Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 (2023) Review

After a long 16 episodes, I have watched all of the episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 and here is my review for it. The premise of the season sees after the destruction of Kamino, The Bad Batch have been staying low to avoid the Empire. While Crosshair attempts to find his place as part of the Empire and away from his old brothers. 

Main Character

Hunter & Omega are once again the most important part of the show. Their dynamic has certainly progressed into a father/daughter relationship and it is nice to see. They are given plenty of screen time together and the show somewhat progresses them. There is definitely more of an ensemble story going on here but Hunter voiced by Dee Bradley Baker & Omega voiced by Michelle Ang give their best and do a good job. 

Supporting Characters

Tech & Echo were two of the characters that I thought weren't given much in the first season but they get way more here. They are two of the shining aspects of the show and seeing these beloved characters getting more development and screen time is a great thing. Crosshair was my favourite character in the first season and that is the same here, I just love this character. His character goes through a lot this season and you see how he is torn between his allegiance to The Empire and to The Bad Batch, I just wish we got more of him this season. There are plenty of guest characters this season and they are handled well with some returning characters from other shows and I like how this show does an effective job of paying respect to other areas of Star Wars. 

Story 

The 2nd half of the season does an excellent job of progressing the story, I really cared about this group of characters but also the way that the Empire was working at this time period. Certain characters get time to shine which helped with making these characters even more interesting. The final 2 episodes are fantastic and do an excellent job of showing this show at its best and how it is becoming more mature. But the first half of the season, mostly misfired. It was way more episodic and episodes felt filler which made me not have the best start for the show. It got going eventually, but I can't deny that the first half of the show was a disappointment. 

Script

The script is much improved from the previous season. The characters are written better and there is more reason given to really care about them. As I mentioned above, this show is getting a bit more mature and that is represented in the writing which is more emotional and well done. 

Style 

The shows design is great. The action scenes are really well done with animation being smooth as ever. I really noticed that the sound and music really added a lot to the final episodes of the shows run. But there is no doubt that the pacing is off. There are too many filler episodes and I still stand by the fact that this could have been a 10 episode season and it would have worked. There also wasn't enough Crosshair for me which was a sacrifice due to the structure of the show. 

Overall

Overall, Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 is an improvement of the first season and was a great season. Once you get through the filler this is some fantastic Star Wars storytelling and it really nailed it. 

Rating - 8/10