ded blog [kinda]

In Treacherous Waters I'll leave the Penguin analyses to people who are more in touch with what makes Penguin work. I did enjoy Oswalda and I always love seeing women with noses! But I'm not sure about how cold she is? Like, she's cruel. But there's also an exaggerated, ridiculous factor to her schemes and I like it. Personally I don't care for genderbends but I didn't mind so much here. Bruce himself is good. The contrast between Batman and the charming, funny Bruce Wayne is enjoyable. But, oh, boy! Timm wasn't lying about Harvey, sadly! He's this sleazy, sly, kind of one-upping asshole who, yes, is very good at his job as he should be, but he's also heartless? Bruce and Harvey are friends, which is good, but why would Bruce even be friends with this guy? My heart sank when the intro we get to Harvey is him being an asshole to Babs. The pacing, direction and action choreography are all fine. Nothing to go crazy over but it's, overall, a decent start.

And Be a Villain The Clayface episode. Perfect setting for Basil. I love Renee. She's badass. The pacing felt a bit better this time around. There's a Hitchcock and POTO factor here, which I enjoy. Oh, boy, Harvey's back! And he's somehow worse! I really do not like this slick fucking boy's club he has here. Ugh. He's hyperfixated on his mayoral campaign and, like, I'm fine with Harvey wanting to become mayor (Telltale did a good job with this IMO), but here it just seems to have sinister intentions. I like the details around Bruce here. How he seems to mask when playing the Bruce Wayne character.

Kiss of the Catwoman I loved the start of this episode. Fucking get 'em, Bruce. And now the vibes are ruined because Harley has been introduced and I don't know if I like her. If you didn't know, Harley is one of my faves. It's good that we're seeing her expertise here. Something we seldom get in the mainstream. Interesting that she is Bruce's therapist, I like that take. I like the comedy in this episode and the retro Catwoman. But ultimately, this felt more like a Bruce episode than a Selina episode? It was moving seeing a child-Bruce cry and deal with his trauma. The balance was fine I think? Selina's choreography was fun. I liked Greta.

The Night of the Hunters I don't have much to say. This is the Firefly episode. Interesting. Wasn't expecting that. Personally I only know the very basics about Garfield so, as someone who's mostly a blank canvas to him, I enjoyed the POV visuals of how he viewed the world in flames. Cool. It gives The Fury vibes from MGS3. Probably my favourite episode so far. Nice Batman and Jim moments.

The Stress of Her Regard The Harley Quinn episode. Harley still has her cute nature. I like her voice (Harleen voice, not so much her Harley voice. It's too OOC for me). I love her theme; eerie yet jovial. I don't care for her jester suit (bias, I'm a sucker for the classic). As a bigtime Harley fan, I did not like it overall, however. Definitely interesting, but it's just a personal change to her character I didn't enjoy. That's all. *Shrugs.*

Night Ride Sound effects on that gun are awesome. Ok, I'm so fucking confused? Why is this show portraying Harvey as a dickwad but then, suddenly, he has a strike of morals? Where did that come from? But then he's suddenly an asshole again. Is it some kind of foreshadowing to Two-Face...? If so, it's clunky. Weird dialogue choices. It's almost like the writers were like, "wait, hold on, Harvey is kind of supposed to be a good guy. Um. Maybe we should throw in a random, left field line about how he hates corruption." Like, ok. It contrasts dreadfully with how you have written him thus far, but ok... "To the club-" EW. He has such a sleazy aura about him and I hate it. Craddock was fun. I enjoyed his dialogue with Bruce during his fight. Fun ghost choreography. That's all, really.

Moving Target Oh! Deadshot? Ok, ok, I dig this... Funny cutaway to Bruce being a fucking tank. I love dark humour with Bruce, it lands here. Dude, I don't even have any coherent thoughts for this episode. The pacing is off for me. I was expecting more... Floyd? I'm a sucker for a good gunfight. It was fine here. Nothing to go ham about. This has probably been the most boring episode, for me.

Nocturne Oh, look, it's Harvey and Bruce. They're being cute with kids. Adorable. But I thought Harvey was an asshole. What is this flip-flopping characterisation? I guess telling kids to vote for you is something Harvey would do out of anxiety/being a dork. But he is NOT anxious here. They are not of voting age, Harvey. You are supposed to be smart. (I jest, I understand it's a joke). I love the carnival setting of this episode even if much isn't done with it, and the kid characters are adorable. Interesting they're all named after Robins...? Dick, Jason, Steph... I don't know if they're going to be the actual Robins for S2 or later, but I thought it was cute. I love how Natalia looks. Very reminiscent of TNBA, and there's some really unnerving shots with her. Wait, so is Harvey 'good' now? Like, again, weird dialogue that clashes with previous episodes. He demands that he wants to fix Gotham and cares about it, but this is NOT what has been shown previously. The contrast is insane. Harvey essentially has his 'redemption' here but it just doesn't land for me, and then he is immediately scarred! I do not like how the scarring happens. There's no tension, no drama, no build-up, it's not grand or devastating. It's almost like they needed to rush it to move onto the Two-Face arc. I just... didn't care. And that was the worst part. Some really cute Batman moments here, at least.

The Killer Inside Me Ok. So this is the Harvey episode. I like how it opens. I like seeing Harvey in his depressed squalor, turning to drink, making himself sick, I like seeing Harvey's paranoia leak in. I like seeing Bruce trying to get him back to normal. *Me trying to ignore that Harvey's scars are on the right side rather than the left with gritted teeth.* Ok. There are things I do LIKE about this. I like how fucking ruthless Harvey is with his vigilantism and revenge, I personally love a violent, intimidating Two-Face, but it's far from perfect. Like with a lot of Harvey stories, it's wasted potential. To me. Also, Harvey's DID is present here... kind of? It's genuinely hard to tell. He says an obvious line, "The other guy may not want to kill you, but I sure as Hell do." Cold line, I like it, but it's odd because there's no Harvey voice or Two-Face voice. Like, ultimately, Harvey IS a badass here, loveeee seeing him with a shotgun, loveeee seeing him engage in a brawl with Bruce, but it's just... ugh. It doesn't land because of how he is in PREVIOUS episodes. His turnaround is just strange. It doesn't work for me. Also, there's fuck-all coin BTW. I almost forgot he had a coin. There's no duality themes or anything, really. This was such a conflicting episode. I'm not a fan of Harvey's scar design either.