The Batman

[Spitfire]

No not Batman TAS, not the movies, the short lived TV series "The Batman". In light of not knowing what the heck to ask for for the holiday, and believe me if I don't ask I end up with another nose hair trimmer, I asked for this series on DVD.

I read some mixed things about it, mainly that season 1 and 3 were abysmal, 2 was decent, and 4 and 5 were where it's at. I also read it won an Emmy, which I later found out was in sound editing woo. Anyways I ended up getting season 1-3 and the movie Batman Vs Dracula on DVD.

I just finished watching all of them, what can I say I'm on vacation I got free time, and I must say it's not at all what I expected. It feels a lot more like the Adam West Batman then anything. Well it did anyways for the first season it started to get a little more serious towards the end. I enjoyed what happened in the stories but getting to the climax could prove painful, or the execution.

The one liners are torture sometimes and really slap me in the face to remind me I'm watching a children's program. I also hate how The Penguin is a main villain. It's great they gave him some fighting ability and weird kabuki Hench women but he's even more annoying then he was in the previous series and I feel like I see him in almost every other episode. The same with the Joker. I understand he's a main villain but sometimes he's in up to 3 episodes in a row, it's over kill. When half the episodes in the season are the Joker or the Penguin, or *shudder* both that's a little too much.

I also don't like the Joker much in this show. The voice actor is interesting I don't mind him and sometimes he even sounds like Mark Hamil which is neat. My issue however is the same VA is used for several other characters and it's painfully obvious.

The other villains I have no gripe with, except Killer Croc who sounds a little too much like old toon Leatherhead, even says he's Cajun. Cat Woman is alright even if her one liners are horrid and her costume is retarded looking. The Riddler looks like Marylin Manson but he was interesting so of course they only used him in two episodes.

One thing that really annoys me, and you notice this more when you watch a few episodes in a row, is the constant use of stock animation. I mean seriously I've never ever noticed it this much in a show before. The suit-up parts are used to death and so are the car sequences. I guess they figured the kids wouldn't notice.

The way I rate it so far is like this
Season 1 - Pretty bad with the exception of a few episodes, the Clayface story was pretty good I must say.

Season 2 - Some crap here and there but mostly enjoyable.

Season 3 - At this point I had completely submitted to the series and gotten used to it. Not even Batgirl could make me turn it off. She was pretty annoying, and so is her voice actor in the interviews, but it works in the stories. Batman also thinks she's an idiot and doesn't include her in anything until the last episode she's in. Also the season finale was good.

Batman Vs Dracula - Eh I saw this and wondered "So we can have blood in this but not the show?" I also fail to see why they can't put handguns in shows anymore instead of retarded looking laser blasters, that always bugged me. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it was better then "Batman Mystery Of Bat Woman" so it has that going for it.

I ordered Season 4 and 5 because I read they got a redesign and Batman's chin no longer rivals "Jay Leno". I also read it's more friendly to fans of the Bruce Timm Universe so that intrigues me and lastly that the shows over, it ended earlier this year. That makes me sad because if it was just starting to get good what a waste.

Anyone else seen this series? What were your thoughts?