Batman: TAS, episode #8: The Cat and the Claw, part 2

The most notable thing about the opening for part 2 of The Cat and the Claw is one of the more subtle things: The score. The music playing over the windy evening in the park where The Batman is meeting one of his mob stoolies is a huge part of the atmosphere, as scores should be. When most people talk about the music for BTAS, they usually focus on the infections theme song written by Danny Elfman and they're not wrong. The theme is a defining aspect of the show, since it so wonderfully depicts the aura and stylistic themes behind it in true, Romantic period-style. But there's a lot to be said for the score composers, too, since there's rarely a moment where the eerie background notes separate one from what's happening on the screen. Even when The Batman is operating in a scenario with a lot of action and explosions (literally in the case of this episode), there's still an overall aura of mystery that enshrouds the character and the score is an essential part of that.

Another part of that is maintaining the noir-ish approach. The nighttime meeting with the stoolie, the deduction of the military transport, and the date turning into an attempted assassination on the road before the suddenly-ruthless Bruce Wayne turns things in their favor; those are all scenes that could be drawn from films like Night and the City and other similar offerings. Since this was the second part of the series opener, it was important to keep reinforcing that approach and I think director, Dick Sebast, did that well. There are some good transition moments, such as when we shift to where Red Claw's goon invades Selina's apartment and the intro to that moment is highlighted by a cat leaping from a trash can in the street below. Similarly, as we see Catwoman enter the ventilation shaft of the underground bunker, the Batwing silently passes overhead. That's good pacing that keeps the style and theme rolling while still serving a storytelling function.

Unfortunately, we also end up maintaining the outdated sexism, with The Batman stumbling over it yet again ("Red Claw?! A woman?!") Thankfully, the writers let her volley right back when she escapes: "You've finally met your match, Batman! Not surprising it's a woman!" And that may be the point. As out of place as it sounds to modern ears, considering the audience that they could rightfully assume they were playing to (young boys and some not-so-young boys), what sounds clumsy to us may have been the overt message they were trying to drive home: It's not just guys who can be heroic... and wear costumes while committing crimes and/or enacting vigilante justice. So, not quite the moral message one would hope for, but certainly with the right intent. The central idea is that women are just as capable as men. Selina stops to point this out in the face of Bruce's concern, claiming that she's never been able to do the "damsel in distress" thing. It's interesting to note, however, that that's exactly the role she ends up playing in the car chase/combat scene, clinging to Bruce in fright while he goes Mad Max on their pursuers. However, you do want to convey tension and emotion in scenes like that and that's difficult to do without the more immediate action of live performers. If you don't draw overt reactions to events, your characters end up sitting still when they should be displaying something. (This is the difference between actual animation and something like Hanna-Barbera.) So, it's understandable that Selina may have been showing some degree of shock and dismay, even when the character's personality wouldn't normally conform to that. In some ways, you just have to go with what the scene demands.

But that approach is slightly problematic in a couple later moments, where the emotional displays by our two leads seem somewhat clumsy. Bruce declares his affection for her after one visit to Multigon and a couple aborted dates, while Maven later informs The Batman that Selina is in love with him after two encounters, in one of which she threw him off a building. I think the pacing of the episodes was sufficient to convey the time that had passed and you certainly want that final scene, where he cuffs her, to have the semi-tragic impact of caring about someone you're about to send to jail. All of that is an essential element of the Batman/Catwoman relationship and has been almost since the first time they met in the comics. I guess one could argue that they overdramatized those moments a bit here... but, again, we're talking about a show that's intended for a broad audience. Adults may pick up on those concepts much more easily than children do, so their intent might have been to really reinforce the message. As this was the second episode of the series, it could've been an attempt to really lay the groundwork for their relationship in future encounters. The counterpoint to that argument is that this series clearly seemed intended to credit the audience with awareness of who and what The Batman and his world are. That would include the emotional/sexual tension between the two leads in this episode.

One quirky thing to note is that the mountain lion that Catwoman released on the guard outside and on Red Claw herself presumably could have killed either or both of them. In neither case do we see the results. That would be a bit more visceral than the character has ever been in her existence and also something that would be a bit past the "violence" rating that HBO assigns the show. In this case, what happened off-camera, stays off-camera, I guess. (Leopards ate my face!) 

So, that was a decent end to a solid opening. Next time, Harvey Dent returns as a main character in an encounter with some Pretty Poison.