Batman: TAS, episode #65: The Worry Men

The Worry Men was the last episode produced of the first season and it's an odd one in many ways. There are many indications that this was the end of a cycle and that perhaps the well of ideas was running a bit low. Right from the beginning, we're aware that this is going to be one of the less "serious" episodes, based on the appearance of Veronica Vreeland (Marilu Henner), who last appeared as kind of a pseudo-villain/distraction in Birds of a Feather which, of course, is a Penguin episode and so won't generally be of the highest caliber. That follows along here in that the primary opponent is the Mad Hatter (Roddy McDowall) who, despite being the primary figure in one of the best-written episodes of the entire series (Perchance to Dream), has always been a bit of a hackneyed character, more of an emblem of just how crazy The Batman's opponents can be, rather than a significant threat.

That holds true here, as the basic premise is a bit of a gimmick, with chip-laden "worry men" somehow hypnotizing Gotham's wealthy into handing over their money to the Hatter. To execute the plan, he recruited a Mayan shaman (Roger Rose), who appears to be the main opponent early on and presents as more of a villain-of-the-week situation, lurking about on rooftops and threatening the rich people at Ronnie's party. To writer Paul Dini's credit, the shaman does use traditional Mayan weaponry to take on our hero in the first act, although The Batman refers to him as a Mayan "witch doctor", which is not at all in line with the usual intelligence that we associate with our guy. Alfred also unwittingly becomes an accomplice to the Hatter's scheme when he places a worry man under Bruce's pillow out of good intentions (road to Hell and all that.) This is an interesting aspect to Alfred's character that took a large jump forward in the 1980s and in the era of the production of the animated series, rooted in the perception of The Batman expressing his mental health problems by dressing as a bat and hanging out on rooftops. Alfred, formerly a character of resolute obedience to Bruce/Batman, becomes a bit more cynical about the whole venture and expresses sincere concern about his employer's health, mental and physical, in the comics, in the films that would begin with Tim Burton's Batman, and in BTAS. This is one of those moments where it comes to the fore and is mildly frustrating because it seems a bit too obvious.

When we do finally encounter the Hatter directly, the episode becomes a bit of a Rogues' Gallery mishmash, as we we end up encountering the Penguin, the Riddler, Harley Quinn, and the Joker, even if all of them are simply automatons set up as deathtraps by the Hatter. We can clearly see the end of a production cycle here. We also get a healthy dose of villain monologuing as the Hatter explains his entire plot, including a flashback to meeting Ronnie somewhere in Central America. But it's obvious that this script was slightly on the short side, as we spend a significant amount of seconds spotlighting moments that really have nothing to do with atmosphere or story, but simply action, such as the Hatter backing into a room and looking in multiple directions for the approach of The Batman. It feels padded. In the end, the Hatter is defeated rather routinely and there seem to be no lessons or impact to draw from the story. On top of that, the visual distortion of the Hatter's character kind of stuck out to me here. His teeth were the most notable feature at all times. They're prominent in his original design, but here it was somewhat over the top. The only other really interesting point of the episode was the brief appearance of Levar Burton of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame, playing a wealthy financier friend of Ronnie and Bruce's named Hayden Sloane.

So, kind of a weak ending to the production schedule, but that's how these things work sometimes. I'm going to follow this with a bit of an interlude piece before moving on to a critique of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.