Tuesday TV Touchbase - Batman: Caped Crusader

This week making it's Tuesday TV Touchbase debut is Batman: Caped Crusader, a new animated series available on Amazon Prime.   

The series' executive producer is Bruce Timm, the award winning animator who brought the 1990's classic Batman: The Animated Series to life.   

There are some similarities in the look of Batman: CC to BTAS with Bruce's clean lines and the use of shadow and negative space. 

But Batman:CC is no mere continuation of BTAS but is very much it's own thing. Unlike the mix of modern and retro in the 1990's series, Batman; Caped Crusader is firmly rooted in the 1940's.  

Unlike BTAS which was forced to conform to the restrictions of being considered a "children's show", Batman:CC isn't so encumbered.  

Guns fire bullets, people get hit by those bullets and are seriously hurt or killed.  

I haven't heard any "fucks" yet but "hell" and "damn" get a work out. 

Batman: Caped Crusader tells self contained stories but has a slow build of a story arc over the course of the season.  

In the new series, the Batman is still new, still figuring things out, still capable of failing. This is no super smart uber prepared for anything Batman.  He is can make miscalculations and can sometimes even cause more harm that he prevents.  

This Batman is a work in progress. 

But even in a nascent form, this Batman is still a tough and frightening adversary in his war against crime.

There are some notable changes to the mythos.

Barbara Gordon is a defense lawyer.

Harvey Dent is a prosecutor but unlike previous projects, Dent is a corrupted lawyer before events transpire to transform him into...  you know who.

The Penguin gets a gender flip to Oswalda Cobblepot which somehow makes the Penguin more menacing that before.  

Selina Kyle is a high society socialite whose family's declining fortunes make if hard for a girl to maintain her high society socialite lifestyle, hence her turn to crime as Catwoman.  

Batman has a decidedly cold and terse relationship with Alfred. In fact, Batman keeps referring to Alfred as Pennyworth, treating him as a mere employee than the more familial relationship we've come to know from the comics.  

Batman: Caped Crusader sometimes moves the focus from the Bat to the supporting cast.  The Clayface episode spends more time with Detective Rene Montoya that it does with Batman.

But what of Batman himself.  As voiced by Hamish Linklater, the Batman is cold and humorless, speak with a low growl in an economy of words.  When he's Bruce Wayne, he still talks in Batman's voice until Bruce is forced to interact with someone and only then does Bruce move to a warmer, more friendlier tone.  This suggests that in his mind, Bruce Wayne is the act and Batman is the reality.  

(If you told me a couple of years ago that the actor who played Matthew Kimble in The New Adventures of Old Christine would go on be the voice of Batman, I would not have believed you. But then again, I would've doubted that Jack Quaid, the voice of Boimler from Star Trek Lower Decks would be my favorite Superman.)

Batman: Caped Crusader is a strong entry in the mythology of the Batman with a grim, moody film noir atmosphere and a deep psychological exploration of it's characters.  

And that is that for this week's touchbase.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.