Batman: The Animated Series
I feel really badly that it's been so long since I've posted one of these. I hate it. I was planning on getting to a three B: TAS blog post a week schedule after the new year. Life happens. Specifically, the stomach flu. I will spare you the gory details, but it's time to get this party started again.
"This isn't some silly storybook!" "Oh, but it is! It's a beautiful story! You have love, wealth, a family, all you ever wanted! Your own private Wonderland!"
After some thugs get the drop on Batman at a warehouse, Bruce Wayne wakes in bed, but everything is different. Alfred is unaware of Batman or anyone named Robin. Also, the elder Waynes are alive! Bruce is shocked and thinks that something's amiss, but like Fox Mulder, he wants to believe. Even more so once he learns he's engaged to Selina Kyle and that there is a Batman swinging through Gotham City. Just when Bruce is poised to accept that his life as Batman was but a nightmare, he realizes that books and newspapers are filled with gobbledygook. This leads him on a confrontation with himself, with his reality at stake.
Confession time. In the review for "Dreams in Darkness," I compared it to the BtVS episode, "Normal Again." I should have saved the comparison and used it here. In that episode, Buffy is convinced that her life as the Slayer was nothing more than a vivid hallucination. This is similar to that, but Bruce's hallucinatory life is much happier. He has all he's ever wanted, yet he still rebels against it. This says a lot about Bruce's character. Sure, it says his mind is strong. He's not easily fooled. But it also sort of refocuses the age old question: Does Bruce yearn to be Batman? Is it ever going to be enough?
I love how Bruce never really fully gives in to the hallucination. It's smart. It's in character. Even when he embraces his dad or meets Selina in his office. When he's quizzing Alfred. There is always doubt there and Kevin Conroy sells the hell out of it. The final confrontation between Bruce and Batman is thrilling. Matching each other move for move. It's cool and it's really something that only could happen on B: TAS, which is part of what makes this series in general so cool.
The Mad Hatter reveal is handled well and I remember when I initially watched the episode I didn't see it coming. Again, I think limiting his screen time really helps the episode rather than hinders it. Sure if you look to hard at Hatter's scheme and the explanation for why he won't know that Bruce and Batman are one and the same kind of falls apart, but that's not what the episode is about. Plus the writers know that, too. Everyone being in on it makes it easier to kind of push aside and doesn't hinder how impactful the episode is as a whole.
I have minor quibbles. Did we really need that opening scene with Batman and the thugs. Couldn'tthe explanation of how Batman ended up in the Hatter's clutches have been handled another way or maybe not even explained at all? Is that necessary? I can't help imagining how the episode would have worked if it had just opened with Bruce in bed and then realizing all the things he comes to realize. Also, I think this would have been a great two-parter. Maybe giving things more room to breathe. More scenes with Bruce and his parents or Selina would have helped the overall emotional arc of the story.
Minor quibbles aside, this is still a really great episode and damn, it's getting hard to find new ways to effusively shower praise. But to be fair, that's a burden I'll happily shoulder.
Grade: A-
There's no good quotes from this episode. Not a great sign, is it?
A man is almost drowned in quicksand so Josiah Wormwood can steal a briefcase full of bearer bonds. This catches the attention of Commissioner Gordon and Batman. Batman knows that it's Wormwood so he threatens a known associate of Wormwood's, Baron Wacklaw Josek. After Josek's humiliation, he hires Wormwood to steal Batman's cape and cowl.
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Remember when I said it was getting difficult to shower praise on B: TAS. Well, it's almost like the show knew I was going to be doing this because no sooner had I registered such complaint they offered this steaming pile of shit for me to unload on.
God. This episode is so bad. It's so bad that I could barely string those few sentences together as a description. It's so bad I feel like I owe "The Underdwellers" an apology. I called it my least favorite episode, but that could only be because I had repressed the memory of this episode.
You know, I'm feeling generous so I'll start with the good stuff. The Bat-Signal makes it's first B: TAS appearance in this episode. That's it.
Oh my God, you guys. Seriously. The whole crux of the episode is that this guy goes after Batman's cape and cowl and he actually does it! He gets it! But just kidding! When he breaks it back to the Baron, it's really Batman in disguise! That's believable, right? And it's not a giant cop out at all! All I could do while watching this episode was ask myself, why? Why would the writers subject us to this? Why am I continuing to watch this? Why is this happening? Let's just agree to expunge this abomination from our memory and pretend it never happened? We'll keep the Bat-Signal and that's it.
I think it goes without saying, but...
Grade: F
Next week we are out of the darkness with a two-part spotlight on Robin and the return of Joker and Harley.
What did you guys think? Have you watched "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy?" Did you hate it too? Did it bring you down? Let me know in the comments.
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