Alright! I recently finished watching the quite excellent Batman: The Animated Series, which earned fame and notoriety for its lush animation, mature stories, and sophisticated take on its iconic characters. But the series isn't perfect - quite a few of the episodes are not up to match with the rest.
So I thought it would be a lot of fun to write down the ten best episodes of Batman: TAS. I highly recommend all of them - they're probably going to be some of the best television you've ever seen, and the definitive version of Batman.
Note: This list includes episodes from both Batman: The Animated Series, The Adventures of Batman & Robin, and The New Batman Adventures. That sounds like a lot, but they're basically all the same show, just different marketing. All are listed under Batman: The Animated Series on HBOMax. The episode number will also be the one listed on HBOMax.
First I'd like to give a shout-out to some of the episodes that didn't make the cut - just barely: P.O.V., Over the Edge, Beware the Gray Ghost, His Silicon Soul, Legends of the Dark Knight, Feat of Clay, House and Garden, and The Man Who Killed Batman.
10. Trial - Season 2, Episode 4
After watching 60+ episodes of Batman beating up thugs and the mentally unstable, one begins to wonder about one of the central Batman conflicts - Does Batman help placate the crazies in Gotham, or do the crazies in Gotham exist because of Batman? New District Attorney Janet Van Dorm believes it to be the latter, which makes the story of Trial all the more interesting.
Kidnapped by Batman's assembled rogues gallery, Janet Van Dorm must defend Batman in a court of madness if she wants to live. Such an interesting dichotomy already makes it stand out, but even more interesting is the result - which, for spoiler reasons, I won't list here.
9. Heart of Ice - Season 1, Episode 4
If Batman: The Animated Series is listed as the greatest TV show of all time, and Heart of Ice is listed as the best episode of Batman: The Animated Series, does that make it the best episode of television ever made? I didn't know, but I was excited to find out! Spoiler alert, it's not.
While the episode contains excellent and fresh reinterpretations of the previously lame villain Mr. Freeze, the overall plot is rather standard for an episode of TAS. But the absolutely iconic line "To never again walk on a summer's day with the hot wind in your face and a warm hand to hold. Oh yes, I'd kill for that!" will forever be a staple of Mr. Freeze.
8. Perchance to Dream - Season 1, Episode 26
Set in a perfect world where Bruce Wayne's parents never died, where he's married to Selina Kyle, where Batman is someone else, and he has all he ever wanted. I mean, it's obviously an illusion, created by Mad Hatter nonetheless, but the tortured heart of the story is distinctly Batman.
7. Two-Face - Season 1, Episodes 17/18
Growing up, I constantly read Batman: The Long Halloween, which is where the typical Two-Face origin story came from (Harvey Dent, District Attorney, has acid thrown in his face by mob boss Sal Maroni). Add to that The Dark Knight, which contains the same basic premise, and I was pleasantly surprised by this series' iteration (It's worth noting this came out before The Long Halloween).
Here, Harvey Dent is an extremely close friend of Bruce Wayne with multiple personalities, which is physically manifested by an explosion that Batman can't save him from. The shockingly dark nature of the episode really threw me for a loop - I knew it was Batman, but it's still a kids show.
6. Almost Got 'Im - Season 1, Episode 35
Almost Got 'Im is a very fun episode where notable members of Batman's rogues gallery - namely Poison Ivy, Two-Face, Killer Croc, Penguin, and the Joker - all set around a table and just tell tales of the times they almost defeated the Bat. It's these stories that make Batman: The Animated Series stand out.
It's four quality Batman plots for the low, low price of 22 minutes, as well as the series' biggest laugh. And it's always nice to have these varied, less traditional episodes from the villain's perspective, something TAS did amazingly well.
5. Mad as a Hatter - Season 1, Episode 24
You know who was never an A-tier Batman villain? The Mad Hatter. The crazy little psycho has been left off of the big screen ever since the character's creation (Although that may change with The Batman next year), so the general audience, including myself, are relatively unaware of the character's origins. Turns out they're pretty awesome.
Jervis Tetch is some low-level accountant working and laboring for Wayne Enterprises (With a nice touch being that Bruce Wayne personally knows about him and seems to care about him) with an unrequited crush on his secretary. So he naturally takes his experimental mind-control technology, adopts the persona of a fictional character from 1865, and kidnaps her.
4. Sins of the Father - Season 3, Episode 2
Like the Mad Hatter, I was fairly unaware of the origin story of Tim Drake's Robin. Turns out that it's very interesting. A father who works for Two-Face, leaving a rebellious Tim to go out and do whatever he wants... including running into the Batman.
What follows is an episode that elegantly continues the legacy of Robin and shows Two-Face as a terrible yet sympathetic villain.
3. Growing Pains - Season 3, Episode 8
Growing Pains cemented one of the most absolutely messed up things I have ever seen in any Batman media, and that list includes Joker murdering a troop of boy scouts with poisoned cotton candy. It has this one amazing twist, that, to my horror, is spoiled by the episode's description of HBOMax, so... click quickly.
Anyways, Growing Pains is an episode where Tim Drake meets/falls in love with a mysterious girl with amnesia being chased by a large, scary man. There's a really messed up end to the episode that I'm surprised got through a kids' show. It'll definitely leave you thinking.
2. Robin's Reckoning - Season 1, Episodes 51/52
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| Why am I only just now noticing how adorable little Dick Grayson is? |
Another origin story for a Robin, Robin's Reckoning is a two-part episode that details the surprisingly dark origin story for Robin, which, once again, somehow got through the censors. I mean, it's just petty rivalry that leads to a young child seeing his acrobatic parents go... splat... in a deftly artistic way.
Plus the Dick Grayson version of Robin is always a delight. He's like a Batman with a heart, so when he gets angry, when he starts wanting vengeance - ooh, things have gotten serious.
1. I Am the Night - Season 1, Episode 34
I Am the Night features some of the most Batman-y Batman stuff to ever Batman in Batman media. It's 22 minutes of Batman, on the anniversary of the death of his parents, has an existential crisis on what he's doing, made even worse when Jim Gordon is shot.
It also has just about the best Batman line I've ever heard: "I chose this life. I use the night. I became the night. Sooner or later I'll go down. It might be the Joker or Two-Face or just some punk who gets lucky. My decision, no regrets. But I can't let anyone else pay for my mistakes." I mean... yeah. That's Batman to a T.
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