Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 1 Review - 8 Ups & 2 Downs
5. Brilliant Genre-Changes
Star Wars is first and foremost an epic sci-fi space opera, but has since its debut played with its tone and themes to include more than just the one genre into its story.
A New Hope took inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's samurai films, and even recent instalments like Solo: A Star Wars Story have included allusions to classic Westerns and 70s spy thrillers.
The Bad Batch is no exception to this trend, using its innovative sci-fi structure to throw in tropes from other beloved genres. When Hunter clashes with Cad Bane, they have a stand-off which turns into a Leone-esque duel, and when the squad are sent into a dangerous hive of bugs, the whole things takes on the feel of a claustrophobic monster horror.
These brief genre changes are used sparingly, but work wonders to create an unpredictable atmosphere and ramp up the show's tension to a sweat-inducing level.