Star Wars The Bad Batch: The Outpost

Summary

Crosshair finally turns on the Empire.

Just when I think the Bad Batch can’t get any better, we get an episode like this. This may be one of the best episodes of the season so far, it is dark, deep and complex just as the show should be. It breaks away from the family friendly trappings of a lot of Disney + Star Wars and asks some real questions about war and morality.

In many senses this is an incredibly depressing half hour of television, but it needs to be. I think in terms of Crosshair’s journey and how the show is trying to show the horrors of the Empire and its mistreatment of Clones this episode needed to go to the places it did. I think the emotional journey this episode goes on is intense and the ending is far from happy, but not only did I not mind that in fact I quite liked it.

I think the worst thing the show could do right now would be have next week’s episode go back to Hunter and Omega and just forget about Crosshair for a few more weeks. We need the resolution to his story and to see what happens when a clone stands up to the Empire.

Overall, though it is depressing at times this episode of The Bad Batch was everything I have been wanting out of the show for a while now.

4.5/5

Pros.

The darkness

The character growth

The moral questions it asks

The emotions

The ending and the tease of what is to come

Cons.

It is incredibly depressing so get something happy ready to watch after this

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The Mandalorian: The Apostate

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Mandalorian, played by Pedro Pascal, begins a quest to seek out the waters from the mines of Mandalore in order to be reintegrated into his sect of Mandalorians.

I have missed this show, it is nice to have it back. Right from the opening minutes of the episode and the intense action fight scene with the giant crocodile like thing you know that you are in for a good time. During this scene the scope and the scale of the action is really impressive.

Moreover, I like where the season is heading, the mystery has enough legs to hold the season and to propel it into something new. I like that Mando was seeking to rebuild IG- 11, voiced by Taika Waititi, I hope that he succeeds as it would be nice to see the character back on the show, my heart melted a little bit as he referred to him as his friend, as did it when Grogu tried to take on of the alien species as his pet.

I was also glad to see Bo-Katan, played by Katee Sackhoff, return. I would like to see more of her journey and I hope she does end up teaming up with Din this season, there is certainly a lot of interesting ways they could take the two of them.

I think the one thing I didn’t like about this episode was the pirates. This is mainly because this felt like it came out of nowhere just so that they could have a space battle, it all felt very filler and as though they realised that they had a few minutes spare of the runtime they needed to eat up.

Overall, it is very nice to have the Mandalorian back.

4/5

Pros.

IG- 11

The return of Bo-Katan

Grogu and his pet

The action

Cons.

The needless filler pirates side quest

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Star Wars The Bad Batch: Metamorphosis

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Clone Force 99 investigate the rumour of a downed ship and are met with a mystery involving the Kaminoans and the return of the Zillo Beast

I really liked that this episode had such a horror feel to it, there were moments within the episode when I actually felt a little creeped out. It is nice to see Star Wars embracing other tones and styles, not everything has to be cookie cutter family friendly.

Moreover, I like that this episode really sets the board for things to come, teasing out a return by Echo and Rex and the Empire coming after Omega. I think this season will end with the Bad Batch accepting that they can no longer run from the Empire and that they will have to stand and fight and go back to being the soldiers they used to be. I am interested to see what the show will have the Empire do with the Zillo beast and more broadly how the Empire will use cloning going forward.

The only reason I scored this episode a little lower than some of the other ones recently is because I felt the return of the Zillo Beast was underwhelming. If they were going to reference and bring back something from Clone Wars there is a million other things they could have picked, at least in my mind, that would have had more effect on me. I know a lot of people online are excited about the return of the Zillo Beast but it just didn’t do it for me.

Overall a good set up episode but the return of the Zillo Beast bored me a bit.

3.5/5

Pros.

The horror feel

The things it sets up

The clones turning on Sid

The Empire finding out about Omega

Cons.

I didn’t care about the Zillo Beast

It could have done with being longer

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The Last Of Us: Left Behind

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, now looking after a seemingly dying Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, remembers a time when she lost someone else who was close to her.

I think this was the best episode yet for letting us understand the character of Ellie. She goes through so much in this episode and Ramsey really takes us on a journey through the character, we see the highest highs and then the crushing lows and as we are so invested we feel these emotions along with the character.

I thought the central romance was quite good, not as good as Bill and Frank from a few episodes ago, however. I think Ramsey does a lot of the heavy lifting in this department, which I suppose is because until fairly near the end Riley, played by Storm Reid, isn’t aware of Ellie’s feelings but still. In my opinion, Ramsey’s performance across the whole episode is quite a bit stronger than Reid’s who really doesn’t do a good job of emoting.

Personally, I would have liked a bit more time with Ellie and Joel so that we can understand how long has passed and more about their situation but I guess that is being saved for next week’s episode with the cannibals.

Overall, another good episode but not one of the show’s best, mainly due to a weak performance from Reid and a lack of Joel and Ellie development. This weeks episode does very much feel like DLC.

4/5

Pros.

Ramsey really has a chance to show off here

The romance

The emotions

Really doing a lot with character growth

Cons.

Reid

Not enough Joel and Ellie time

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The Last Of Us: Kin

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, finally reach Tommy, played by Gabriel Luna.

I enjoyed this episode in many ways because it focused on character relationships be that between Joel and his brother or between Ellie and Joel. I thought the conversation Ellie and Joel had about the other filling a role in their lives that is empty was quite powerful and needed, I think it adds a layer to their relationship now going forward.

Having played the game I knew where this episode was heading with regards to Joel’s brush with death. I thought the choreography of the action and the wider scene in which Joel was stabbed was well done, it felt frantic and rushed pacing wise, which although it doesn’t sound good in this case is as it lends it a certain visceral feel. It will be interesting to see how long the show will have Joel on ice, will it only be one episode or more?

My one complaint would be that if anything this episode feels as though it brushed past a lot of the background of what Tommy has been up to and his new community, yes we see some of a day in their lives, but that still leaves a lot of questions unanswered which really isn’t good if the story isn’t going to double back to them at some point. I suppose when they get around to the events of the second game we would get more Tommy and maybe some of the questions would be answered there but that seems a long way off at this point.

Overall, another good episode though one that leaves quite a few questions unanswered.

4/5

Pros.

Joel and Ellie’s relationship growth

Finally seeing Tommy again

The action scene that sees Joel injured

The emotions

Cons.

At times the pacing feels a little rushed

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Star Wars The Bad Batch: Retrieval

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Clone Force 99 go in search of their ship.

I thought that after a good run of episodes this was a step back, and whilst there is clearly still a lot going on below the surface within the group themselves I would say this episode stopped a lot of the good progress of the past few weeks in terms of character journeys.

The relatively standalone villain of the week nature of the episode in my mind held it back. The villain was relatively disconnected from the wider story going on and just felt inconsequential. Honestly it felt like more filler.

Moreover, another thing that bothered me was that this episode entirely brushed over Sid’s betrayal at the end of the last episode, whereby she basically left them for dead, this feels like a major plot point to not carry on. Also if she is sending a ship for them as the ending of the last episode suggested then it would have made sense for the Bad Batch to have contacted her and told her not to bother, but evidently the writers didn’t think of that.

Overall, it was inevitable after the last few pretty good episodes that a meh one was coming and sadly this was that. It was too disconnected from the wider goings on to feel important or in any way engaging.

2.5/5

Pros.

The Batch themselves say a number of interesting things here

It is watchable

Hopefully next week’s episode can be better

Cons.

It feels like filler

The emotional journey the Batch is on is randomly halted

It doesn’t address things with Sid

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Star Wars The Bad Batch: The Crossing

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Clone Force 99 become stranded on a baron world after someone steals their ship forcing them to confront some difficult emotions.

Though this was a lot slower than the last few episodes I thought there was still a lot of good stuff here. It was nice to see the Bad Batch deal with the departure of Echo and their emotions surrounding that, yes this was done through the medium of Omega, who is annoying as usual, but even still it makes for quite an interesting introspection on change.

My issue with this episode comes from its ending and conclusions. In the end the Batch manage to contact Sid for help who promptly refuses them until she is guilted into reconsidering, my issue with this is how can the Batch have not seen thus far that Sid wasn’t there friend. They are supposedly expert special forces soldiers but they couldn’t see she has been using them this whole time? Hopefully after this weeks episode we can finally be done with Sid forever, she was never an interesting or likeable character and hopefully her villainous turn this week will lead to her being written off.

Overall, an interesting episode on an emotional front, but the conclusions reached feel like they have been obvious for a long, long time.

3/5

Pros.

Tech’s emotional journey

This feels like a very character driven episode

It is nice to have a platelet cleanser after the more action focused episodes from the week before

Cons.

Omega is just the worst

Sid’s betrayal

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Little Demon: First Season Overview

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Anti-Christ is a teenage girl, voiced by Lucy DeVito, who meets her dad the Devil, voiced by Danny DeVito for the first time after a life on the run.

I really enjoyed this show, this as the title will explain is a full season review of Little Demon. I thought that not only was it funny, and at times also quite deep and thoughtful but I also really enjoyed how far it took things and pushed both the medium as well as what it can get away with.

In terms of the comedy of the show and the feel of it, there are definitely some Disenchantment and Paradise PD vibes running through this show which personally I enjoyed but I know it won’t be a lot of people’s cup of tea.

I think the real hidden treasure of this show is Aubrey Plaza voicing Laura the Anti-Christ’s Satan hating mum. Plaza does a terrific job here and really makes Laura into a well rounded character that can be funny, rad and also sympathetic all at the same time.

Overall, I had a lot of fun watching this series and think fans of certain types of adult animation will really enjoy it.

4/5

Pros.

It is funny

It is also surprisingly deep

The voice cast is terrific

The story is engaging throughout

Cons.

People who don’t like edgy adult animation will find little to like here

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The Last Of Us: Endure And Survive

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, try to escape from Kansas City whilst making some new friends along the way.

Man, the show really played with me. Despite playing the game and knowing this story I really felt the death of Sam, played by Keivonn Montreal Woodard, and Henry, played by Lamar Johnson, it hit like a ton of bricks. There was a small part of me that was ignoring what I knew would happen and was hoping just for a minute that this time around they might survive.

To change the subject, I think this episode may have been the most action packed yet. The sniping scene towards the end of the episode was straight out of the game and watching the horde of infected decimate all of the bandits was both horrifying and also oddly cathartic. I think this large amount of action and tension helped this episode to be one of the most riveting to watch of the whole season.

I think my one issue with the episode, and it is I will admit only a small detail, is the way Ellie reacts to seeing Sam and Henry dead. After seeing them die Ellie doesn’t cry, and whilst I can understand that she has been surviving in this world for some time and will be to a degree desensitised to death, I don’t think she is at that part of her journey where she could just shut out her emotions and carry on like this. I know later on in the story she will get to that place, but where this falls on the timeline I just thought she would be a little more upset.

Overall, another incredibly good episode. Yes, Ellie’s response to the death of Sam and Henry bugged me a bit but it was an incredibly small and insignificant thing in the context of the wider episode.

4/5

Pros.

The action

The sniping scene is straight out of the game

The death of Sam and Henry hits hard

The pacing is superb

Cons.

Ellie’s muted emotional response to the death of Sam and Henry

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The Last Of Us: Please Hold My Hand

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, continue their cross country road trip until they run into some bandits that force them off the road.

I enjoyed this episode for the most part, but I will admit that the stuff with the bandits at the end of the episode has me a little trepidatious as I worry that we might see another Woodbury situation, which for those unaware was when in the Walking Dead the whole pace of the show slowed to a near halt and a relatively minor event in the comics ended up stretching into multiple seasons. I want Joel and Ellie to be done with the bandits and away at least by the end of the next episode and not have this drag out and start to feel like network TV.

The scenes with Joel and Ellie together in the car driving and bonding were really well done and felt straight out of the game so it gets points from me there. Ramsey has fully grown into Ellie to such a point wherein I couldn’t see anyone else play her, I also thought the inclusion of the joke book was a stroke of sheer genius.

Seeing Ellie shoot someone for the first time, even though she didn’t kill them, felt like the momentous occasion it should have been and I enjoyed how the show had Joel deal with it, sending her into another room in a futile attempt to preserve her innocence. The show is really excelling in implementing the proper weight and emotion to these scenes and having them feel important and meaningful rather than just going through a check list of events from the game that need to happen in the show and checking one or two off per episode.

Overall, another good episode but the stuff with the bandits at the end has me nervous as I have been hurt in that regard before.

4/5

Pros.

Joel and Ellie bonding

The acting across the board

The significance the show gives to Ellie’s first time shooting someone

The joke book

Cons.

The bandits seem to be getting a lot of focus

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