‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Review: A Failed Attempt to Revive the Original That Is Missing More than One Thing

'Batman: Caped Crusader' Review: A Failed Attempt to Revive the Original That Is Missing More than One Thing

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Batman: Caped Crusader has gone through a very complex production timeline. It was initially going to air on Max, which holds the rights to DC’s products, but HBO rejected the series, which then seemed to be canceled before Amazon revealed that it had bought the rights to the series, whose first 10-episode season will air on August 1, 2024 on the streaming service.

We on Fiction Horizon have had the chance to watch and review the series for you, so if you want to know our honest opinion on the series, continue reading.

We will start by saying that the series had us quite excited. Bruce Timm, who worked on the original Batman: The Animated Series alongside Paul Dini, was back, with legendary comic book writer Ed Brubaker also there. J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves joined in as executive producers and the series looked like something promising. Sadly, it did not live up to its potential in any way.

The ten episodes showcased a very different Gotham. The timeline was pushed back to the 1950s for no apparent reason, and while that did work in a sense, it severely limited Batman as a character and did not allow him to show his full potential as TAS did. Stylistically, TAS functioned great within the art nouveau Gotham despite being set in modern times.

Here, we have a Batman that is even more crippled than Adam West’s camp Batman in terms of technology, as the series wanted to maintain its historical realism while, at the same time, remaining true to the original lore. This, ultimately, turned out to be a mishit, as the series did not work well in that aspect.

The animation is also quite bad for a 2024 series. The authors wanted to keep true to TAS, as Caped Crusader was portrayed as a spiritual successor to the hit series, but ultimately failed to do so, as the characters were too edgy and robotic, while the backgrounds were sterile and provided absolutely no inspiration at all. The dark atmosphere was executed well and the intro clip was truly great, but aside from that, all other animation aspects were subpar.

This, ultimately, brings us to the story. The series sways between being an anthology series and an interconnected one, as the episodes try to be standalone, but there is an overarching story in the background that connects them. This, sadly, did not work out and we’re not really sure why the producers decided not to use TAS‘ formula and focus on that. This way, we saw a show that did not know whether it wanted to lead us into a larger storyline and captivate us there or whether it wanted to tell ten-ish standalone stories from Batman’s career, and that is a major flaw.

The focus was also an issue. TAS focused on Batman and the villains, showing their tragedies through the heroes’ endeavors to stop them from being evil. This show wanted to focus on Batman, the villains, the corrupt GCPD, and Batman’s sidekicks all at the same time, which resulted in the show having no focus at all. In some episodes, Batman seems like a side character who is there simply to respect the brand, which doesn’t really make sense, especially if we’re talking about the first season.

Sure, the other characters are not boring, the ones the show focuses on, but they are so underdeveloped and just served to us on a platter, so we don’t know what to think of them. Jim and Barbara Gordon are good, but we wanted more stories. The same goes for Renee Montoya, whom the writers wanted to push into the spotlight, but she ultimately remained a side character because they did not know what to do with her.

Flass and Bullock are a major issue for the series, as the characters have absolutely no clear development line and sway from one side to the other, being villains, antiheroes, and even heroes in one aspect. At the same time, they are bluntly portrayed as being crooked, which is a major contradiction, as the series was unable to maintain consistency in their portrayal for a simple ten episodes. This implies that there is a structural and systemic issue when the writing for the show is concerned.

Also, a lot of the characters are wasted, especially the cameos (Killer Croc, the Robins, etc.). Literally. The proto-Firefly is killed off, as is Two-Face, while the new versions of Harley Quinn and The Penguin (who is a woman, btw, which is not an issue per se, but they made her look so grotesque that it is an insult to both women and the character of The Penguin) had absolutely no development at all. The only villain who managed to get a compelling arc was Clayface (this is the only episode that was, in fact, really good!), while Catwoman was fine, but also neither here nor there.

After seeing the whole season, yours truly was surprised that Bruce Timm managed to make such a bad series, but it then hit me what the series lacked. Sure, it lacked everything we’ve listed above, but it also lacked Paul Dini, whose masterful storytelling elevated Batman: TAS to the rank of – arguably – the best animated series of all time. Timm provided the ambiance and the production values, but the series lacks Dini’s emotional storytelling, which is why it is only an empty shell of what it could have been rather than a complete product.

All in all, Batman: Caped Crusader deserved more and needed to deliver more, but ultimately turned out to be a failure in both aspects, as the show only managed to simulate the tone of the original animated series it heavily relies on, but the simulation is so painfully obvious, and it fails to hide all the issues that the series has. We don’t know whether a second season is going to be made – the cliffhanger at the end implies that it will – but the series will need to do a lot better if it wants to become a cult classic.

Score: 4.5/10

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