Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 Review: A Second Helping of Unrealized Potential

Across many of its properties, the Star Wars franchise has seen variations of its central conceit of a stormtrooper gone rouge, but it’s still left vast potential untapped. For one, the sequel trilogy’s John Boyega caught eyes and won hearts as errant First Order trooper Finn, but most of those films failed to expand the character’s arc beyond the “Force sensitivity” revelation that J.J. Abrams’s The Rise of Skywalker explained so poorly.

On the animated end, The Clone Wars spinoff The Bad Batch was primed for success in this department. Genetically enhanced clone troopers with a proclivity for defiance? Yes, please. Two seasons in, though, the series remains a superficial, unfocused examination of truly great ideas.

The structure, tone, and dullness of the first season are reprised here. After defying the Empire, escaping Tipoca City as it sank, and saving their traitorous squad member Crosshair, Clone Force 99 (all voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), informally known as “the Bad Batch,” resume running odd jobs for information broker Cid (Rhea Perlman). The galaxy continues to fall apart around them, despite Imperial insistence that it has achieved order and security. Clone Force 99, along with new squad member Omega (Michelle Ang), sees through this and actively thwarts ongoing attempts to expand control. Autocracy-averse stinkers, the lot of them!

There’s a through line, but it takes too long for it to become clear. That’s because The Bad Batch stuffs a compelling overarching story with filler. This season is more productive—and entertaining—when it nudges Crosshair toward anti-Imperial sentiment. Further influencing his change of heart is the systematic replacement of clone troopers as military assets. The Empire’s abrupt reliance on conscripted soldiers displaces the countless clones who fought, died, and suffered for Emperor Palpatine’s vision. Sure, two seasons of setup is a long-winded way to sear the term “stormtrooper” into the galactic vernacular, but the impact it has on Crosshair’s arc justifies it somewhat. All of this feeds greater ideas about autonomy and individualism, ideas that creative leads Dave Filoni, Jennifer Corbett, and Brad Rau never sufficiently address.

In some respects, though, The Bad Batch depicts the clones’ plight with more fervor and invention than just about any other animated Star Wars property to date. Filoni, Corbett, and Rau started exploring these ideas in season one but rarely in ways that ventured further than, say, “Conscription is in. Clones are out. Decommission and disregard all of them.” Here, the showrunners attempt to depict just how rocky this transition is and what it costs these characters. Some of it works, but most of it doesn’t.

Unlike so many current Star Wars stories, though, The Bad Batch isn’t reliant on lazy cameos. There’s not a Cad Bane or Fennec Shand in sight (at least not in the 14 episodes made available to press). But that doesn’t mean that the season is light on surprises, as we get a handful of fun new characters, the most notable of which is Wanda Sykes’s Phee Genoa, a “liberator of ancient wonders” who goes to hilarious lengths to avoid admitting that she’s a pirate.

That said, even a few new faces can’t save The Bad Batch from its worst habits. The show’s “mission of the week” structure does it zero favors, especially when it hasn’t taken the time to tease any personality out of its protagonists. The titular Bad Batch as a unit is developed well, but as individuals they remain underwritten and forgettable. We’ve spent tons of time with them, and yet we know precious little about them beyond what they can do.

Filoni and company are clearly capable of enriching concepts and characters that have been part of our popular culture for 45 years. But at its best, The Bad Batch’s second season is a frustrating reinforcement of the previous season’s problems.