Sunday, August 25, 2024

Viewer Log: Batman: Caped Crusader ep 1

The Bat stalks the night once again.

Let’s talk about Batman: Caped Crusader. Before we get into the meat of the first episode, here is some background. We start the story in medias res, Batman is active in Gotham but is looked at as a rumor or myth. Criminals scoff at the idea of being attacked by a man in a bat costume until the big fella drops in. And while he is largely thought of as a rumor, he’s doing enough disruption that the Gotham Mobs are taking notice. As to the setting, we’re in an idealized version of the past… well not quite. See, it’s an idealization in that we see that despite the 40s and 50s set dressing POC, LGBTQ+ people, and women in general are doing slightly better. Police commissioner James “Jim” Gordon is a Black man, his daughter Barbara is a public defender, and there’s an openly lesbian cop in Detective Renee Montoya. That said, there is a lot of in your face sexism and racism throughout the series. The Gotham Mayor more than once threatens to fire Jim if he doesn’t bring good press like his promotion was supposed to bring. Both Barbara and Montoya are told to their face they’re inferior to their male counterparts and occasionally hit on by creeps. That’s why I say this is a partial idealization. Does Barbara have it easier than an actual Black woman had it in the 40-50s? Absolutely. She’s dealing more racism and sexism akin to the 70s-90s, where some people say it to her face and others hide behind sneering smiles. I think that’s enough set up… oh, the cast. The main cast of this series is: Hamish Linklater as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Jason Watkins as Alfred Pennyworth, Eric Morgan Stuart ass James “Jim” Gordon, Krystal Joy Brown as Barbara Gordon, John DiMaggio as Harvey Bullock, Gary Anthony Williams as Arnold Flass, and Michelle C. Bonilla as Renee Montoya. A major supporting character is a former Batman himself, Diedrich Bader, who plays Harvey Dent. He was Batman in Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Okay, now for sure, lets get to it.

 

Ep 1: In Treacherous Waters

 

Our story begins with a group of thugs interrogating an accused rat, a fella named Clarence. Clarence swears to Iggy, his interrogator, that he’s on the level. Iggy accuses him of selling secrets of their gang’s plans to Gotham kingpin Rupert Thorne. Clarence swears that he’s not the one talking. Their boss wants to talk to him. The door opens, the goons head out, and then we see the iconic big hat, beak of a nose, monocle, and umbrella of the Penguin as he starts screaming.

 

We cut to a warehouse in downtown Gotham. The goons are rapidly trying to empty the place out, as they’d gotten a tip that the building is going to be attacked that night. One of the goons is skeptical, as Rupert Thorne has half of Gotham’s PD on the payroll. The lead goon says that he isn’t worried about the cops, the heavy implication being he’s worried about the Bat. As the goons argue the point of if Batman is real or not, Batman cuts the lights in the warehouse. He then systematically takes out the various goons, using a smoke grenade to give him cover and using his ninja skills to outmaneuver the thugs. One goon tries to make a run for it, but Batman cuts him off and knocks him out with a punch. But then, a moment later there’s the woosh of a dropping mortar shell and the warehouse explodes. Batman pulls himself out of the wreckage and we see the whole building is in pieces and/or on fire. Damn.

 

We then jump over to Wayne Manor, or just below it, to the Batcave where Batman is analyzing the data. He explains to his confidant and butler Alfred that there’s been three such explosions in two weeks and all of the buildings are owned by Rupert Thorne via shell corporations and shadow companies. Alfred adds that the police ruled one of the previous explosions as a gas leak and another an electrical fire. Batman is sure someone has declared war on Thorn and are using police connections to cover their tracks.  Batman is going to head to Police Headquarters to find out who the connection might be.

 

The next morning, we see Barbara Gordon defending a young man in court. Seems like he’s been accused of running a smuggling ring, but Barbara insists he’s just a desperate kid who took the wrong job from the wrong people. The judge calls a recess for the jury to reach its verdict. Harvey Dent comes over to gloat about how he’s winning this case. When Barbara tells him they both know the kid didn’t do it, Harvey counters by saying he should have squealed on his bosses. Barbara accuses Harvey of sending her key witness to Bermuda, but Harvey says he’s not sure what she’s talking about. This is where we learn that Harvey is running for Mayor of Gotham and he’s using his good DA record to boost himself in the polls. He offers Barbara a button but she turns it down, saying he should save it for someone who will actually vote for him. Harvey offers her a deal, heads he asks for 20 to life for the kid, tails, he gets the chair. Barbara angrily turns him down, saying she won’t risk someone’s life on a coin flip, missing that Harvey’s coin has heads on both sides.

 

That night, Batman slips into Gotham PD’s records room. He breaks into a filing cabinet and finds the name of the inspector who ruled the explosions accidents, Wilford Lee. We find Lee stumbling out of a bar looking extremely drunk when Batman gets him in a leg line and holds him over the train tracks. He tells Lee to talk or he’s going to meet the next train head on. Lee holds out until the last moment but shrieks that he works for the Penguin. Batman pulls him up and flips him onto the roof he was perched on, saying that if he’s lying to the Batman, he’ll be back.

 

We cut to the Iceberg Lounge, a floating casino in Gotham harbor that’s holding a police fundraiser. Inside, the Penguin is… a lounge singer? Yes, this version is Oswalda Cobblepot (played by Minnie Driver) and obviously she’s got an amazing set of pipes. After singing I Always Dream of Billy she makes the rounds, saying hi to various cops but paying attention to one Arnold Flass and Harvey Bullock. She heads into the back. We shift over to Jim and Barbara Gordon, Barbara complaining that she’d rather be doing her nails, dishes or taxes rather than being at this party. Jim points out he’s not having fun either but the police commissioner kind of needs to be at a fundraiser. Jim thanks her for coming despite hating it, and Barbara asks if he’s okay knowing that half the people here want to see him fail. He chuckles and says he’s sure it’s far more than half. They’re joined by Harvey Dent, who tries to cozy up to Jim, clearly looking for an endorsement. Harvey says that once he’s Mayor, they’ll clean up the streets together, and then maybe Jim won’t need help from giant bats. Barbara scoffs at the rumor of the Batman, comparing him to Santa as she walks off. We cut outside to Batman and Alfred approaching the Lounge, Batman in his Bruce Wayne guise saying that he suspected the Iceberg Lounge was a front for a while but not it being the homebase of someone wanting to take on Rupert Thorne. Alfred says that he may have underestimated the Penguin, to which Bruce says they all have and that’s how the Penguin wanted it. He compliments her on hiding in plain sight with her gambling ship and cabaret act.

 

Back on the Lounge, Ronald “Ronnie” Cobblepot hits on Barbara, saying that she ought to try the shrimp cocktails and that Cobblepot’s are all about class. She points out he has sauce on his shirt before walking off. Ronnie’s brother Aaron mocks him, saying that that’s why Mama calls him the slow one before Ronnie storms off to clean his shirt. Both Cobblepot boys are played by Paul Scheer. Bruce then arrives and puts on his socialite face. Aaron welcomes Bruce to his mama’s party and Bruce asks him to check his hat and coat. Harvey comes over and welcomes him, saying he’s late as always. He asks what the problem was, and Bruce deflects by saying the only problem is that they’re at a party and aren’t drunk yet.

 

Inside the Lounge, The Penguin and Thorne face off, trading barely concealed barbs at each other. Rupert says that he was able to get away from the warehouse that was bombed thanks to a little birdy tipping him off, heavily implying the bird in question is Aaron. Oswalda is clearly furious at this remark. Bruce fakes getting some of his drink on his shirt and heads out to investigate the Iceberg. He breaks into the hold of the ship, finding what looks like a bunch of drugs in crates.  He’s almost caught by the Cobblepots but is able to jump into the water via an open hatch before they arrive. Bruce swims around and climbs back up, meeting Barbara on the side of the ship, joking it’s not a yacht party until someone falls overboard.

 

In the hold, Aaron asks his Mama how much they’re making from embezzling money from this fundraiser. She says the amount almost doesn’t matter as stealing from the cops is it’s own reward. She then asks her boys which of them is snitching on them to Thorne. Ronnie immediately blames Aaron and the two start bickering. Oswalda cuts them off, saying that Thorne told her who it is and that she blames Aaron. He pleads his innocence, but Iggy puts a bag on his head, stuffs him in suitcase and throws him into the bay. Oswalda rather coldly says that Aaron was her favorite, but now that title goes to Ronnie. Ronnie looks absolutely horrified by this turn of events.

 

We cut to Rupert Thorne’s mansion where he gets a frantic call from Ronnie from a payphone. Yep, he was the rat. He begs/demands help from Thorne, but Thorne is cutting him loose, saying that he can’t trust someone so willing to betray their own mother. At the Iceberg Lounge, Iggy informs the Penguin that Ronnie is gone. She realizes he’s the rat, but rather than be upset she was tricked into murdering her loyal son, Oswalda is far more pissed that Ronnie might spill all their secrets. She tells Iggy to find him, whatever it takes.

 

Without many options, Ronnie heads to Barbara Gordon’s office. He begs for her help, saying that her dad is the only cop he’s sure isn’t on the take. Barbara almost turns him down, but then Ronnie says his mother killed his brother in front of him. They get in Barbara’s car and race to Gotham PD, Ronnie babbling what an idiot he was trying to outmaneuver his mother. Some of Penguins goons start tailing them and try to ram them off the road.  Barbara pulls ahead and the goons pull a tommy gun on them. Barbara makes Ronnie take the wheel so she can take a few shots with her revolver, but she can’t stop them. The car crashes and they get out. To Barbara’s distress, she’s down to one bullet. The goons get out and prepare to finish them, only for the Batmobile to knock the three goons over like bowling pins. That’s a lot of broken bones. Batman and Barbara lock eyes and he nods at her.

 

At Gotham PD, Ronnie insists that they need to run right now as his mama is after them. Jim tries to talk him down, but he insists they’re in trouble. Why? Because cops work for his mother. We learn how true that is as it’s revealed that Flass is listening in from outside and he tells Bullock need to make a call. Bullock calls the Penguin. She promises them an extra fifty this month for their help. After hanging up she slams her phone down several times to show her rage as she tells Iggy that Ronnie is squealing to Gordon right now. Iggy says that she should let him get their inside guys to handle this nice and quiet, but she decides it’s too late for that. As Ronnie explains just how dangerous his mother is, we see her and some goons head to the top of the Iceberg Lounge. The boat has a top hat with an umbrella resting on it, which is revealed to be military grade long range cannon. She’s been using it on Thorne’s buildings and she’s pointing it at Gotham PD. Gordon goes to call the coast guard and Barbara pulls the fire alarm to clear the building.

 

Meanwhile, Batman takes his sub out to the Iceberg Lounge. We see that the area under the yacht is full of suitcases like the one Aaron was dumped in, letting us know that drowning is the Penguin’s preferred method of execution. Batman makes it to the roof just as the Penguin lines up her shot. She’s surprised to learn Batman is real and tells Iggy to break him in half. The two fight as Penguin lines up her shot. He throws Iggy off the boat and Penguin pulls out her sword umbrella to fight him.  At Gotham PD, Bullock makes a fool of himself by running to the exit and Barbara has to free a suspect of his handcuffed to his desk. Back on the Lounge, the Coast Guard has arrived. Penguin, a sore loser regardless of timeline, doesn’t go down easy. She takes a swing at Batman, but he breaks off the blade of her umbrella. The two wrestle, with Batman dodging another stab, learning too late that Penguin had used that stab to get her umbrella round the firing lever and pulls it.

 

A mortar shell hits Gotham moments after the Gordons and Detective Montoya get out of the building. In the harbor, Penguin announces that they all lose, only then noticing Batman left when her back was turned. In the rubble of Gotham PD, Barbara says they got lucky. Jim agrees but says they were also fast, this could have been a lot worse. Barbara reveals that the Batman is real and that he has a very nice car.

 

We cut to Wayne Manor in the AM. Alfred comes down with food, insisting Bruce eat even if he refuses to sleep. Batman tells him that he’d been piecing together Penguin’s empire, now collapsed, and that that’s the real problem. He’s only now learning that a huge part of Gotham’s crime was controlled by the Penguin, and with her behind bars, he basically ceded that territory to Rupert Thorne. In beating Penguin, he made Thorne more powerful. Batman declares this a failure on his part, and they can’t let that happen again as the credits roll.

 

Overall, this was a fine introduction to a very different Batman. A chief inspiration for this version of the character are pulp detective stories and his original Golden Age run. Golden Age Batman is in many ways more of a private detective with a weird gimmick than he is a superhero. He solves murders and fights mafias, maybe running into a weird meta or guy with a sci-fi weapon, but not doing fate of the world type hero work. It makes the story feel a little more grounded. This story did a good job setting up the world we’re dealing with, an old Gotham that’s rife with organized crime and a corrupted police department. Individuals like the Gordons are trying to make a difference but they need someone like Batman to help things along. This Batman is much colder than other interpretations, exemplified by him almost exclusively referring to Alfred as “Pennyworth.” I give Hamish Linklater props for finding his own spin on the Batman voice. Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman from DC Animated Universe, Batman: Arkham games and several animated movies, had a simple trick for doing Batman’s voice vs. Bruce’s. He basically pitched Batman’s voice down an octave or two to make him sound harsher, more authoritative while he pitched Bruce’s up slightly to make him sound kinder, more jovial. Linklater seems to differentiate the two by emotion, Batman’s voice is all but deadpan, being cold, authoritative, and brusque. Bruce’s voice has much more emotion in it, and he also seems to pitch it up slightly to sound more jovial. I did like a moment we had as Bruce was getting on the Iceberg Lounge where we saw him put his ‘game face’ on, where he starts smiling and it looks like the motion is physically hurting him as he does so. That seems to imply that he hates the mask that is Bruce Wayne quite a bit, me thinks. The plot with Penguin was interesting. I’m not sure why exactly they decided to genderswap Penguin for this universe, but it works. Minnie Driver is an excellent voice actress and using her phenomenal singing voice as part of Penguin’s disguise at being a lounge singer was a brilliant idea. The bit where she murders one of her son’s because she thought him a traitor was probably one of the most cold-blooded moves that I’ve seen a Penguin do in my nearly 30 years of consuming media. And what’s more, at no point does she mourn. It’s just in the suitcase and she’s moved on with her life. In many ways that makes her scarier than the Penguin from the Arkham games, with his monocle that’s a bottle forced into his eye and keeping Solomon Grundy in his basement to kill people. And, weirdly, her plot works. She might be in prison know, but she successfully destroyed Gotham PD. Sure, she didn’t kill anyone because of Batman’s intervention and the Gordon’s quick evacuation but I imagine she’s going to be Queen of Blackgate Prison when we next see her, unless she’s in Arkham. The supporting cast for this one was great too. I liked that Barbara was willing to get her hands dirty by pulling on gun on Penguin’s men and that she’s pulled a bat on Ronnie when he came around her office. Makes her feel real. Diedrich Bader was solid as Harvey Dent. This version is undeniable slimier than others, I doubt anyone would call him a White Knight without being sarcastic, but I like that the show took a moment to make it clear he isn’t completely heartless. Is betting on what sentence he’d pursuit on a two headed coin flip a sleazy move? Yes, but at least he said the lighter of the two sentences he proposed was the one that had to win. Overall, I liked this intro and am looking forward to talking more about this series. Have a good night. 

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