returned for a second season, I could not have been more excited. This season, the titular gang (in missing Crosshair formation) is once again doing odd jobs for hire for Cid (Rhea Perlman), in what can best be described as an uneasy relationship built out of necessity much more than trust. Meanwhile, Crosshair, having defected back to the Galactic Empire, is finding this deal is indeed getting worse all the time as clones are slowly being phased out of the army (or worse), and treated like property, as the higher-ups favor moving to a conscripted force over the Kaminoans’s creations. 

In watching last season, one of my minor complaints was that when compared to other Star Wars animated television, the series never quite reaches the highs those shows reach at their best either. I think that changed in Season Two. There’s both a midseason finale and a couple of standalone episodes that I will definitely fire up on their own. Specifically, those episodes interestingly illustrate a couple of things I have to come to grips with.

First, Crosshair might be the best character of the season. The best single episode pairs him with a familiar name from the past on a mission to rescue an imperial officer. In addition, each time we cut away for a Crosshair-centric episode, I was enthralled. I was not expecting to find his arc to be the best of the season.

Second, and even more surprising, this show may have done the impossible and actually gotten me to buy in to a Palpatine clone experiment storyline. The “Somehow Palpatine returned” line has become a meme, and it was the first spark that lit the fire in the hate that fueled me through The Rise of Skywalker. However, the way the show is laying the groundwork for the cloning experiments to help explain the stupid twist actually (begrudgingly) works here, even if naming the scientist in charge of the program Dr. Hemlock feels a little too on the nose. That’s more than I can say for another TV property, but more on that next month.

With the highs, there are some minor lows, though I still enjoyed every episode this season. However, there is the odd moment that left me scratching my head, even in the front half of the finale — namely a bond that the show is seemingly trying to say had developed that seemed to come out of nowhere, and a surprise appearance of another Star Wars character I feel is unnecessary. 

I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with the crew, mainly thanks to their stellar dynamics — something the largely mission-of-the-week story structure allows to shine. Dee Bradley Baker remains a wizard with all the voice acting. It almost is taken for granted how solid he is in voicing our crew. In addition to Crosshair, I really liked the added character exploration that Tech gets this season, and Omega (Michelle Ang) remains one of my favorite Star Wars characters to be introduced in quite some time. The laser bow probably doesn’t hurt the latter. 

Aside from the individual character moments, I also like that this season delves deeper into the individuality of the team members. Setting the show in this time period allows for the interesting exploration of not only what clones’ purposes should be, but these specific clones as well. Different members of the team have different priorities for what they think their overall mission should be. That not only makes sense logically, but is an interesting wrinkle to explore. 

As far as where the season ends, I’m excited for what’s to come. I also find myself hoping they stick to some of the climactic decisions they made and don’t undercut them next season. 

The season continues the hot streak that the Star Wars animated properties are on, and if you’re continuing to sleep on this portion of storytelling, you’re making a mistake. Yeah, yeah, leave it to the guy who does the animation series every month to be the one aboard the animation supremacy train. I know, but it’s the one train at Star Wars that’s been consistently reliable of late. 

Score: 7/10

The Bad Batch is currently streaming on Disney+

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You can read more from Jake Bourgeois, and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd