BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES SEASON 1 (EPISODES 3-7)

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

If you've been following my blog and reading my TV reviews, then you may have noticed something different in the title. Usually when I review a show, I review the whole season, with the exception of pilots, the finales, and holiday specials by giving them their own separate review. But now I'm deciding to review only a few episodes from the first Season of "Batman the Animated Series" as opposed to the whole season. Well to get the point for this decision, due to the lack of TV reviews (and reviews in general), rather than reviewing all episodes in one season and making you wait months for a review on a show, I thought it would be best for me to review a certain number of episodes and gradually work towards the end of a review towards a season.  And since I'm only reviewing a season in parts, that's going to mean that I'm going to stick to reviewing the season of a show I'm currently working on until it is over, before deciding to review the next season or another show. The only time you'll ever see me review a show that's not related to what I'm presently reviewing is during the holiday seasons whether it being a holiday special or a horror based TV Show for the month of October.

So with that major changed addressed, let's jump into the third episode of "Batman: the Animated Series"during its production order, after already covering "On Leather Wings" and "Christmas With the Joker".

A former college university professor gets kicked out for testing a gas that shows people their darkest fears, and takes revenge on the university under the identity of Scarecrow by using his fear gas. Batman tries to foil him from burning the university down, but he gets hit with a dart filled with the serum and begins to see images of his deceased father telling him that he has disgraced their family name. Batman must now confront his own fears of seeing visions of his father disapproving his life as a crime-fighter, in order for him to stop the Scarecrow.

As much as I enjoyed the pilot episode "On Leather Wings" for its action, scary villain, and showing what an awesome crime fighter and detective that Batman is, this should've been the pilot for the series. I say this because unlike the pilot, and the Christmas episode, we get to dive a little into Bruce Wayne's psyche of how he feels with fighting crime, and how torn up he is with the death of his parents. This episode doesn't just revolve around Batman just stopping a criminal, he has to fight off his inner-fears of his father being ashamed of him first before getting to the criminal responsible for these visions, which is an ingenious way of having Batman fight off a villain and shows that the writers are trying to appeal to adults with its mature storytelling and dark visuals, instead of just kids. And the emotions surrounding Bruce Wayne's emotions towards facing his fears, and how he feels about society looking at him as both identities is handled just as subtle and effectively as the Burton film through its animation, music, and interaction with Bruce and the characters. The best scenes expressing that is the last image of the episode, and Bruce's little chat with Alfred in the Batcave, not to the say that the scenes with Bruce seeing his father aren't emotionally effective too because they are, and even down right depressing.

But as emotionally heavy as the episode is regarding Batman, there's still enough scenes of Batman doing what he does best to get kids and adults attention. You'll see him doing some detective work, and preparing himself for the worst. But the highlight in terms of Batman fighting crime is when he's fighting on the Scarecrow's blimp, while holding on for his life, trying to rescue a kidnapped victim, AND trying to overcome the nightmares he sees. His final confrontation with the Scarecrow is also a pretty awesome scene too, that I wonder if it inspired Christopher Nolan to use this concept for "Batman Begins"? On top of all the awesome things that we see Batman do in the episode, the best moment is when he says the famous "I am Batman" quote. And it's not just from how it's delivered, but also for what causes him to say it to help make you cheer you even more.

Now as awesome as Batman is, the villain is a bit of a different story. The Scarecrow is one of my favorite Batman villains of all time; and I love what his fear gas can do to people, how it greatly effects Batman, and the amount of surreal and creative imagery that we see what others see when they are affected by his gas. But here are my problems that I have with the villain. First there’s his design. After seeing the monstrous ManBat, and the laughing devil-like Joker, with a villain like Scarecrow who likes to spread terror, you'd expect his design to look horrifying, but it isn't. I know this is still a kid show (I mean after all, a guy is saved by a tree after trying to commit suicide from the fear gas) but it looks toned down and more child friendly compared to the designs for the villains, and even Batman himself. Maybe if he had another worldly voice it could probably make up a little for his tamed design, but he instead talks like a regular college professor. I know that he was one, and it is enjoyable for how sophisticated and intelligent he is, especially when being paired with idiotic crooks, but he's supposed to take the form of a scary demon, so naturally you'd think he'd have a voice to match it but he doesn't. On top of it, his backstory while semi-interesting for what got him kicked out, I felt like that there should've been more. What we pretty much get is more of a mad scientist story who was mad since he was a kid, instead of someone sympathetic or corrupt, which I feel would have been more engaging that way we can relate to his revenge like the other villains in the series who are given more depth and character. I know that's not always the case with villains on the show, like the Joker for instance. But since the episode took the time to give him a flashback that he's very upset with sharing you'd think we get more than what we were given.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Aside from the Scaecrow's not so scary presence and half-baked backstory, everything else about the episode is grand, especially when diving into the psyche of Bruce Wayne which really makes me wish that this was the first episode of the series, despite not being as great as the first two.

It's April Fool’s day in Gotham City, and the Clown Prince of crime the Joker returns to Gotham to cause mayhem by spreading gas on the citizens that causes them to lose control and laugh hysterically as the Joker commits robberies right in front of them. The gas eventually spreads to Wayne Manor where Bruce finds Alfred intoxicated by the gas, and once discovering what's happening in Gotham, Batman races to the rescue to fight the Joker yet again.

As I was watching this episode I've noticed a few similarities to the previous two episodes.  After just seeing an episode involving a criminal spreading a special kind of gas on the citizens of Gotham, we get two in a row. The Joker is also striking on a holiday that Bruce Wayne hates but in the end warms up to it a bit just like in "Christmas with the Joker". And Batman even pins the Joker the same way that he did when he last encountered him. All these similarities to the last two episodes that we've seen almost feels as if the writers weren't given enough time to create something as new, and dramatic as the others episodes, and just decided to recycle a few elements from what we've already seen. On top of it, the episode doesn't go into anything deep like the last episode did, or give us anything imaginative as "Christmas with the Joker" gave us. It just feels like a standard chase episode that you'd get from a 70s Saturday Morning superhero cartoons, just drawn on a bigger budget.

But as standard and recycled as the episode that's not to say that there isn't anything to enjoy or admire from it because there is. We get to see a few new things brought to the series like the Joker's iconic suit, the Batboat, and above all Efrem Zimbalist Jr. making his debut as Alfred. Clive Revill was enjoyable as Alfred in the first three episodes with his dry and sarcastic humor, but he can't top the man who's been voicing him from this episode to the rest of the series, as well as the animated movies and spin-offs of the show. And while I'm the topic of voice actors, Mark Hamill does a fantastic job at voicing the Joker as always. When I hear that clownish voice and his sinister laugh, I never find myself associating with the voice actor, I strictly hear the Joker no matter how hard I try. He's just so perfect for the role, who can make cheesy puns and one-liners on trash sound legitimately funny for how much he gets himself into character.

The Joker's plan is not a bad one either since it does perfectly fit his character and the holiday he's striking. Sure his gas doesn't kill anybody like the Joker would in many other adaptations, but once again it's still a show aimed for kids so obviously you know the show isn't going to go super-dark on its target audience, and for what they were able to do with it, I'd say they did a good job. It does lead to some good comedy, and the Joker is still able to do what he wants. The Joker himself does still manage to be threatening as well, mainly for the traps that he sets-up for Batman, like when he seals him inside a trash can, stabs holes in it, and drops it in the ocean, and despite that Batman somehow doesn't have something that he can use to cut out of it, it's still an intense and claustrophobic sequence. In terms of action, at first everything started out as average fight scenes, but as soon as Batman has to fight against the Joker's biggest henchmen (that has a nice twist to his character when I realized that his awkward movements and design was hinting at his true nature) when he penetrates his hide-out, that's when things started getting interesting, which then leads to a pretty nice chase sequence of Batman trying to capture the Joker. The music itself is for the most part cool, but whenever we get those 90s drum-beat machines playing, they kind of kill the thrill of the action for how out of place it sounds. I swear when they first played it, I thought Batman was going to dance as he was fighting.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

The episode is a standard one with its recycled plot points, average duel between a hero and villain, and half of the fights and music not being as great as what we had previously. But it's still entertaining, we do get to see some new things being brought to the series, Mark Hamill once again knocks it out of the park as the Joker, and the climax at Joker's hide-out is not half bad.

Bruce Wayne is having dinner with Gotham's District Attorney and his close friend Harvey Dent and his girlfriend Pamela Isley. Things seem to be looking great for Harvey for how madly in love the two are, but once she leaves, Harvey passes out as he tells Bruce that he's going to marry her. It is revealed that Harvey is slowly dying from a poison that has infected him, and it is up to Batman to find a cure for his friend, that eventually leads him to a green-house to discover that his girlfriend was behind the attempt on his life, who has taken-up the super-villain identity known as Poison Ivy.

I seriously don't think I'm giving anything away when I say that Isley is poison Ivy. The episode tries to make it a surprise, but if you're familiar with the character or just seen her image, you know in a heartbeat that she's going to be poison Ivy. But as obvious as the twist is, everything else about her character is awesome. She's the first villain who I've found to be emotionally investing because of her motivation of what Harvey and Bruce has done to a beautiful plant that's near extinction because of the need to build a prison over a once beautiful land. You understand why she's turn to crime, and feel her passion for plant life, where she keeps the last remaining plant that everybody thought was extinct and treats it like a baby. The things she does are despicable, but you still feel a little bad for her for how insane and determined she is to keep her plant alive, which is deep, when with the others villains there wasn't anything to get you emotionally attached to them. Not to say that any of them were bad, they still stand tall as threatening and fun villains to watch, but when the writers tried to give you an emotional connection to them it didn't come off as effective for how insane they truly are.

When you see this character finally reveal her true colors as Poison Ivy that's when she really becomes an interesting character when before she was just a hot and innocent girlfriend. She sets up plant traps, has a giant hungry fly-trap that wants to devour Batman, and carries a few weapons of her own, my favorite one being how she's able to poison Harvey and even Batman. But her best weapon and skill is how she uses her good looks and charm to lure the people that she wants to kill into her trap. The whole entire climax with Poison Ivy and Batman fighting each other in her Green-house is cool, visually interesting, and on the edge of your seat since Batman is slowing dying and being surrounded by flames as he tries to fight and capture Poison Ivy. I do wish that he could have had another plant monster to fight, but I'm seriously just nitpicking because everything that happens in this climax is more than enough to make it exciting and intense.

The thing that I found the most interesting about the episode is that it revolves around Batman trying to save Harvey Dent. It's nice seeing Harvey and Bruce acting as close friends before he becomes Two-Face so that way you can establish an emotional connection with him for when he's being poisoned, and when he lets his inner demons get to him. You really feel the chemistry between him and Bruce for how well they communicate with each other. And before Harvey would become a victim of himself, it's nice to see Harvey be a victim of one of Batman foes, as you feel the clock ticking as Batman races to find a cure for him. You know that he'll eventually be alright because of his later appearances as Two-Face, but you still find yourself on the edge of your seat from the pacing, the dialogue, and the acting, making the episode on a whole keeping you in suspense. We do get some enjoyment from the rest of the characters. There's some good comedy involving Commissioner Gordon and Detective Harvey Bullock; Alfred gets to help Batman on one occasion; and we are first introduced to the female cop Renne Montoya who guards Harvey's hospital room (who I guess isn't aware about Batman yet, though you'd think she would know him from Commissioner Gordon). But overall I find Harvey's presence in the episode to be much stronger since the circumstances revolve around him.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

After getting two good but not so great episodes (mainly the previous one) this episode is one of the best ones that I've reviewed by far. Poison Ivy is the first one to have a balance of being threatening and tragic on a perfect level. It's fascinating to see Harvey Dent play a big role in the episode as a friend instead of a foe. The action is kick-ass. The animation and designs are neat. And the score is a lot better than what we had in the previous episode.

The citizens of Gotham are seeing leprechauns stealing from them, but in reality they’re a bunch of orphans that dress like Doctor Doom (for some reason) and live in the sewers of Gotham who serve the Sewer King (and this is before the famous and yet strange "Hey Arnold" episode). Batman finds one of the children and takes him to stay at Wayne Manor under Alfred's watchful, and eventually has the kid take him to the Sewer King's lair to free the orphans.

This is an episode that some people love, but the majority of fans and critics hate, including the director of the episode Frank Paur. And when I heard about the premise I wasn't that wild about it when going in, especially when after seeing one of the best episodes of this volume. Although the episode does have more problems than any of the other episode's had, I didn't think it was that bad. It's definitely one the least good ones of the show but there's still some stuff that I admired.

By design this one of the most shadowy and dark looking episodes I've seen by far, mainly because it takes place in the sewer, that makes Batman look badass and creepy in this environment and makes the environment itself for the kids unsettling. How the Sewer King treats the kids as tamed as it for TV standards is still disturbing. He abuses them mentally and physically, has them slave and steal for him, is always shown to be yelling at them, and is subtly hinted that he has killed a few of them, which is pretty grim for a kids show. And due to how cruelly he treats the kids, this makes Batman fight against him feel personal since he can relate to what the kids are going through, since he had an awful encounter with criminals when he was their age, which you see through his subtle reactions of how much he wants to get this man, and nearly feels tempted to finish him off personally. I thought that was an interesting concept of having the cruelty of kids from a criminal being the cause that makes Batman almost push past his limits as a crime fighter. And it's pretty cute seeing Batman smile and try to help kids since he can remember having a good childhood before his parents’ murder, which again feels very subtle. The episode even has some nice jokes here and there, my favorite being when Alfred asks Bruce to take a vacation that causes Bruce to dryly tell him how boring it would be. There's also one or two cool scenes with Batman fighting and the use of his Batmobile.

So with all that good stuff said, what seems to be the problem with the episode? Well the villain first of all when comparing him to the others we've seen so far isn't really all that fascinating. How he treats the kids is cruel and you despise him for that just as much as Batman does, but we never understand why he's doing it or what his backstory is. I'd say less is more, but the fact that the show has given all of the villains’ backstories and a clear motivation (with the exception of the Joker, which works fine in his case), you'd expect to get something deep about him. Like maybe giving him a story of him being turned away by society as an orphan or left behind as a child which forces him to live in the sewers, and decided to brainwash the orphans he has working for him for his propaganda. There just could've been so much explored with this villain, then making him resemble Fagin from "Oliver Twist". And that leads me to my second problem, which is the filler regarding this episode. The episode opens up with a pointless scene of two kids standing on top of a train playing chicken that causes Batman to save them; and 5 minutes of Alfred watching over a child that's played for comedy, where they overall feel padded out. They could've cut out the opening scene, and shorten Alfred's time with the kid to give us more depth into the Sewer King's background to fill up the show's run time. And speaking of Alfred taking care of a kid, we know that Alfred has raised Bruce since childhood, and yet for some reason he acts and claims that he's never taken care of children before and gets into all these shenanigans because of it, which is indeed disrespectful to his character. And the final and big part of the reason why people aren't fond about this episode is because it mainly revolves around Batman saving kids that's painfully obvious that the series wants kids to feel connected to him. I don't have much of a problem with that because of his subtle emotional connection to them. But yeah it is pretty hard to overlook how we go from Batman fighting villains for the citizens of Gotham, to having him protect kids from a villain who you know that Batman will defeat easily, as the climax itself, despite having a few badass parts is not all that engaging when compared to the others.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

I don't hate the episode as others do for the things that it does get right, but I'm not going to pretend that I don't see why many others would hate it because I do, and find some of those problems to be distracting and cringe worthy at times. It's not what I'd call bottom of the barrel of the series, but it's not what I call good either. It's just an episode full of hits and misses.

Detective Harvey Bullock, Officer Montoya, and rookie cop Officer Wilkes, set-up a sting operation to catch a bunch of gangsters that goes incredibly wrong, and are at risk of being suspended from their jobs by their Lieutenant unless they can tell him why it went wrong. We get to hear three different point-of-views of the situation from the three officers involved in the sting, as each side involves Batman crossing their path.

Before we had episodes like "Almost Got Em'" and "The Legends of the Dark Knight" where characters would talk about Batman that are shown in flashbacks from their own experience, or how they envision him, this would be the first episode to try out this form of storytelling. And from the moment when all three of the characters are in an interrogation room under a spotlight telling their own side of the story of what happened, I was hooked and couldn't turn away. I love how the episode begins with questions that's revealed in flashbacks from each characters point of view, and the thing that I admire most about it is getting three different outlooks on Batman. Harvey Bullock tells a false story involving Batman, because of his hatred towards him; Wilkes tells his side of story of seeing Batman as a creature who has powers, not realizing that he's a man dressed up as a Batman who carries high tech weapons; and Montoya gives the truth of what she saw with no exaggeration as she's given a clue.

The clue that she finds leads to a climax with her and Batman fighting against the gangsters, which I have to admit is an incredible climax. I know there are people who find the climax to be not as good as the first 2 half's, but I never saw the problem with it. Everything wraps up in the way you would want this case to end, and above all I enjoy seeing Batman team up with Montoya to fight against the gangsters. They make a great duo, especially when considering that Montoya takes the vigilante route after she gives up her badge causing her to solve the mystery and take down the crooks herself until Batman aids her, which I think is a perfect way of making her character shine. Sure Batman could've handled this alone, but since the episode is focused on the cops instead of Batman (that's another main part of the reason of why I enjoy it so much) it would seem to make sense.

The only minor gripes that I have with it is that I wish to see Wilkes and Bullock get involved in the action, instead of just Montoya since all three of them were the focus, until the episode decides to focus on her, thus having the closing line that they are "a team effort" making no sense at all since she was the one who solved the mystery and fought with Batman. I also wished that we had one of the classic villains leading the gangsters like the Penguin or the Joker, instead of just some gangster who we know nothing much about. But on the whole none of that really bothers me, and taken into the context that Montoya is the only one telling the truth and acts more professional than the others, it would make sense for her to crack the case herself. Plus having a new or old villain into the mix would be way too much given the amount of time the episode is dedicated to Batman, Montoya, Bullock, and Wilkes. As for the animation it's still what you'd expect from the show by giving many great shadows (especially for the interrogation room), and exciting fight sequences with Batman doing amazings things that's supported by a big score adding to the awesomeness and intensity of these fights, and the atmosphere itself.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

"P.O.V." is an overall great episode for its use of storytelling for the first two halfs of the episode, and a character who gets her time to shine in an exciting climax, as it is tied together by fantastic voice acting, animation, and music. And the fact that the episode doesn't make Batman the star but instead the police the primary focus makes it even more fascinating considering how many of us would rather spend time with the caped crusader and the villains as opposed to the actual law enforcement, where this episode successfully manages to make those supporting characters interesting from how they view our hero, while still giving him enough time to do all the cool stuff that we love seeing him do.