After watching the new Brave and the Bold episode, the chill of the night, I wanted to express my opinion on the latest installment of the series. I have probably been the greatest critic of the show on the podcast, but I have also ensured the show receives praise from me when they've impressed me. Which has been on a couple of occasions during the first season with Bat- Mite, the Music Meister and The Color of Revenge episode.
I sometimes feel harsh criticizing the show because I'm fully aware it is aimed at young children and the producers are generally not considering myself when designing the show. I fully respect that this show is for another audience and I'm glad that there are other interpretations of Batman out there. Just like the 60's show, Tim Burton's Batman and Nolan's Batman, this is a character that can be adapted to fit anywhere. So naturally when viewing the show I expect to not be really drawn into the story and am expecting the same stuff every time. The second season has had some fun moments amongst a few dull episodes but nothing outstanding…until now!
Now when I first heard about this episode from Dustin and Apple at San Diego Comic-Con with the comments that even the actors involved were making about this episode made it sound like a biggie! The incredible all-star additional casting whetted my appetite even further. Now no plot points will be revealed here (even though I'm sure you can guess a bit about what's going on from the title) but the sheer quality of writing, acting, animation and direction were superb. This episode felt more like the awesome BTAS from the nineties with plenty for Batman to deal with, no sidekicks to get in the way and the focus devoted to the story and some real character development. Some dark moments existed in a show that I never saw portraying Batman in this light and Batman's morals and psychology are brought into question. How far will he go when it gets personal? For those of you out there that have been overlooking the series, check this episode out and you won't be disappointed.
My next question is where does the show go next? Well the next listed episode is Gorillas In Our Midst, where Gorilla Grodd tries to turn the population into gorillas. Why oh why? Now I'm not saying that the show would make me happier being a clone of BTAS, but sticking with Batman and his family/villains, fighting the criminal underworld of Gotham gangsters and dealing with his own deep rooted problems would be much more satisfying. It worked for my generation when we were younger, why can't they transfer that to this show more regularly? Surely this episode showed us what the Brave and the Bold is capable of and I'd love them to stay there rather than revert to the cosmic, immature antics of the last year and a half.
In conclusion, at least this episode has got me caring about the show again and proved to me the talent working on this project. As long as they do a couple of high quality episodes a year I'm going to keep watching. So I'm going to selfishly finish by saying FORGET THE KIDS! MORE OF THIS PLEASE!
Posted by Nick
