Tury Garza

After 4 episodes this show feels firmly hijacked from being a series about one of the most battle hardened, deadly effective, clone teams in the republic to (yet again) a group of protagonists protecting a child. The show has turned into the dad batch but unlike the mandalorian, this show's child is a human child that prevents the show from dealing with the mature themes that are lurking beneath the surface. Maybe I made the mistake by expecting the show to deal with complex themes and relations like the latter seasons of rebels and clone wars but this show definitely doesn't deliver in that regard. The series looks great, sounds great, but even after 4 episodes the plot isn't clear aside from the protagonists being on the run. What's more is that the plot is also tonally all over the place, at one point you have the turncoat crosshair committing current day war crimes right before the show then flips back to Omega the child saving the day after the leading member of the bad batch is rendered unconscious. It's as if the show lead wanted to find the middle ground between adult grit and child fluff and rather than hitting tv gold like the mandalorian they've created a dull mush. I've seen blame laid at Jennifer Corbett's feet and it seems appropriate since her last series Resistance was also child focused. So what of the action? After season 7 of the clone wars it would be incredibly difficult to raise the bar but the bad batch doesn't attempt to and the action you see here has been done better in the clone wars and rebels so that's disappointing. The characters of the actual bad batch take a backseat to omega and are incredibly one note, relegated to the archetypes of their names and functions within the team. There are another 10 episodes to be released so there is room for improvement but the precedent has been set and the first season is likely going to be more of the same. The hope for mature audiences, if there is any, is that potential future seasons will evolve and mature like the clone wars and rebels did.