MINERVA, MAYHEM AND MILLIONAIRES
In our final Bat-Episode of the show, a beautiful Spa owner named Minerva (Zsa Zsa Gabor) has been using her "Deepest Secrets Extractor" disguised as a Spa Dryer Chair to learn where millionaires stash their cash and jewelry. With millionaires being robbed, Batman and Robin suspect that Minerva is behind all this since the millionaires that got robbed have all visited her before they’ve been robbed, and race to the Spa to find evidence. Oh, and Alfred has some sort of minor part in the plan, while Batgirl just jumps in because…well the writers had to put Batgirl in the Bat-Episode somehow. Judging by the plot, the casting of our lead villain, and pretty much everything that I witnessed in this whole Season, my expectations for this Bat-Episode were pretty low, especially when considering that the last three Bat-Episodes’ that I reviewed were all lame and disappointing. However, as I let the Bat-Episode play on, it actually wasn't that bad, or one of the weaker Bat-Episodes in this Season for that matter.
Zsa Zsa Gabor as our main villain is obviously just playing herself. And the device that she uses to gain information is really no different from the device that Egghead uses on Bruce to find out if he's really Batman in the Second Season, except that Egghead’s device can also kill Bruce in the process. With that said though, Gabor's performance is so classy, charming, seductive and fun that I actually did enjoy watching her on screen. I also really admire that the sets for this villain's Spa doesn't look like that its being shot on a sound stage with only a few props like in the majority of Bat-Episodes made during this Season. They actually look like the sets that you would see from the first and second Seasons of the show.
West and Ward are back to bringing the fun and energy to their characters that they did a few Bat-Episodes earlier, and despite that the worn and tired-out feel to their characters and performance is still there, it doesn't overpower them like in most Bat-Episodes made during this Season. They are given fun stuff to work with! Their funniest moments in the Bat-Episode that actually had me laughing is their reaction to when Gabor's character refers to Robin as Batman's son; and Batman explaining to Alfred how he got out of a Death-Trap, which results with Alfred questioning why he has that device in his Utility Belt, which Batman promises to tell Alfred later. I’ll even give this Bat-Episode credit for creating a solid Bat-Fight that’s tons of fun to watch, as opposed to boring like many of the previous Bat-Episodes made during this Season. The Bat-Fight may not be taking place in a creative location, but I still actually did get invested in the fight from the way its shot, edited, and choreographed. However, the pun words with the flashing colors background still does get annoying. As for Batgirl in this Bat-Episode, she (Just like in the majority of Bat-Episode’s she’s been) still feels shoehorned into this Bat-Episode where her only purpose is to get captured and assist the duo in a Bat-Fight that they can obviously handle themselves. Speaking of Bat-Fights, there’s a scene that I found to be really odd and out of character regarding the duo and their crime fighting skills. We all know that when they’re surrounded by armless henchmen, they always put up a fight. But here for some weird and out of nowhere reason; when the duo is being surrounded by armless henchmen that want to put them into a Death-Trap, they just willingly walk inside the Death-Trap as if they didn’t have a choice. That’s a pretty weak and extremely unlikely way to have the Duo get caught in a Death-Trap. It’s almost as if the writers were out of ideas of luring the Duo into a Death-Trap!
Overall, I have to say that for a final Bat-Episode it’s not bad. Ok, there's nothing epic, deep, or new about this final Bat-Episode since it is treated as a Season finale. But to be fair, it's not like the Producers knew it was going to be the final Bat-Episode of the show. And for what we got as a supposed Season finale, instead of being a finale for the show, I was very pleased with it. Zsa Zsa Gabor is very charming and entertaining as this villain, despite that the villain herself is pretty boring. West and Ward do come close to their old fun heroic selves. The sets don't look as obvious as they used too. The Bat-Fight is fun to watch, despite those annoying flashing colors. And the way it ends the show is satisfying, if not great. At least we didn't get a cliffhanger! It was a decent end to the show that I'm very pleased to say is one of the better Bat-Episodes made during this Season.
RATING 3/5
MY OVERALL THOUGHTS ON SEASON 3
Due to the low ratings for the show, the network that aired the show "ABC", gave the show the axe. However, the network "NBC" wanted to buy the series to give the show a Fourth Season. But by the time when “NBC” made their offer, it was already too late because the expensive sets were already taken down and destroyed, and the producers didn't have the money to replace these sets. And judging by what I just witnessed during this Third Season, I'm glad that the show didn't push for a Fourth Season. Since the Network was cutting production budgets, there was hardly any time for the writers or the actors to get creative with the show. And considering the fact that the majority of Bat-Episodes made this Season are only made to be a half hour long instead of being a two or three parter, it became very hard for the writers to flesh out all the characters, find a way to fit the added in superhero Batgirl into the plot, and come up with a plot that was short and simple, while also finding humor for the actors to work off of. I know there are tons of shows out there that can do a lot in just a half hour without making an episode feel rushed or cluttered. But when your show has to suddenly resort to doing something completely different from the style that originally it started out with that ran for a very long period of time; it’s hard to change direction and make it plausible, and sadly this Season fails at doing so.
Resorting with the majority of Bat-Episodes to be only made as a half hour long because of budget cuts, and attempts to make the Season follow continuity, fails on so many levels that the Season already seemed doomed from the very start. The cast that we've been with throughout the whole entire show (Not counting special guest villains) at times in this Season can be funny, and on a few occasions can make a Bat-Episode work. But for the majority of the Season, their performances feel tired and worn out; and considering the fact that the writers and actors hardly had any time to play with a scene and get creative with it because of finical reasons, it unfortunately does show. The villains that we've met before in the series (Such as the Joker, the Penguin, and the Riddler) do a good job in some Bat-Episodes, but due to the majority of them having a lame and uninteresting plan as they give the actors little humor to work with, they sadly fail at bringing the same fun and campy charm that we all know and admire, as well as the special guest actors themselves feeling just as worn-out as the show’s main cast (Especially Frank Gorshin and Cesar Romero). The new villains that this Season gives our heroes to fight against, while maybe one or two of the special guest actors bring a fun performance, all the new villains are forgettable by their lack of creativity that the new villains in the first two Seasons had, as most of the of actors portraying them act dull and unfunny. Speaking of new characters, Yvonne Craig as Batgirl at first seemed like a promising character and performance, but as the series went on, she started to get annoying as her character became forcefully written into each Bat-Episode because the Producers decided to the duo a new ally who for the majority just helps out with the Bat-Fights, get kidnapped, and does things that the duo could easily have done themselves. There was really no need for her at all! She's pretty much just an unwanted chaperon for the duo; you just want her to quit bothering them and fight crime else-where! I don't mean any disrespect to Yvonne Craig (God rest her soul), I'm sure she's a really nice woman that's trying really hard to work with what she's given, but I'm sorry the character really does feel painfully forced into the show to the point where she gets really annoying! What also really frustrates me about the Season and Batgirl is, while trying to show that women can be just as strong as men are, the series completely goes against it by having Batgirl be rescued by the Duo way too many times, and having one of the most sexist episodes you'd ever see on a show for a family audience! And if you think the sexism in the show is bad, I really get angry at how the romance between Batman and Catwoman has been completely dropped, all because of the racism that many people at the time had with casting a black woman in the role, despite that her race has nothing to do with the character at all, since it's the same villain that Newmar and Meriwether both played! The Bat-Fights that happen during this Season are rarely fun since they too feel just as tired-out as the show is, and when they are good, we still have to deal with those annoying flashing colors that pop-up right in our faces! Since the show had a limited budget, the sets really show how low the show has gone with its budget cuts. As a fan of the show, it really pains me to see sets that were once colorful and creative, be limited to an obvious sound-stage that looks like props you'd see for a School play! What I also really think brings this Season down big time are its attempts to appeal to the hip and young crowd, by making Bat-Episodes be based around stuff that would appeal to a teenage crowd, which instead looks and feels painfully embarrassing and desperate!
However, as much as I really despise this Season, there are a few things in it that are worth seeing and even worth talking about. The Bat-Episodes with Vincent Price and Anne Baxter are fun to watch since Price and Baxter have great chemistry together. Eartha Kitt did just as great of a job as Newmar and Meriwether did as Catwoman, despite that she only shined in one Bat-Episode. There are a good handful of jokes that I found to be funny in this Season. And on top of it, there are actually a few Bat-Episodes made this Season that are legitimately good, despite sharing the same common problems that this Season has. I honestly don't recommend this Season; in fact, a huge part of me does feel like that this Season shouldn't have ever existed, and that the series should have ended right after the Second Season since the signs of the series going downhill were already showing. But for the stuff that I did find to be enjoyable in the Bat-Episode's that I did like or found to be entertaining enough to watch, those Bat-Episodes are indeed worth at least one viewing.
RATING FOR THE THIRD SEASON
2/5
TUNE IN SOON FOR MY OVERALL THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW!
No comments:
Post a Comment