#burbling

- the mooks have personality. Like in the pilot episode, there’s a bit where a gang of Joker-wannabes is messing with Our Hero, one of them gets his clock cleaned, and another one runs over to make sure he’s okay. Or the guards- they notice Batman coming and when they scatter most of the time they do clever stuff. admittedly like 75% of the time it’s TRY TO KILL HIM WITH A FORKLIFT (ole!) but it’s something, it’s not “we’re all going to charge the hero and shoot but fail to hit, because we’re idiots.”  

- around ... I wanna say 10% of the time? ... there’s lady mooks. Security guards, minor baddies, police officers... stuff like that. It’s not every time, but it’s often enough that they’re there. It’s a nice touch.

- The villain designs are all #aesthetic as fuck. And none of them are repeats from OG Batman’s Rogues Gallery. There isn’t a Riddler expy or a Penguin expy or a Killer Croc expy. There’s a whole selection of new villains who all fit the vibe of the show- and the universe- really really well.

- I can’t really call this a feminist show by any stretch- all the female characters are supporting characters at best and most of them- with the notable exception of Barbara Gordon- fall into pretty “traditional” Gorl Character Archetypes. (the Mum, the Love Interest, the Catwoman, the Sexy Assassin, etc.) But one of the things I really really like about this show is that it’s ruthless about toxic masculinity. 

Every time one of the characters Terry’s age does something stupid or evil, thus far, it’s been because a grown-ass man toxic masculinitied at them. An abusive dad telling his son to man up and hit a rival suitor “where it hurts”, an abusive coach telling his players to win no matter what it takes. And then the kid goes “okay, how do I carry out this horrible bad advice” and does drugs or stalks a girl.  And the show pretty much spells out in no uncertain terms that yes, that kind of thinking is directly to blame for the kids going on to do bad things. 

Are you hep to the jive?