But as the great food critic Anton Ego once noted, “We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read.” And so, this week: the bad news. As accomplished as the show was, as masterful as its first-rate episodes could be, nobody’s perfect. The very funny thing about this list is how many episodes just don’t feel like BtAS episodes at all. We present, then, “The Worst 10 Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.”
“It’s strange, it’s unsettling, and it doesn’t funnel its weirdness into anything productive other than to say that show business is a cruel place.”
If it weren’t for the bang-up third act, “Baby-Doll” might be higher on the list. But Paul Dini’s only dud to date leaves the audience with a queasy feeling, disconcerted by the myriad of odd creative choices that require Batman to find a way not to punch a small child. Dini’s trying, he really is, but even Batman has a bad day now and then.
“The character of Earl Cooper is a classic example of overcomplicating a simple answer to a question no one asked.”
“The Mechanic” is not a bad episode, but it is brutally forgettable. While the series has had great success in episodes that explore Batman’s supporting cast in ways that recall Will Eisner’s The Spirit, the fact is that there is not much of interest about the man who changes the tires on the Batmobile. In fact, there are many other more interesting candidates for the job, but instead we get the story of a nice man with a wrench.
“We’ll never see Nostromos again, which is probably for the best.”
Here’s a classic early episode of BtAS before the show figured out its identity. Would it be an anthology of gaudy supervillains? Would it be a gentle satire of the wealthy? Would it veer into the terrain of Batman ’66 with madcap setpieces? Or would it just be a bit boring, as this episode ends up? Fortunately, better villains, better magicians, and better deathtraps awaited.
After reviewing every episode, I still can’t believe this got made. Are we sure this wasn’t just a fever dream I had while blogging? Batman fights a werewolf while someone tortures an electric guitar. It’s the sort of premise that requires the complicity of the audience in accepting the inherent awesomeness of the concept (cf. Pacific Rim), but I’m just not on board for this one.
“I could just as easily imagine this as an episode of Daredevil, and I still wouldn’t care.”
If there were a category for “Most Improved,” it’d be “Day of the Samurai,” which I enjoyed so much more than its predecessor, which doubles up on an uninteresting ninja plotline with a villain who frustratingly lacks any self-awareness. Your mileage will really vary on this one, as ninja devotees would surely enjoy this episode, but count me out of that camp.
For a long time, I wondered why so many people hated this episode. Then I rewatched the episode last year, and even the eyeglasses of nostalgia couldn’t salvage what is essentially an episode of Home Alone: The Animated Series guest-starring The Penguin. I don’t mind a story about kids, but they need to be less obnoxious while gaping at an unconscious Batman.
For a long time, BtAS seemed stubbornly unable to crack a character as straightforward as Catwoman, thrusting her into all manner of unwieldy plots. Here, she comes down with a genetically-modified flu after Roland Daggett infects an army of stray cats to hold the city for ransom. It’s a harebrained scheme, and it’s an unsuccessful plot in multiple definitions of the phrase. Oh, and the animation is lousy.
While I’ve changed my mind on a handful of episodes over the course of this rewatch, “The Underdwellers” remains one of my least favorite episodes, unchanged in its ignominious stature. Worse, this episode has everything that ought to make it a classic, including Batman wrestling alligators, but nothing about the episode works the way it should, playing out instead like a Dickensian nightmare of despair and disappointment.
I had utterly forgotten about this episode until a few months ago, which might have been the wiser course of action. This episode crosses the rubicon of villainy by giving us a trio of antagonists who are so utterly loathsome that they’re not even fun to watch. The Joker may be a mass murderer, but at least he’s housebroken; these guys are the very definition of deplorable, with no motivation other than “just because we can.” But don’t take my word for it: no less than Bruce Timm himself claims it’s an “all-time worst.”
As repugnant as “The Terrible Trio” is, I have a sore spot for “The Forgotten,” which has remained my least favorite episode from the moment I first saw it as a child. This isn’t a Batman episode; it’s a remake of Cool Hand Luke filled with the sounds of a fat man who won’t stop eating. It turns out that there is little about an amnesiac Batman to mine for twenty minutes of material. The only redeeming feature is a wild slapstick sequence in which Alfred flies a sassy Batplane, but even that feels a bridge too far for an episode that resembles Batman not at all.
Next week, Paul Dini redeems his #10 appearance on this list by getting his own Top 10!
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