Once again, BTAS ends up going through a bit of a soft reboot with its third season, which aired quite a while after the second. But unlike The Adventures Of Batman & Robin, which really just changed the title sequence and gave Robin more screentime, this season's The New Batman Adventures was a much more radical shift, for better or worse.
Let's start with the elephant in the room, The New Batman Adventures boasts an entirely new animation style with entirely new character designs, and I'm not really a fan. There are a few things I like, such as Poison Ivy being all plant, but most of the villain redesigns just aren't as striking as in the first two seasons. And then there's the little things, like the eternally red sky of Gotham, or the fact that almost all the major female characters are bizarrely tiny. The animation itself is still great and fluid, but the art direction feels like a big step-down. Another thing TNBA does differently is that it does actually have some semblance of a story arc. Since the second season, Robin has had a falling-out with Batman and became Nightwing, with the new Robin becoming a much smaller kid named Tim Drake. Throughout the season, we learn more about how this shift happened through flashbacks. Conceptually, this is really cool. I was never a huge Nightwing fan but he's a very interesting character this season, and I liked learning more about his falling out with Batman. However, this story arc comes with its fair share of problems, such as Batman himself coming across as way more of a jerk throughout the season, Tim Drake being kind of a brat, and worst of all, not getting any sort of resolution to the conflict between Nightwing and Batman.
So fine, TNBA's new changes are a bit of a mixed bag, but this is still a Saturday Morning Cartoon at its core, and BTAS's greatest strength has always been the standalone stories. However, even those can feel particularly uneven this season. On the bright side, TNBA shows a willingness to be darker than ever in episodes such as Growing Pains, Over The Edge, and Mad Love. There are still plenty of "villain redemption episodes", with one in particular actually giving said villain a permanent happy ending. And the increase in multi-villain episodes that I praised in Season 2 is maintained this season with episodes like Joker's Millions and Girls' Night Out. There is a lot to love scattered throughout TNBA, and the overall level of quality is still pretty good. However, at its worst, TNBA reaches some of the lowest lows in the whole series. Episodes like Critters and The Demon Within are so tonally disconnected from the rest of the series that they feel like a completely different show, and even worse, episodes like Love Is A Croc and Cold Comfort take villains I previously loved and makes them way worse, whether it's having them go back on their development or putting them in a really out-of-character situation.
Highlights:
Over The Edge: Even though it's an alternate universe, Over The Edge is still a gripping episode because you finally get to see the breaks in status quo that most Batman stories would never ever allow. Gordon learning about Batman's identity, Batgirl dying, Nightwing getting arrested, the shocking moments just keep on piling on throughout the episode. I also like Bane's portrayal here, way better than in his namesake episode in Season 2.
Old Wounds: Old Wounds was easily the highlight of this season's Nightwing arc, as we learn why exactly it was that Dick Grayson broke off from Batman, along with how the Bat family learns about each other's identities. It's also the only episode to actually call out and deal with Batman's noticeably grumpier attitude, as part of why Dick leaves is because Batman interrogates someone in front of his family.
Mad Love: Mad Love is a Top 3 episode of Batman: The Animated Series, easily. While several prior episodes explored Harley Quinn's abusive relationship with the Joker, no other episode did it quite as effectively as this one. From Harley's sad backstory, to Joker's very hard-to-watch abuse, to Batman and Harley's fantastic talk, Mad Love had me on the edge of my seat throughout. I'm also not surprised it aired as the series finale because it really had that vibe of everything between Batman, Joker, and Harley coming to a violent head. As a matter of fact, my only gripe with Mad Love is that nothing sticks! Joker somehow survives falling through a smokestack, and Harley's relationship with Joker reverts to how it was before the episode in the otherwise great Creeper episode. This probably could've been a great jumping off point for something like the animated Harley Quinn show, but I guess the writers just haven't crossed that bridge yet.
Judgement Day: While I still kinda wish Mad Love had been the series ender, Judgement Day is still a strong ending and a fantastic episode in its own right. On a plot level, the twist about Two Face's third personality is not only very clever and well-foreshadowed, but it also feels like a mix of emotions: Harvey is finally starting to fight crime again, but his mental health is worse than ever. This episode also works as a summation of the fact that Batman cares about the villains. Unlike the Judge, who will immediately write them off as guilty as death, Batman will stop them as many times as it takes for them to rehabilitate. Does it work? Probably not. But it's part of what makes Batman such an interesting character.
Overall, TNBA is a season with high highs and low lows. When it's firing on all cylinders, it has some of the best episodes in the series, but it also has a fair amount of absolute duds. From the inconsistent new animation style, to the introduction of a story arc that just didn't get the attention it probably needed, TNBA is as uneven a season of TV as you could get.
3/5 Stars
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