Ladies and gents it's been about two maybe three months since I last talked about an episdoe from the classic animated series Batman: The Animated Series. It's also been about a month since I last talked about anything featuring the character of Harley Quinn as such I thought that i'd take a look at a very important episode for the Harley Quinn character because without this episode there would be no Harley Quinn and so here is my revuew of the first ever episode to feature Harley Quinn "Joker's Favor" which as i've mentioned is from the classic Batman animated series called Batman: The Animated Series. enjoy the review everyone because trust me this is a good episode.
The plot of the episode is that Charlie Collins a normal everyday guy cusses out The Joker and when The Joker threatnes to kill Charlie Charlie then says he will do The Joker a favour and a few years later The Joker has come to collect on that favour which Batman must stop before something deadly happens. Plot wise the episode isn't the strongest since the plot is at best fairly average but with that being said the story itself is still so good and it's so much fun seeing this rather odd story play out on screen.
Starring in the episode is Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Bob Hastings as Commissioner Gordon. Also starring in the episode is Robert Costanzo as Harvey Bullock , Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Alfred , The Always Great Mark Hamill as The Joker , Ed Begley Jr. as Charlie Collins and Arleen Sorkin as The And Only Harley Quinn. There really aren't that many actors in this episode infact every actor that i've listed in this review are the only actors that appear in this episode.
As for what I thought about the acting in the episode it should really come as no surprise to anyone who has seen any of my previews review on Batman: The Animated Series that I think the acting in this episode is so freaking good. All of the actors in this episode do such a good job portraying there respective characters even Arleen Sorkin who has basiucally had to create the sound for Harley Quinn does such a good portraying her even tho Harley Quinn isn't on screen for a very long time.
The animation for this episode was done by Dong Yang Animation Co., Ltd. and I have no idea who they are or what they've worked on for that matter. Which is a shame because like alot of the episode in Batman: The Animated Series the animation is fo freaking good i'm not going to say that it's the best animation that's in this series but it's not the worst either it does enough to leave an impression on you and nothing more which for me is a good thing.
Like I said before this episode marks the first appearence in any media for one Harley Quinn which means without this episode we wouldn't have all the Harley Quinn stories that we love , Margot Robbie wouldn't be playing Harley Quinn in any DC Extended Universe films and the Harley Quinn animated TV show wouldn't be a thing. So if you love Harley Quinn then you owe thanks to this episode and Paul Dini and Bruce Timm for creating her.
In a rather odd move Batman isnt this episode alot despite the show bareing his name infact he only appears in the third act of the episode and even then he isn't on screen very much. In fact alot of the episdoe is spent with either The Joker (Mark Hamill) or with his unwilling accomplice Charlie Collins (Ed Begley Jr.) as such the episode becomes more of a dark comedy as we see Charlie struggle to deal with The Joker's own form of dark jokes which to me makes the episode more interesting since if Batman was in this episode alot more then it would feel like just another episode of Batman: The Animated Series this way the episode gets to do something new and something different with it's characters whilst at the same time still being a comic book animated TV show.
Despite this episode being the debut story for Harley Quinn (Arless Sorkin) just like with Batman (Kevin COnroy) she's actually not featured in the episode that much. Infact she's only on screen in a very small handful of scenes and yet at the same time she's leaves a lasting impact which just goes to show that this character was born to be one of the best things to come from Batman: The Animated Series or at least I think so anyways.
Hell in this episode instead of being treated like a co-villain with The Joker she's instead treated more like henchmen / henchwoman and not one that's high up in the ranks either. This just goes to show you how far the writers would later develop this character since she goes on to become the main love interest of The Joker as well as well being one of Batman's more unoredictable foes and all of this started because of this one story.
Now then for me at least one of the more interesting parts of the episode is the fact that near the end of the episode we see our boy Charlie threaten to kill The Joker using one of his bombs. Of course the bomb is filled with confetti but just that idea alone the idea that one mad when he's finally had enough is willing to sink to the same depths as The Joker to me says that anyone can become someone like The Joker when they've finally had enough and they finally snap.
Now then since this is an action show and there is action in this episode that does mean that I have to talk about the action that's in the episode itself. Which sadly like the plot is one of the episodes more weaker elements since there isn't that much action in this episode with the only action set peiece taking place near the end of the episode that ending action set peiece is mostly played for laughs and as such any drama that could have been built up is now lost but it is still pretty entertaining action tho which is for me at least a good if not great thing.
Overall this was a really good episode and is honestly a pretty solid debut episode for Harley Quinn since she is really entertaining in this episode. That being said in terms of the show this isn't the strongest of episodes i've covered the reasons as to why I think that this episode isn't that strong in many ways but at the same time if your a die hard Harley Quinn fan be it from whatever piece of media you've seen the character in then this episdoe is a must watch as for what rating I give the episode it gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.
All of the images that I used in this review were gathered from either the official Batman fandom wiki page , the official Batman: The Animated Series fandom wiki page or the official DC Extended Universe fandom wiki page. For once I cannot say were it's best to get omages from this episode from just because even tho the official Batman: The Animated Series fandom wiki page has a lot verity of images there not all high definition but the poster which I got from the official Batman fandom wiki page is very high deifnition so I say use whichever website you want to use for images from either Batman: The Animated Series or this episode which as said before is called Joker's Favor.