✨The bad batch season 1 personal vibes✨
The finale aired today and I wanna get my overall feelings regarding the season out of the way before i repress it all.
My overall feeling is kinda lukewarm, while the first episode and some other eps were absolute bangers i never felt like the show hit that same level of excitement the first episode did. I feel this way due to many of the expectations i had after the first ep werent met. But im sure everyone had expectations that werent met so that isnt really a fair critique, but compaired to what was given instead i cant help but feel like there where many missed opportunities.
The first issue i had being that this show isnt really about “The bad batch”, most of the screentime and character development is given to Hunter and Omega whilst Wrecker got some smaller moments here and there. But Echo and Tech might aswell been replaced with a cutouts. Tech only served to give exposition or come up with escape plans whenever the plot called for it and echo....was there. And Crosshairs case i find the most aggrivating, how can you give one of the characters the most intriguing plotline and show us the absolute bare minimum? When one of the biggest aspects of the show is showing the rise of the empire why would not parts of that be shown through Crosshairs pov?
So despite the show being called The bad batch its more focused on Hunter and Omega. Personally i didnt find their relationship intressting enough to be main focus of most episodes. Reason why i feel that way is partly because we have seen this format before, the parent-child dynamic is nothing new in star wars especially in the last ten years with Anakin-Ahsoka, Kanan-Ezra and Djin-Grogu. what could have improved this would have been to have more of the other batch members take part in “parenting” omega, instead of having Hunter act as the sole parental figure. This would have allowed for more characters to shine and show more aspects of themselves we might not have seen before, like what would it look like to have Tech try to console Omega after a difficult mission? What skills could Echo teach Omega to make her a better Batch member?
Another aspect i disliked is how it felt like alot of episodes where just filler, so much time was spent with the Batch flying around the galaxy doin odd jobs, many of those episodes focused little on the charactersation or development of the cast. The few story relevant episodes we got were few and far inbetween, ill never forget having to wait 3-4 episodes for a follow up on the war crimes Crosshair commited.
Whilst im on the topic of crosshair, i found it a little dissapointing how crosshair was basically turned into just some grunt villian, the first ep sets it up to make it look like crosshair was gonna be a real threat to the Batch, but instead Crosshair is just treated like Team Rocket and every time him and the Batch cross paths they treat it like its sotcha inconvenience.
The bad batchs lack of agency regarding crosshairs rescue was another factor i took issue with, in the finale Hunter tries to make it seem like him and the rest wanted him back but in no point in the show apart from an short comment in episode 4 did they express in anyway they were planning on getting him back. And it makes it even more frustrating when they were able to rescue an ex-seperatist and a whole family from right under the empires noses but never once was the question about their brothers rescue ever brought up. It just felt like the writers purposly gave the characters dementia and just completely forgot about their brother who, for all we knew, was being kept against his will within the empire.
In regards to the finale, i kinda hated it at first but came to like after three rewatches. There are still many uncertainties like it not being completely clear wether or not crosshairs chip is actually out or not with how he keeps clutching his head (like boy you need a aspirin?) I was majorly mad they left him again but its probably gonna be apart of some bigger character arc for him next season. And the other batch members feelings regarding crosshairs supposed ‘betrayel’ still need some exploring.
Overall the show was fine, but with many of the characters lacking in screentime and the focus feeling off i felt like it could have been better. Will i still watch season 2? Yes, because i still like the characters and hope to see more development but most importantly i still want my dream family reunion between the characters. I dont like being left in a bad mood and would appreciate it if Filoni fixed it, thanks :)