There are alot of Batman shows out there some of them are great like Batman: The Animated Series and so of them are god awful like Batfam. Yet there is one show that not alot of people know even came back for a second season as not alot of people are talking this is despite the fact that a few years ago EVERYONE was talking about the shows first season well this reviewer didn't forget and it's that very season that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then join me as I review the second season of the how that is actually a step up from the first season with the show in question being called simply just "Batman: Caped Crusader" enjoy.
The plot of this season is sometime after the events of Season 1 Rupert Thorn and his son go missing with Thorn leaving The Riddler in charge with Batman having to try and stop him and a more dangerous foe lurking in the shadows. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very season well in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very season was in all honesty really good. This seasons plot is alot more better then the plot of the first season was as you don't really know what's going to happen this time around with that being the very thing that does make this seasons plot feel not only unpredictable but also more in line with the kinds of plots that they would do on Batman: The Animated Series. As with that show if you look at all of the best episodes alot of them all have the same thing in common and that's the fact that you can't tell where the plots are going and while this seasons individual plots aren't that good as alot of them do have have forgettable plots it's the ones that focus more on the seasons plot that do turn out to be the better episodes of the season as you don't really know where the episodes plot is going to go next and they help to further the seasons main plot in creative ways all of which do work and while yes the seasons main plot could have been better in some respects as the the season does have episodes that don't do anything with the seasons plot there's denying the fact that the plot of this season is alot better then the one that we got last season with the plot of this season also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this season is Hamish Linklater as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Jason Watkins as Alfred Pennyworth. Also starring in this season is Krystal Joy Brown as Barbara Gordon , Eric Morgan Stewart as James Gordon , Michelle C Bonilla as Renee Montoya , Matthew Needham as the Joker , Cedric Yarbrough as Rupert Thorne and Linton Midnite , Josh Keaton as Matthew Thorne and D.A Peter Mitchell , Gary Anthony Williams as Arnold Flass , John DiMaggio as Harvey Bullock , Ronan Raftery as Edward Nygma / Riddler , Laraine Newman as Hattie Tetch / Mad Hatter , Darcy Yellin as Dala Landry , James Urbaniak as Hugo Strange , Zach Lazar Hoffman as Mark "Dez" Desmond / Blockbuster , Bumper Robinson as Lucius Fox , Tom Kenny as Eel O'Brian , JP Karliak as Julian Gregory / Calendar Man , Grey DeLisle as Lois Lane , Wunmi Mosaku as Roxanne Sutton / Roxy Rocket , Blythe Melin as Niccolai Tepes / The Mad Monk , Roger Craig Smith as Jim Corrigan / The Spectre , Jamie Chung as Dr. Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn , Josh Brener as Jonathan Crane Jr / Scarecrow , Lacey Chabert as Vicki Vale , Fryda Wolff as Rose Canton / Thorn , Juliet Donenfeld as Carrie Kelley / Grey Ghost and Kevin Michael Richardson as Victor Fries / Mister Zero.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very season well in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very season was in all honesty really good. This seasons acting was equally on par with the acting from the last last season which in this case is by no means a bad thing as the overall acting un that last season was really good and while there are some better acted episodes in this season that is something that you do get in any given TV show with it being obvious that alot of the season actors who are coming back for this season have grown into there characters quite well and while they won't even be able to replace Kevin Conroy , Mark Hamill or even Tara Strong for that matter this season actors do do a good enough job of playing these characters in their own right. With the best actor in this season quite easily being Matthew Needham as The Joker as while the character doesn't really take centre stage until the final two episodes of the season Matthew does make them count and when he does take centre stage he does come across as being a more creepy version of The Joker with him giving the character alot of threat and menace whilst still maintaining the characters dog chasing a car mentality and yet it doesn't feel at odds with the rest of the seasons actors as while it would have been very easy for him to go over the top with the character as that is fitting for any take on the character the fact that the makers of this season really chose not to do that and rather keep the performance for the character small and creepy does make the character all the more creepier which is something that does shine through in his performance. With the acting that's in this very season really being helped by the fact that this season scripts are just so good that all this seasons actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very season.
Doing the animation for this season is Studio Grida and the legends and the greats that are currently over at Studio IAM. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very season well in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very season was in all honesty really good. This seasons animation was quite frankly alot more better then what it really had any right to be as it did times bring back memories of Batman: The Animated series and it's animation as both this show and that show do share a very similar art style yet in this season it does feel like that the art style was pushed to about as far as they could go with it. As there are times where the characters look like they would be more at home in Batman: The Animated Series rather then this show due to the fact that the shows do share a very similar look to them with even some of Gotham's buildings for example looking like how they did in that show with this being something that does help to rob this show of its own look and feel, this season does mix in a good dose of 3D CGI animation with alot of the cars and other vehicles being rendered in 3D which is something that you can tell right away as it does stand out like a sore thumb and while it does make sense that the makers of this show would chose to go this route for its vehicles there still should have been some effort to make them blend in as much as possible with the rest of the seasons animation and while the characters do have some fluid animation in the action they oddly don't when it comes to the seasons walking scenes where there movements become a lot more stilted.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like with the first season this season does also have a few nods and winks to both The Animated Series and oddly enough Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm. With there being shot somewhere early on in the season that is similar to the opening of The Animated Series intro with the two guys robbing a bank which was a fun tip off the hat to see as the first season ended with a nod to that very same intro yet much more later on in the season we get a mention of The Gotham Worlds Fair which was of course the main setting of Mask Of The Phantasm which while it was fun to hear that reference when you add in the fact that the show does look like The Animated Series all it ends up doing is reminding you that you could be watching a much more better and well loved show and movie. This is not to say that the show should stop tipping it's hat to The Animated Series heck they even mention The Grey Ghost in an episode with Carrie Kelly which again was fun to see but there has to be line between tipping your hat to the past and outright copying what worked so well in the first place and here with this show and this season it does feel like the makers of the show were copying things that worked in the previous show and that's not fair to this show as the idea of a more serialized Batman animated TV show is a good idea but given that the show does look and feel like The Animated Series is just makes you want to watch that show and not think about this one, with the only two places where this show does stand out being in the character designs which depending on the character either does or doesn't work and the fact that this season does have alot more gory and shocking deaths with it being revealed that Rupert Thorn and his son were frozen to death by this shows version of Mister Freeze.
As you might recall from the first seasons cliffhanger ending the man villain for this season is The Joker. Which is such a smart move on the behalf of the makers of this show as that character is perfect for this type of show and having be in the background for pretty much the first half of the season making us thing that it'll be The Riddler that's the main villain only to have The Joker fully take over in the last two episodes is a good move as it is something that we wouldn't see coming as while we did know that the character would be in this season in some capacity due to again the first season cliffhanger what we didn't know was how big of a role the character would play in the season and while he doesn't play that big of a role he plays a big enough role to make him a memorable villain. Heck out of him and The Riddler who are the two big villains this season it's The Joker that comes off as being all the more better as while The Riddler is just as crazy as ever with him killing people at random or just because they made him mad for a second that does feel out of character for him whereas with The Joker and seeing acting more cold and calculated whilst still being this dark and menacing creature of chaos does feel true to who he is as a character as this version of the character is trying to kill all of Gotham to get its citizens to see themselves for who he thinks that they really are with him not really having an end goal outside of that and that is perfect for The Joker as he does do whatever he wants to do just because he can, with him even presenting a true threat to Batman as while The Riddler was able to out smart Batman several times The Joker has always been able to push the limits of how far Batman is willing to go to stop a criminal with this being something that he does do in this season with Batman only just being able to hold of on killing him.
We do get different version of classic Batman villains in this season with the character of Mister Zero pretty much just being Mister Freeze and the character of Thorn pretty much just being Poison Ivy even down to them both having a love of plants. This is something that makes no sense at all as those villains are so well known even today that you could just have them be called there classic names and it would still work as the show is keeping alot of things about the characters in the first place that they are still just those iconic characters and if your going to change the characters name then why not go all out and make it a new character all together why not make Thorn for example be someone who hates plants and wants to destroy all plant life on earth and why not make Mister Zero someone who is just really good at cleaning up the messes that the mob leaves behind them. As those would still work as villains as it makes it easier for us the audience to hate them as characters and yet due to the fact that the makers of this show are pretty much just making them those characters al it does is make us wonder why they aren't calling Poison Ivy Poison Ivy and again like with the first season they do a gender swap of a classic villain with it being The Mad Hatter this go around and to be frank it is something that does work alot more better this go around as they aren't so in your face about it with the character in this season being the host of a talk show that just bashes everything that Batman and the GCPD does whilst praising all of the villains with the character only appearing in a few handful of episodes before she gets killed of near the end of the season which is a good way to use her.
Now then this season has / had an exact grand total running time of no longer of no longer then twenty eight minuets. With there being ten episodes in this season one being around twenty seven minuets in length and while the show is ten episode the episode count does make this season a bit of a chore to watch as there are plenty of filler episodes that don't do anything to the plot and are purely there to fill out the episodes order as you very easily could have told this seasons entire story line in about five maybe six episodes at a stretch and yet for one reason or another the makers of this show thought that we needed a good ten episodes to tell this story when all that does is drag out the seasons plot with the season having just about enough plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet even with the season being ten episodes long it still doesn't take all that much time to fully develop either it's episodic plot or it's season long with both plots coming across as being undercooked when the season had plenty of time to fully develop it's main plot as all it would have to do is just have more episodes that are focusing on the main plot to fully flesh it out and for the episodic plots it would need to have scenes in there that that are all about pushing that episodes plot forward and making it feel more well developed and yet the makers of this season clearly put more time and effort into making nods and winks to The Animated Series that we ended up getting a more weaker developed plot. With the same thing even being true for the seasons character development as while Batman got some character development last season by learning to trust Alfred here he gets none with him even having the same character arc as the last season only now it's with the GCPD characters with none of them getting any character development either the makers of this show being more focused on giving classic villains new names then they are in giving it's characters character development but I really will admit that this season really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. With each of the seasons ten episodes having at the very least one action scene in it with some naturally being better then others with the fact that we have this many action scenes per episode does serve to make the point that when this show gets it right like it does with alot of this seasons action then it really does get it right as the action in this season is just so good that it makes you want to watch the rest of the episode. With the best action scene in the entire season being the fight scene with The Joker in episode 10 "The Laughing Death" as we get to see Batman and The Joker just go all out in a what is basically a fight to the death while on top on a building while Gotham is in chaos around them due to The Jokers Joker Venom being around to everyone including Alfred and James Gordon with Batman only just being able to cure Alfred who then flies that Batplane over Gotham spreading the cute all the while Batman and the Joker are still duking it out neither one being able to best the other one with it only being due to Joker leaping of he building himself that the fight finally ends, this is a good way to end the season as it does this great season out on a high note as we want to see these two character duking it out and going all out and that's exactly what we got with the rest of the seasons action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this season was easily ten times better then the first season and it is a shame that not alot of people are watching this new season as while your not going to be seeing anything groundbreaking like with The Animated Series but you would see is something that was a huge step in the right direction in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very season in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very season really does earn itself a grand ld score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and well as ladies and gentlemen I personally all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
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