Picking up where we left off

Three-and-a-half years ago, I posted my last review of a Batman: The Animated Series episode. I had made it to what HBO (now (ugh) Max) had represented as episode #32: Beware The Grey Ghost. What I didn't realize in the passage of some 30 years since the series had been first aired is that most of what HBO had on their service was just the first season of B:TAS and not only were there many more episodes to watch, but there were also the films that had been associated with the series at various points. Thankfully, in perusing the retail overlord that is Amazon a few weeks ago, I discovered the complete series, including specials, films, and behind-the-scenes stuff for just a few dollars. The reason that was probably presented to me by the all-powerful algorithm is that I'd been watching the latest effort by producer, Bruce Timm, which is Batman: Caped Crusader; Amazon's own production that is a mild reworking of B:TAS, oriented away from the kid-friendly lessons that Fox and censors had demanded and more toward actual psychological exploration of the characters and adult storylines of relationships and society. It didn't do anything spectacular, but it did give the canon a healthy dose of modernization (for example, it has the best rendition of Harley Quinn ever presented, a character who was created in B:TAS.) But after watching that series of 10 episodes, I remembered that I had let my exploration of B:TAS run aground and gave some more thought to picking it up and seeing if I could complete my original attempt at watching and writing about the whole project. So, here I am.

As noted, I made it through 32 episodes of season 1, which leaves me another 33(!) to write about here, plus 20 more in season 2 and 24 in season 3, plus a few insider/background/bonus features and the two films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero. It's, uh, going to be a long road and by the time I finish this, perhaps the second season of Caped Crusader will be out... Regardless, we'll be slightly shifting tack just based on the medium at hand. Since there's only one episode of season 1 that I haven't covered left on disc 1 of the set that I have, I'm going to look at that one and then probably the pilot that's also on that disc (The Dark Knight's First Night) and the one remaining on disc 2 (See No Evil) before finally moving on to the originally planned Cat Scratch Fever, which is on disc 3 along with 5 other episodes of season 1. So, next up is Christmas with the Joker. It's probably best to get back into the whole thing with the Clown Prince of Crime, anyway.