Batman Caped Crusader Season 1 Review – A Pulpy Knight

I grew up in the golden age of superhero animation, especially when it came to stories with Batman. Batman: TAS, Justice League, Batman Beyond, The Batman, and even later with Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Everything was quality and fun, and I loved it. Plus, each had its own style and flair to separate it from what came before, even if it was only slight things. So, when I heard that Bruce Timm was teaming up with J.J. Abrams to make a new series, I was excited, and my Batman Caped Crusader Season 1 Review will show that excitement was worth it…to a point.

So, I need to start off my review with some VERY clear statements. First, NO, this isn’t Batman: TAS “The Sequel.” Bruce Timm himself said he didn’t want to do what came before, and it shows here. Second, unlike Batman TAS, which took a certain “noir meets modern” look at Gotham, Caped Crusader is distinctly set within the aesthetic of the 1940s, which lends to how certain things look, act, sound, etc. They went for something fresh here, and it mostly works. With that, let’s continue to the true breakdown.

From the start of this series, it’s clear that we’re seeing things at the “true beginning” of Batman’s career. He’s still just a rumor, whispered among the unlucky few who have seen him. Plus, he hasn’t made allies outside of Alfred, and he’s fine with that. It’s a very pulpy version of “Year One,” and they base most of the episodes around that, including how certain characters, like Catwoman, get inspired by him and “become the role” they were destined to be just because of his influence.

It also influences the nature of certain plots, including the “overall plot” of the season involving Rupert Thorne. Batman isn’t yet dealing with all of the superpowered threats we know he will face. He’s primarily focused on gangsters, corrupt cops, and more that are infesting Gotham. That’s fine, and it works with the 1940’s aesthetic they’re going for…more or less. More on that later.

So, how is this Batman overall in terms of quality? I’ll admit, I wish we got a little more from him at times, but I do admire what we got. Hamish Linklater does a nice “switch” between Batman and Bruce Wayne, and multiple scenes highlight that. We also see he’s capable but not yet in “peak form,” which is fine given the “Year One” status. The most important thing is that he fits this particular Gotham. I don’t like that people are trying to compare him to Kevin Conroy, that’s not how it works. Hamish is the Batman of this universe, and I feel he did well overall.

What I’m arguably even more thrilled about (outside of one particular episode) is the supporting cast of characters. While some characters, like Jim Gordon, act like you know they should, we get some nice changes to the status quo with characters like Barbara. Instead of just being the “Commissioner’s Daughter,” she’s a defense attorney and a good one at that. I liked this change, as it made her more involved in the stories, and let her have numerous big moments, including in the final episode of the season. If I was to name an MVP character-wise, it’d be Barbara, which I didn’t expect to say.

Not to be outdone, I liked how they handled Renee Montoya, a classic character born from Batman TAS who is brought to life even more here. She’s Gordon’s right hand in many ways and one of the few cops on the force that we can trust. Her trust in Barbara and Jim is well-handled, as is her honesty and desire to do the right thing every time, even when she gets blamed for things that weren’t her fault.

Oh, and if you know Batman lore, you’re going to love hearing all the namedrops and references to characters from other Batman shows and movies and seeing how they’re represented here, even when they’re just cops like Harvey Bullock. We have the dirty cops like him and Flask, then ones with potentially unique futures like Jim Corrigan, and there were multiple episodes with Eel O’Brien (who becomes Plastic Man), and there are even a few episodes with Lois Lane in her 1940s form! Some will say these are gratuitous cameos, but I disagree. This fleshes out the world and pays respect to the characters that have been a part of the lore for a long time, especially when they do things that are true to their comic or cinematic natures.

As for the villains, we get a nice menagerie of them in the ten-episode season, with highlights being Harley Quinn, Clayface, and a surprising arrival via Gentlemen Ghost. True to form, these versions of the characters match the aesthetic of the show, while also helping them be individuals compared to their other incarnations. While I’m sure some people didn’t initially like the visual look of Harley Quinn when she was revealed, she was absolutely a standout villain. She was built up over a few episodes, then dropped the hammer (in one case literally) on people, yet wasn’t just a “crazy person in a suit.” She had layers to her character, and I liked that.

Visually, Batman Caped Crusader is very good. Sure, some scenes could’ve been done better, but you can say that with almost any animated show these days. They had a vision for how they wanted this world to look, and they jumped at every opportunity to make that particular version of Gotham pop, and that’s to be praised. To that end, the voice cast was top-notch overall. Much of the cast felt like they “fit the character,” and no voice stood out as bad. They even brought in some legends like Christina Ricci and Deidrich Baker to help give extra “oomph” to certain characters.

One last thing I want to note before I move on is that a key surprise in this series was the shift between “grounded” Batman stories and supernatural ones. “Night Ride” was a highlight of the series because of its literal ghostly villain, and the very supernatural way that Batman and Alfred had to deal with it. They didn’t have to go that route, but they went there, and now there are many possibilities for future seasons that wait for the next season.

That being said, my Batman Caped Crusader Season 1 Review now must turn to the “lesser” elements of the season, and there are a few key things to point out. The first of which is…the episode length.

Yes, in our “age of streaming” it’s become commonplace for shows like this to only get 10 episodes…but it shouldn’t have to be that way. Even if you look at The Batman or BATB, they had a minimum of 13 episodes in a season, and that allowed things to be fleshed out more and not crammed in. While some episodes felt longer than 22-25 minutes, there were times I was also left wanting more. And not just in the typical “Can the next season come now, please?” kind of way. Even if the first season was 15 episodes instead of 10, it could’ve done so much to establish itself and might have had fewer casualties along the way.

That brings me to the villains. While I appreciate the show having multiple characters get killed, showing the more mature and “high stakes” city they live in, there were way too many villains just “thrown away” for one reason or another. For example, one of the worst villains of the lot was Firebug, who is barely in the episode before he gets killed. Easily the biggest surprise for me, in a bad way, was that they killed Harvey Dent. He’s such an important character to the lore, and yet they cast him aside, and that rubs me the wrong way. That doesn’t even touch upon the other characters that are killed or locked up far too quickly like Deadshot, The Penguin, Onomonpeia, Clayface, and yes, Catwoman. I know the joke is that they’ll “get back out soon enough,” but that does feel like it would work in this version of Gotham.

It also doesn’t help that some villains are treated in a certain way that wasn’t really delved into or tried to “fit the times” a bit too much. For example, I didn’t like Two-Face’s look, as it felt like a copout to “fit the aesthetic,” despite the implication that his whole face was covered in acid. Not to mention, we barely got the full Two-Face dynamic, as “Harvey” was in control most of the time. Furthermore, they didn’t even name Onomonpeia in the episode he was in, which would heavily confuse fans who aren’t that familiar with the character.

That wasn’t the only inconsistency I noticed. While the writing at times was incredibly tight, other times it was clunky and contradicted other episodes. Episode 7, “Moving Target,” was a lowpoint of the series for me not just because they killed Deadshot before he even did anything meaningful, but it made the once tight bond between Jim and Barbara seem tenuous because he suddenly “didn’t approve of her job.” Not to mention, he noted that it was wrong that she “let criminals go free” when he couldn’t even bring down the dirty cops in his own precinct, most of which he himself admitted were dirty!

I also didn’t like the dynamic between Batman and Alfred for much of the season. It was so cold, and then, just like with Jim and Barbara, it flipped between caring and hostility on a dime. In “Night Ride,” Batman lamented that he might lose Alfred, saying, “I can’t do this without you.” But then, in the two-part season finale, he straight up yells at Alfred for “wasting his time,” only to finally start calling him “Alfred” by the end. Some would say that’s “character progression,” but it didn’t feel earned to me.

There were other little inconsistencies that rubbed me the wrong way, including how Batman could barely take down Onomonopeia or how he left a whole building to burn without checking for survivors just to go after Dent, despite literally doing that a few episodes prior instead of going after Firebug. These little things add up when you see how it all “builds” after a set of episodes.

Even with these flaws, I hope my Batman Caped Crusader Season 1 Review highlights that there IS another great Batman show in this world, and we already know that Season 2 is coming! Let’s hope it builds up the goodwill that is sewn here to make an even better season…especially if they’re allowed to do more episodes within a season.

Batman: Caped Crusader on currently available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.