My original review is below, and I'm happy to report the show does indeed go in interesting directions. Basically, half the episodes are standard "mission of the week" type filler that can be skipped. However, hidden away in this show about defective clones is some of the most important SW backstory and setup for plotlines that carry all the way through to the new First Order era of content. And it's fantastic. Not just the stories, but the style, animation, soundtrack, etc, are fabulous. I grew up with the original trilogy, and this is some of the best content I've seen in the entire franchise. Do yourself a favor and find a list of the essential Clone Wars and Bad Batch episodes and watch them. You don't have to sit through all the boring filler - there's still hours of epic stories and character arcs to be enjoyed.
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Interesting start to this new series, but it's already slipping into tired, formulaic plots that we've seen many times before. The characters already feel stale and annoying. There is promise here, so hopefully they will take the show in interesting directions. However it's worrying that episodes are already starting to seem like filler.
