The Bad Batch has been one of the better Star Wars properties that have come out on Disney Plus since they bought Lucasfilm back in 2012. It’s a spin-off of The Clone Wars series which was created by Dave Filoni. Dave takes this ragtag group of clone troopers known also as Clone Force 99 and gives them depth. These characters have a sense of who they are and what they are about. That’s a hard thing to do for animated characters with a similar voice. I’m truly going to miss these characters and this series. Theye were a fantastic part of what I love about Star Wars

The group has been doing more and more dangerous missions for Sid (Rhea Pearlman) and the stakes are higher and higher. It was inevitable that there would be collateral damage and at the end of season 2 Omega (Michelle Ang) was captured by Doctor Royce Hemlock (Jimmi Simpson) who was trying to use her to reinvigorate the clone project with the help of one of the Kaminoans.  Also, all of these guys were not going to be able to survive all the time and that is where the loss of Tech comes in.

Season 3 of The Bad Batch picks up where season 2 ended and Omega is captured and brought to a base as a prisoner but she is an incentive for the Nala Se (Gwendoline Yeo) to continue the work of the Kaminoans to try and continue their clone work. She ends up meeting Crosshair who is also a prisoner there because he shot and killed his superior officer. He finally got fedup with the crap he was dealing with. He changed since she saw him last. He realized he wasn’t cut out for working for the Empire anymore. It wasn’t an easy decision for him though.

The first four episodes of season 4 are separated into two arcs. One of them is how the remaining members of the team, Hunter & Wrecker, are trying to find information and plan a rescue of the Omega and what Omega and Crosshair are doing which is also trying to find a way to escape their captors. Combined these two stories make for some great adventures and continue the spirit of what The Bad Batch is all about. At the end of episode four, there is a happy reunion between the crew members. That’s not the end of the season or series though. There is much more to go in the next twelve episodes. 

Dee Bradley Baker voices all of the members of Clone Force 99 otherwise known as The Bad Batch. He is the unsung hero of this show. He uses different voices but you can hear his distinct accent in all of them. The voice acting as a whole in the series is one of its strengths. Dave Filoni ensembled many great voice actors over the years to play many of the characters and they all do a fantastic job.

A couple of other technical aspects of the series that I noticed that were very good were the animation as a whole. This series uses a more gritty darker style and it benefits from that style quite nicely. This darker series is the perfect place to use a darker style of animation. It reminds me of ’70s films to a degree. The 80s had that gritty and dirtier style of filmmaking. I love the animation in this series. The other thing I loved about this season so far is it’s score. The score by Kevin Kiner was very good. It very much morphed into whatever circumstances the showrunners needed. I loved how it had darker tones but also had lighter sounds for certain characters. These two elements of The Bad Batch were both spot on for this series and kept with the overall quality I have come to expect from this show thus far.

Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau have seemed to connect their streaming universe together with the animated universe Filini created. The Bad Batch is one of those shows that I think is going to connect with the live action shows like Ahsoka and possibly The Mandalorian and Boba Fett. Both the Clone Wars and Rebels have tied nicely with those other shows. The future is bright for where all of this could go and I’m very much looking forward to it. I just hope the writing of the series isn’t unencumbered by the live style. Where the animated style of storytelling lends itself more to these characters. I trust in Filoni and Favreau though, so I’m crossing my fingers.

The Bad Batch Season 4 has been just what I wanted it to be. It’s gritty and dark like it always has been which reminds me of 70s films. The Star Wars of it all has been good as well because I know it’s going to connect to bigger and better things in the near future.  Filoni has taken a small part of The Clone Wars and made it into something that I truly cared about. The ups and downs of this ragtag group of clones known as Clone Force 99 were something I really enjoyed following along with for the past three seasons or two and part of the third season. The voice over work animation and store are all great parts of what makes this a great show.

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen

4 Episodes have been reviewed out of 16 which can be found on Disney Plus