Batman: Caped Crusader

Horrible. I wanted to watch a Batman cartoon, but practically 60% of the screen time was devoted to Barbara Gordon and the other female detective, whose name I didn't even bother to remember. Batman did absolutely nothing in this show; it was the others who did everything, and he only showed up in the last 5 minutes to fight the villain.

While expanding the roles of supporting characters can add depth to a narrative, it shouldn't come at the expense of the hero that the audience came to see. Batman deserves better than to be a background character in his own show, and fans deserve a series that honors the legacy of the Dark Knight by putting him at the center of the action where he belongs.

The first episode was promising. I didn't have a problem with race or gender changed versions of some character. But when I'm watching a Batman show with his name on it, I prefer to watch him or Bruce Wayne for most of the time rather than Gotham PD or Dent. The show focuses lot more on Gotham PD, corruption, Dent's moral compass but not on Bruce Wayne. What made him turn into Batman? Where did he learn to fight like this? Investigation skills? Also he addresses Alfred by "Pennyworth" (though by the end of the series he calls him Alfred) and talk in his Batman voice with him! Even in his House! The only two episodes I enjoyed the most were the one with Gentleman Ghost, bringing in the supernatural corner of the Batman lore and the seventh episode where Dent is on a revenge ride. Hamish Linklater did a good work on Batman, sometimes he feels too closer to Kevin Conroy. Animation is very poor in some places, specially the background structure. Gotham isn't properly shown in any shots. Overall this series could have been better.

After having heard so many good things about this, I was very excited to watch it.

Alas, it wasn't working for me at all. Action scenes were kind of boring, dialogue wasn't compelling, and sad to say that the voice acting didn't jump out at me as being particularly interesting, either.

The idea of an animated noir Batman series sounded great. But yeah, I couldn't get into it. Couldn't even make it through the first episode.

Don't care about the gender switching of a certain character, nor do I care what ethnicity certain other characters are. None of that makes any difference to me.

But when even a half hour show starts to feel like a slog, it's time to call it quits. I know I'm apparently in the minority on this, and that's fine -- don't mean to yuck anybody's yum, just giving my honest opinion of the show. I wish I liked it.

Honestly, I thought this was average at best. Mediocre at worst.

It gets quite tiring giving chances to the exact same kind of thing over and over again. What was it that they wanted to tell so badly that they had to do a new Batman for current generations? That Bruce was a jerk to his staff at some point? It doesn't even deviate from the original canon enough to be interesting, it's safe while feeling tampered enough to raise some eyebrows.

Sadly, episodes feel too short and too simplistic. There's no creativity, innovation or ambition. The last two should have been the beginning of the season (aside from the very last element of it), and the rest should have been better. Considering how Batman cuffs a villain to a small table's leg in a Museum and walks away.. it is not too much to ask for. The visuals are good enough, but might as well watch Timm's original work.

It's certainly not the worst Batman show, but there are a lot of things that work against this project. The portrayals of all the characters come off as poor/boring versions especially the villains. All characters lack chemistry with each other as well.

With Batman/Bruce Wayne there's no depth or character development it's just the same bland and tiresome version of this version of the caped crusader.

I would say the biggest issue I have with this show is that it struggles trying to decide if it's for more mature audiences or if it's kid friendly. One second it's showing PG styled phrasing and cookie-cutter action, the next it's showing murder and serious dark topics yet holds back on showing any blood or graphic depictions. At the end of the day just pick a lane and stick to it.

Negatives:

• The Voice Acting
• The Writing
• The Soundtrack
• Modern Politics

Positives:

• The Animation
• The Release date

At the end of the day I would just stick with watching the Batman Year One animated movie. As it does a much better job of representing the origin of Batman becoming a true crime fighter while learning how to navigate through corruption and justice.