It's Never Too Late

Good character building - But not a stand-out. I like Batman's character here, I feel like he's caring, and he really does want to help people... I enjoyed this as a character study, but we've never heard of Armstrong until this episode, so it falls slightly flat. The characters here are just fine, and while I know that Gotham always has the backdrop of mob violence, focusing and entire episode on such a thing, feels like it's a filler storyline. This animated series is so good at writing villains, especially Batman's well-known rogues gallery, so this episode is not a good one to compare it to at all... Decent enough, I suppose.

I'm pleasantly surprised at how good this episode is, despite the absence of any typical Batman supervillain.

It's nice to get a look at what Batman gets up to in Gotham City during the quieter times, when only the mobsters and gangs are working. This time he gets to play the role of family counsellor to a Gotham crime boss, Bringing together his priest brother and addict son.

This is a tale of siblings taking two different paths in life, and one helping the other to find redemption. I like that the mob boss isn't immediately won over by Batman's attempts to reform him. It takes time and he is initially adversarial and in denial.

The artistic details were really nice, with the oncoming train flashbacks for example.

It's a nice little Batman story that fits neatly into a single episode & shows us a side of Gotham that sometimes gets overlooked, that is your regular run of the mill criminal types.

Rupert Thorne and Arnold Stromwell continue their "mob wars" for control of Gotham's underworld. Does that sound like "mob" names to you? How ridiculously PC is this with these Anglicized names, instead of the ethnic names of mob bosses that are in real life. Oh, well, that's timid the timid world of entertainment. Commissioner Gordon calls it struggle between youth and old age with Stromwell about to be pushed out. "We'll see about that," says Stromwell, to his TV set as he hears Gordon

Actually, Stromwell wants to end the wars, especially since his young son is missing, but Thorne is brutal and stays brutal throughout this old-fashioned crime story. It kind of reminded me a bit of old gangster movies like "Angels With Dirty Faces." Hollywood liked the kind of story angle that you see in this episode: you know, the kind where two old pals who grew up together wound up on the opposite sides of the law.

I continue to be amazed at the color in here and the fabulous artwork. It's simply amazing. Sometimes, as in this episode, it's the best part of the show.

This is a VERY dark episode, touching on subjects like drugs, guilt and redemption. It's different to your usual episode but I'd argue that's what makes it so special. Genuinely got a little teary towards the end. A strong 8 to a light 9/10

It's nice to see Batman doing more of the things that started the character out in "Detective Comics", as in this episode you first see him in disguise bugging the meeting of a crime boss and his crew.

The story is compelling, but we'd have to admit it's sort of a major take-off on the movie True Confessions, even though one of the brothers is a crime boss instead of a corrupt police detective.

This is a turf war between two crime families, and Batman puts himself right in the middle, hoping to convince one of them that his life of crime is nothing but destructive to himself and his family. Luckily, he gets help in that goal.