Tower of Babble Podcast

  • live
  • Listen
    • Tower of Babble
    • Small Screen Star Wars
  • Archive
    • Game of Thrones
    • Westworld
    • Watchmen
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • live
    • Tower of Babble
    • Small Screen Star Wars
    • Game of Thrones
    • Westworld
    • Watchmen
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • Contact

Small Screen Star Wars

Star Wars has been a part of small screen history ever since the premiere of the infamous Christmas Special in 1978. Since then, animated classics like ‘Droids’, and ‘Ewoks’, to modern day epics like ‘The Clone Wars’ and ‘Rebels’, have shown that Star Wars is more than just the theatrical films. Disney+ has since brought new life to the franchise with the likes of ‘The Mandalorian’, ‘Obi-Wan: Kenobi’, ‘Andor’ and more. Right now, Star Wars IS the small screen. Julian Meush and Rachel Wilkinson break down, dissect, and review new episodes of Star War every week as they air on Disney+.

  • Tower of Babble
  • Small Screen Star Wars

The Bad Batch S3E14 "Flash Strike"

Julian Meush April 27, 2024

There are few words more exciting to use in the context of a television series than, “penultimate”. The word itself seems to exude excitement, suspense, and it comes with a heavy sense of inevitability. Unfortunately for ‘The Bad Batch’, the penultimate episode to this series instead calls to mind comparisons to ‘Game of Thrones’ final season. Which with every passing moment, audiences got more and more worried that there just wouldn’t be enough time to complete the story in a satisfying way. We may know how that ended up, but ‘The Bad Batch’ still has a chance to land the plane with an episode in length similar to it’s series premiere, if they choose to go that way. Unfortunately, this week’s shorter than average, 22 minute, setup episode did little to quell those anxious feelings of an impending flop of a finale to a show that has been near excellent it’s entire three season run. We aren’t here to say that length equals quality, but with so much left to be wrapped up, anything less than an hour next week will likely mean that a few story threads are left dangling. “Flash Strike”, does just enough to set up the pieces, but spins it’s tires on some repeated beats and a few action sequences that could have been better spent on suspense or character. Will they cap off this season with a bang like they started it? Only time will tell.

REMINDER: Don’t forget to participate in our Bad Batch Death Pool! With no characters biting the dust in this week’s episode, there’s still time to place your predictions for who comes out of the series still breathing. It’s easy, just follow this link and place your picks: https://forms.gle/vcBCTsH2eeHykYE87

If you enjoy the show please subscribe and leave a kind review on Apple Podcasts, and check out Patreon.com/TowerBabbleCast to become one of our latest patrons.

  • Small Screen Star Wars
  • Older
  • Newer
Subscribe

Support the Show

Become a Patron!
Donate


REcent Episodes

Featured
SSSW - Maul: Shadow Lord - Chapter 7 & 8
Apr 30, 2026
SSSW - Maul: Shadow Lord - Chapter 7 & 8
Apr 30, 2026

There's two of them now?! With the arrival of another Inquisitor things really start to escalate on Janyx. We see Maul at his lowest since probably his spider-leg days (he goes on a self-guided therapy session/vision quest that results in something quite inspiring actually!), providing us a deeper understanding of his motivations, beyond simply "revenge!". Meanwhile, Devon continues to be the most interesting character on the show as she takes two steps forward, one step back, flirting with the dark side (though bonus points for the slick ride she acquires for their getaway). On the action side, the show continues to bring the goods, with dynamic, large scale battles (heavy on LAATs which is always a treat), intimate lightsaber combat, and a special shout out to the speeder chase this week that included a new Star Wars techno track (get outta here Niamos!), which combined for a chef's kiss of a sequence. The finale is next week, dropping on Star Wars Day (May the 4th), so stay tuned to see how much the show wants to tie up and how much it wants to leave dangling ahead of season 2!

Read More →
Apr 30, 2026
Episode 205 - CinemaCon 2026 + News Roundup
Apr 25, 2026
Episode 205 - CinemaCon 2026 + News Roundup
Apr 25, 2026

It's been a minute since Matt and Julian sat down to cover the latest in film and TV news. Some might say it's been dearly missed. Well wait no more folks because this week it's all news and nothing but the news so help me god! If the last few weeks (months?) of stories weren't enough, CinemaCon 2026 also just concluded which had it's own news deluge. The guys unpack it all (well most of it anyway)! Of utmost priority is the news of Michael B Jordan and Austin Butler's reboot of 'Miami Vice', which is close to Matt's heart. Plus 'Spaceballs 2' gets a title and release date, trailers for 'Dune 3', 'Clayface' and 'Street Fighter' all surprise (in a good way), and a new 'Lord of the Rings' movie is announced (and you won't guess who's writing it!). Plus, a 'Game of Thrones' movie, more 'Transformers' and is 'Avatar' over? All this and so much more on this week's Tower of Babble Podcast!

Read More →
Apr 25, 2026
SSSW - Maul: Shadow Lord - Chapter 5 & 6
Apr 23, 2026
SSSW - Maul: Shadow Lord - Chapter 5 & 6
Apr 23, 2026

We’ve reached the halfway point of the season and with it comes a tonal shift back to the roots of Star Wars animation - 'The Clone Wars'. With the arrival of the Empire, the focus shifts away from Maul and his dealings and toward the pair of Jedi as they are now in the crosshairs. The noire tone takes a back seat, next to Maul, as things become more pulpy, mixed with an impending doom that is reminiscent of the final season of 'The Clone Wars'. The set-piece action sequences get an injection of scale and danger, which is exciting, and some of the early seeding of characters like Rylee start to pay off. While maybe a bit different from the previous 4 episodes, the quality and the stakes remain high (well... for every character except Maul I suppose). Join Julian and Rachel as the unpack it all in excruciating detail.

Read More →
Apr 23, 2026
SSSW - Maul: Shadow Lord - Chapter 3 & 4
Apr 15, 2026
SSSW - Maul: Shadow Lord - Chapter 3 & 4
Apr 15, 2026

Now that the premiere is out of the way, the team at Lucasfilm Animation can focus on driving the story forward with authority. The pacing is much improved this week as time feel more evenly dispersed across the characters. There's a greater concentration on characters who can wield a lightsaber and it's appreciated. No shade to the crime syndicate storyline, but we've kind of seen all that already (it was quite literally a 'Clone Wars' arc). The action remains strong while taking another step forward with lightsaber duels joining the mix. Plus, the fast cutting from last week seems to have been dialed back, which is appreciated as it provides more clarity in action scenes. For example, Devon's engagements with Maul are gripping, and with the additional time provided to Master Daki, the stakes feel ratcheted up. Kevin Kinner's music remains a highlight, the illusions to the Anakin vs Obi-Wan Mustafar theme was a particular highlight. In general, there is still room for more character growth, especially with characters not named Maul, who really can't/won't change - but happy to proven wrong! This show feels like it's in full swing already, which is good because next week things look to be really heating up as we hit the half way mark. Julian and Rachel unpack it all!

Read More →
Apr 15, 2026

youtubetwitchfacebook-unauthtwitter-unauthapplepodcastspotify-unauthurl
  • About
  • Contact

Tower of Babble Podcast

We're a podcast network talking about the things you care about. Characters, places and events that aren't real... but are. Three friends chat about the goings on in geek news. Film and television are the focus with a variety of shows that also concentrate on gaming and comics.

, Winnipeg, Canada

youtubetwitchfacebook-unauthtwitter-unauthapplepodcastspotify-unauthurl
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Google+