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[March Climber]

Opening Title Sequence:



Trailer:

Welcome to Gotham City, where the corrupt outnumber the good, criminals run rampant and law-abiding citizens live in a constant state of fear. Forged in the fire of tragedy, wealthy socialite Bruce Wayne becomes something both more and less than human—the BATMAN. His one-man crusade attracts unexpected allies within the GCPD and City Hall, but his heroic actions spawn deadly, unforeseen ramifications.Starring Hamish Linklater as Batman/Bruce Wayne, and featuring a star-studded ensemble cast including: Christina Ricci, Jamie Chung, Diedrich Bader, Minnie Driver, Mckenna Grace, Eric Morgan Stuart, Michelle C. Bonilla, Krystal Joy Brown, John DiMaggio, Paul Scheer, Reid Scott, Tom Kenny, Jason Watkins, Gary Anthony Williams, Dan Donohue, David Krumholtz, Haley Joel Osment and Toby Stephens.

 

[Bloobs]

Added to watchlist

 

[jason10mm]

God I hope this show NEVER talks about his parents death or anything. I'm so over Batman being perpetually traumatized. Just let him solve some crimes and punch out bad guys.

 

[March Climber]

God I hope this show NEVER talks about his parents death or anything. I'm so over Batman being perpetually traumatized. Just let him solve some crimes and punch out bad guys.

So far episode 1 didn't touch on it. Since this seems like an elseworlds story/alternate retelling of events like the Telltale game, I expect them to eventually do so.

 

[jason10mm]

So far episode 1 didn't touch on it. Since this seems like an elseworlds story/alternate retelling of events like the Telltale game, I expect them to eventually do so.

Yeah, I don't excpet them to never mention it, even Batman '66 did a few times IIRC, but just don't make it a flashback in EVERY ep or some sort of constant presence in his life. Batman=trauma is something I'd like to get away from. I've not seen a lot of the more recent Batman series but in the animated films they don't harp on it much, unlike the live action films which are OBSESSED with it.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Watched the Batman animated series at home love that style still will give this a chance.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

How many episodes?

 

[March Climber]

How many episodes?

10 Episodes, 25-30 minutes each.

 

[Werewolf Jones]

10 Episodes, 25-30 minutes each.

Yeah I'll watch it.

 

[March Climber]

Watched the Batman animated series at home love that style still will give this a chance.

Yeah I'll watch it.

Just keep in mind, this isn't a continuation of the 90s show. This is an alternate retelling/elseworlds story. A big event happens at the end of episode 1 that is a huge departure from the norm. Click below if you want to know.

Spoiler

The GCPD building is completely blown up by Penguin.

It honestly felt like choosing a wrong option in the Telltale game.

 

[Little Mac]

I’m going to binge it this weekend. Loved TAS.

 

[Bloobs]

I miss Conroy

 

[WhiteWaterM00se]

I watched the first 7 episodes. Great day to wait around for the plumber with a 4 hour window. 4 episodes are decent or good and very grounded, and two are scooby doo-ish and nonsensical. And one feels like it really, REALLLY is trying to introduce Batman to the Justice League DARK characters.

Some characters are changed such as Penguin, Harley. You guys can find articles about it.

This is a show for OLDER kids and adults. It is in the spirit of the animated show from the 1990’s. The best thing this show seems to understand is, that all the Batman villlians do NOT EXIST at the same time. It is like Year 1 Batman.

Spoiler, it is slowly trying to introduce Grayson and Todd at the same time!

 

[March Climber]

I miss Conroy

Agreed, but I do feel that other voice actors have done a good job of making their own mark.



This show's Batman/Bruce voice is taking me a bit of time to get accustomed to.

 

[RagnarokIV]

Looks like TAS but digital.

Hopefully it can come close the peaks of TAS - Heart Of Ice and SubZero.

 

[March Climber]

Here's the trailer song by the way if anyone is curious:



I liked it a lot and it's a real shame they didn't use this as the opening nor closing theme. I think it would have been very fitting.

 

[jason10mm]

Damn, ep2 is straight from Darkman Yvonne the actress has that Bruce Timm look, and Selina Kyle...oh my...You can see the 'Amazon directives' influence a bit. Some of the alterations are gonna wind some folks up, no doubt.

And well, they made it to ep3 before diving into his parents, sheesh.

LOVING that he uses lockpicks, not a magic gun that opens everything, no supercomputers just kicking out stuff, they gotta interview people and look through files. The costuming coming from the early runs is nice as well, I think I'm gonna dig this show. Hope they hold off on the heavyweights till the end of the season, I want the Joker, Riddler, and whatnot to be big deals when they come. Plenty of wacky small fish to deal with till then.

 

[March Climber]

It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally realized what type of voice Bruce Wayne's voice actor is emulating when he does the Batman voice: Christian Bale's inner monologue voiceover from American Psycho.

 

[Diddy X]

I like it so far, I'm glad they put the same voice actor as in the Arkham games in spanish.

 

[kondorBonk]

Only the first few in. So far I really like it and I've always preferred batman in Tim Burton's out of time Gotham so this era fits nicely. I like the bat computer being a newspaper archive and using radios instead of tech macguffins.

A few thoughts so far:
Penguin change is fun. Despite the Falcone and Maroni being crime families, they can be forgettable compared to the more outlandish Arkham characters. Making Penguin a crime family is a fun idea and I was genuinely surprised how far they took it. A hideous flapper/showgirl is also a fun route.

Clayface was perfect. Great design and I like his more grounded "man of many faces" route instead of jumping right to monstrous abomination. This would have been a great chance for a villain to "get away" and build out the world. Especially with how he can give corpses his serum.

Catwoman was fantastic. Her costume was great and I like that everyone already knows who she is and hows shes just so affluent she can get away with harmless crimes.

Both Bruce and Alfred look/sound great. Most interested in how they seem to be building something with Alfred and his guilt and maybe even little fear of Bruce.

For dislikes:
Paul Dini is missed. I have not seen an episode as strong as Heart of Ice but that's asking a lot.

Episodes are far to short. BTAS did not shy away from 2 parters and so far each episode felt rushed. These old run times are archaic and I'm surprised it was ever considered.

Music/sound design is a massive downgrade. Nothing memorable thus far.

Intro is stupid. If your aren't going to do something original, just scrap it and do a cold opening. A few clips with a grain filter is dumb. It doesn't hype you up or serve any purpose.

I know I've seen title cards. No idea why they are missing from the final product.

 

[PaddyOCanager]

Watched the first 3 episodes last night.

It was extremely decent. Definitely felt the vibe of TAS - I'll finish watching it this weekend.

 

[Little Mac]

Watched the first 2 episodes last night. It was fun but nothing like the highs of TAS. Also the opening credits segment is a huge downgrade. Regardless, I’m definitely will finish the season hopefully this weekend.

 

[Revolutionary]

Watched the first episode

 

[March Climber]

Amazon has been releasing clips here and there to give people a sneak peek. Here's the latest:

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Absolute trash as expected. I saw the big-diverse-ladies lesbian romantic scene and... it's actually stunning to learn afterward that the large Asian one was supposed to be Harley Quinn, as embarrassing as the writing in that scene.

It's not worth wasting time on anything that comes out of the minds or souls of writers / showrunners like this. If they can't even rebuff these obligatory diversity plotlines or even the heavy-handed tone on top, it's already over before it began.

 

[arkhamguy123]

Absolute trash as expected. I saw the big-diverse-ladies lesbian romantic scene and... it's actually stunning to learn afterward that the large Asian one was supposed to be Harley Quinn, as embarrassing as the writing in that scene.

It's not worth wasting time on anything that comes out of the minds or souls of writers / showrunners like this. If they can't even rebuff these obligatory diversity plotlines or even the heavy-handed tone on top, it's already over before it began.

Harley Quinn episode was written by the lady who co wrote last of us 2 by the way

 

[arkhamguy123]

Kinda loved it! Already itching to find time to rewatch my favorite episodes.

Im shocked to see the negativity on Reddit and such because to me this is a very good Batman show clearly made by a passionate team. None of the supposed woke stuff bothered me and i welcomed all the changes. This was awesome. The clayface episode in particular blew me away. I was genuinely unsure where the plot was headed.

I’ve heard people say this barely feels like a Batman show and i completely disagree. Batman fans, bless them, love Batman so much they always have a tendency to accuse Batman media of “not being about Batman” if he’s not suited up for every goddamn second of screen time doing something cool or if the story isn’t told from his exact POV. Nolan got this critique. Burton did. Beware The Batman did. And I reject it all. I think his screen time is wholly appropriate and I felt the Batman essence through all of this show

My only gripe was the supernatural stuff was by FAR the weakest. The gentlemen ghost episode and the vampire girl episode at the carnival were… not awful but way below the rest. They should stick to the grounded adult gritty thing. It just doesn’t work like it has in BTAS, BTBATB, and The Batman (2004). The darker tone just doesn’t really mix with that stuff.

 

[March Climber]

Kinda loved it! Already itching to find time to rewatch my favorite episodes.

Im shocked to see the negativity on Reddit and such because to me this is a very good Batman show clearly made by a passionate team.

I've noticed that some of their complaints are based on small details from earlier on in the season that are literally answered or resolved later in the season, like the Alfred/Pennyworth name usage. It seems people are jumping to conclusions, but it's okay it's to be expected with any new Batman I.P. that deviates from the norm.

Besides, this isn't the first time a show, based on Batman I.P., received negative reception from fans for taking it's concepts in a wildly different direction:

You would think fans would be used to showrunners taking chances with the I.P. by now, but instead they still become surprised and upset when a new show isn't directly inspired from the BTASverse or Nolanverse.

 

[kunonabi]

I've noticed that some of their complaints are based on small details from earlier on in the season that are literally answered or resolved later in the season, like the Alfred/Pennyworth name usage. It seems people are jumping to conclusions, but it's okay it's to be expected with any new Batman I.P. that deviates from the norm.

Besides, this isn't the first time a show, based on Batman I.P., received negative reception from fans for taking it's concepts in a wildly different direction:

You would think fans would be used to showrunners taking chances with the I.P. by now, but instead they still become surprised and upset when a new show isn't directly inspired from the BTASverse or Nolanverse.

All of those were shit aside from The Batman.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

Harley Quinn episode was written by the lady who co wrote last of us 2 by the way

it's so over

 

[March Climber]

All of those were shit aside from The Batman.

Cool, you kind of missed the point though.

 

[ResurrectedContrarian]

For what it's worth, taking a new direction isn't inherently dismissed. Joker was widely acclaimed across the board by fans, because it took things in a new direction but decidedly not in service of any kind of "updating" the franchise to meet new progressive sentiments, etc. It was still unapologetic in its vision, to the core.

In contrast, when I see scenes like the ones with Harley Quinn from this new show (or the atrocious Quinn cartoon on HBO or wherever it is now), I can tell the kind of minds and personalities writing it and I have zero reason to waste minutes of my life spending time with any vision that comes from those people.

 

[March Climber]

For what it's worth, taking a new direction isn't inherently dismissed. Joker was widely acclaimed across the board by fans, because it took things in a new direction. It was still unapologetic in its vision, to the core.

And this is a good thing, but the difference is that I still consider it to be a good thing that a chance was taken even if it fails.

 

[FunkMiller]

You would think fans would be used to showrunners taking chances with the I.P. by now, but instead they still become surprised and upset when a new show isn't directly inspired from the BTASverse or Nolanverse.

Which is extremely weird, given how many times Batman has been reinvented since his inception. It's the reason he remains the greatest comic book character in history, and one of the greatest fictional characters full stop. Hard to think of many others that have had such a massive diversity among their various iterations. Adam West is just as valid a Batman as the borderline psychopath in Morrison's Arkham Asylum.

 

[jason10mm]

Absolute trash as expected. I saw the big-diverse-ladies lesbian romantic scene and... it's actually stunning to learn afterward that the large Asian one was supposed to be Harley Quinn, as embarrassing as the writing in that scene.

I wonder if Timm deliberately made the lesbians butch types instead of his pin-up style. Saves the va-va-voom vixens for the hetero male gaze

Montoya has a larger lady makes sense as a physical cop, I like her character so far. Quinn.....so had to give up that accent and look for so long across so many iterations, but I like what they are doing with so, so long as she does NOT create Joker, Riddler, or the other rogues gallery heavies. Having her 'make' the silly villains is fine, but if she twists someone into Joker, or somehow is remotely an equal to him...riots in the street!

Damn, when Barb used a pencil to lift the name on the pad, my son didn't believe you could do it, so I had to show him classic kids tradecraft

 

[Doczu]

Feels like Batman is a second rate character in some episodes. And not in a good way.

Show looks nice, but feels off. And the dei adjusted characters don't help

 

[Little Mac]

Just finished the first season. If Batman:The Animated Series is a 10/10 (which it is), this is maybe a 7/10. The pacing was really off and Harley’s reveal seemed very rushed. I think the best episode was the firebug one. His visions of flames playing ball was haunting.

I don’t get the changes they made to freshen up the stories, and they made the marvel mistake of killing off the cool villains. Also the art direction sucks compared to TAS. Regardless I don’t think I wasted my time watching it, but expected much more with Bruce Timm on board.

 

[March Climber]

Feels like Batman is a second rate character in some episodes. And not in a good way.

I noticed that they're hovering between the traditional way of showing Batman (from his own perspective) and this movie's way of storytelling:

For those who haven't seen Batman: Gotham Knight I do recommend it. It is essentially a collection of stories about Batman, mostly from the perspective of other characters and civilians, animated by Madhouse, Production I.G., Studio 4C, and Bee Train. It is like the Animatrix of Batman movies. Here's an example from the movie:

 

[jason10mm]

Just finished the first season. If Batman:The Animated Series is a 10/10 (which it is), this is maybe a 7/10. The pacing was really off and Harley’s reveal seemed very rushed. I think the best episode was the firebug one. His visions of flames playing ball was haunting.

I don’t get the changes they made to freshen up the stories, and they made the marvel mistake of killing off the cool villains. Also the art direction sucks compared to TAS. Regardless I don’t think I wasted my time watching it, but expected much more with Bruce Timm on board.

Fair. The art isn't at TAS level for sure and the story contrivances to have "women talking" does distract from Batman doing his thing and he'll just suddenly resolve some issue because they ran out of time due to all the attention Barbara gets each episode. Seems kinda odd, are they expecting a surge in girl audiences? Hoping to spin this around to create interest in Batgirl again and drop that movie finally?

 

[Ulysses 31]

Regardless I don’t think I wasted my time watching it, but expected much more with Bruce Timm on board.

I think the mistake people make is thinking Timm was also the writer of TAS when that was Paul Dini, who's not involved with this show.

Timm was mainly the designer.

 

[jason10mm]

Hah, they have Christina Ricci as a voice (Catwoman) but they then have a Wednesday Adams lookalike and they DON'T use her???? Though ghostbusters girl was a decent substitute.

And the slingshot wielding little red head girl (boy?) orphan...me and my son both looked at each other and said "Robin!" at the same time

 

[Little Mac]

Timm was mainly the designer.

But his designs made everything about the TAS cartoon so damn sexy. Not just the women, but Gotham as a whole. That’s missing in this new series.

Just looking through gifs of TAS makes me want to rewatch all the episodes, buy any art books featuring his designs, and teach myself how to draw.

 

[AgatonSax]

Hah, they have Christina Ricci as a voice (Catwoman) but they then have a Wednesday Adams lookalike and they DON'T use her???? Though ghostbusters girl was a decent substitute.

And the slingshot wielding little red head girl (boy?) orphan...me and my son both looked at each other and said "Robin!" at the same time

The orphans were all nods to the Robins weren’t they - Dickie, Jason, Stephanie, Carrie?

 

[jason10mm]

The orphans were all nods to the Robins weren’t they - Dickie, Jason, Stephanie, Carrie?

Coulda been, maybe? But only 1 was really spunky. Probably a lot of easter eggs like that if I paid more attention.

 

[FunkMiller]

Watched the first couple of episodes, and... it's okay, I guess? It has very little that's new or interesting to say about the actual character of Batman, and seems much more interested in how many alterations it can make to the other characters in the Batman universe.

The best Batman material is always the stuff that concentrates on him... not everyone else. This feels more like using Batman as a scaffold for telling stories about other people, rather than a fresh attempt to mine Batman's character for new insight.

I may watch more. But I equally may not bother.

 

[Trilobit]

How accurate is this post I found on reddit?

I can deal with some "modern sensibilities" in shows, but if the poster tells the truth then this feels more like an aggressive agenda from the creators.

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

How accurate is this post I found on reddit?

I can deal with some "modern sensibilities" in shows, but if the poster tells the truth then this feels more like an aggressive agenda from the creators.

That's the first episode in a nutshell.

 

[drganon]

How accurate is this post I found on reddit?

I can deal with some "modern sensibilities" in shows, but if the poster tells the truth then this feels more like an aggressive agenda from the creators.

I think I'll just stick with the original 90s show.

 

[Revolutionary]

How accurate is this post I found on reddit?

I can deal with some "modern sensibilities" in shows, but if the poster tells the truth then this feels more like an aggressive agenda from the creators.

I only saw the first episode and I don't remember a few of those things (possibly from later episodes), but most (if not all) of it is indeed true.

"Oswalda" (10/10 creativity on that name btw) kills one of her two sons because a rival crime boss (a very trustworthy source) tells her that son is an informant. But the twist is that her OTHER son who is misogynist (reminder: his MOTHER, a woman, is one of the biggest crime bosses in Gotham) is the informant and runs to Barb the black girlboss to protect him.
It's offensively bad and feels like a show tailor-made for idiots. Had to tap out immediately after the first episode.

 

[jason10mm]

Yeah, you can see the Amazon rules at work, it is what it is. My kid couldn't tell the difference between quinn and Montoya until they had a scene together because they look so similar. The art style is not distinctive enough to have a half dozen brown brunettes with dark eyes running around. Timms women rely on eye color, hair color and subtleties in facial design to distinguish them, only a few use skin tone. On this show the character design is kinda bland. The dent design looks a lot like a couple others.

But the characterization of Barbara and dent is a little misleading in just the first ep, they both have significant attention paid to them through the series.