After a mediocre Season 3 that seemed to seriously question all the goodwill the show earned in Season 2, THE BATMAN debuts for a 4th, and they have yet another sidekick in tow in Robin. Initially I wasn't too thrilled, as the inclusion of Batgirl last season all but erased any hope for Batman to have any romantic tension with anyone (as Yin vanished and he's stuck babysitting in front of Catwoman), plus half the episodes weren't beyond average. But this episode is easily better than about half of last season; combined. In fact, the only downside of it is that it basically seeks to do "Robin's Reckoning" in two parts, set entirely in the present, and without a lot of the theatrical music, pacing, or dialogue. Not that the dialogue was as astrocious as it is for some episodes, but it can't match some of the exchanges from Randy Rogel (the writer of Part 1 at least), Timm & Co. So naturally you're reminded of "Reckoning", which will always be better (Part 1 anyway, the second part was a bit of a downturn).
Specking of B:TAS, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill get to return to Batman animation as John Grayson and Tony Zucco, respectively. Both do a good job, especially Hamill, who had on a bit of a "Nu Yawk/Nu Joysey" accent for this part, which I hadn't heard from him, and he did well. THE BATMAN, despite the writing flaws, has always had a rock solid cast and guest-stars, and gladly recalls their roots by including a lot of actors from past Batman incarnations, from the 60's to the 90's. And the new actor for Robin/Dick Grayson actually does a good job, which is no small feat to ears used to either Loren Lester or Scott Melville in the role. Naturally the only issue is whether or not the fact of Batman taking in costumed teenagers is really in keeping with modern interpretations of him, but that debate is never had properly because the sidekicks keep coming because they've been attached to the franchise forever, and no one questions it. However, while Batgirl basically inserted herself into Batman's world without his say-so (or even his blessing for a while), Grayson's world takes a parallel to Wayne's and thus Wayne takes him in, seeing a bit of himself in the boy. Batman's design has been tweaked a bit, his chin padded out and his form a little different, to show some age progression since Season 1. I'm not sure how this show records time; he was 26 in Season 1 (having been Batman for 3 years, time he used to take out most of the mob) and this is Season 4; JLU treated every season like a year, so if this show followed suit, Batman'd be 29-30 now. However, I could be off, but I'm sure he's at least 1-2 years older now than he was in Season 1.
The themesong, unfortunately, remains a remix of HAWAII FIVE-O with some SPY KIDS thrown in, which really isn't fitting for Batman. The last shot of he, Robin and Batgirl looks nice, although one may fear that Batman is quickly being reduced to being the leader of a "team", which is a role Kid's WB has wanted for Batman for years now. True story, when TNGA wrapped in '98, Kid's WB wanted Timm to basically do a "Justice League Evolution" sort of show, with the JL as teenagers being led by an adult Batman, a premise he hated and instead went with BATMAN BEYOND in '99 to appease the teen-crazed WB (and later took his JL show to CN to escape them, which was it's own Faustian deal). THE BATMAN's producers obviously aren't as iron-willed and seem more willing to appease the network demands, at least by how Season 3 was almost a role reversal from the 2nd. Can we expect Spoiler in Season 5?
That all said, the premire was good, even when compared to it's decade old predassessor. The rundown: The Flying Grayons are not only in charge of a travelling circus, but they're part of the star attractions. Tony Zucco and his three brothers (almost ringers for Marvel's Enforcers, as one is a burly brute, the other a whip-man, the third a juggler) come in to do a protection racket scheme. They rough up John Grayson, but Dick calls the police, and by chance (or plot convience) Batman intercepts the call and arrives first. The Zucco's escape but the whip-guy gets collared, earning Tony's ire. Batman would seek to track down the Zucco's but as Wayne he attends the next showing of the circus, and of course we all know what happens. Zucco loosens the screws to the trapeze, and Richard becomes an orphan.
Easily seeing the parallel between his own past and Grayson's, Bruce pays for the funeral and offers to take him in as a foster parent, a role that becomes muddled as he is frequently away from the mansion while he's Batman, running down leads to avenge the murder of Dick's parents by finding Tony Zucco (the fact that he never collared his own parents' killer is eating at him, and he doesn't want Dick going through the same). There are some "CSI Jr." elements, like the notion of a set of toothpicks only being specific to one of two bars, or a bag of popcorn from a run-down circus, but it's Batman so it works. Zucco, it turns out, was an ex-circus man whose life fell apart from the act, so he sort of became a mob thug, running protection rackets on circuses. Granted you have your obligatory, "You've TKO'd Batman, why not unmask or kill him, rather than simply tie him up and rattle on and on", but it would be unfair to pick on this episode for that when nearly every Batman cartoon (or Bond movie) is famous for this. Meanwhile, Grayson has stumbled into the Batcave (why Alfred put his parent's portrait so close to the Batcave enterance I'll never know; he was all but asking for Dick to get snoopy). Donning his old trapeze uniform with some add-ons, he makes his debut helping Batman out.
In a rare showing of grit, Batman seems to go "out of control" after Zucco gives Robin a thrashing, and he starts to pound away at him, chasing him up to the trapeze and almost scaring him to his death with a plunge, but naturally Robin saves him, wanting him to get "justice". Seeing eye to eye on crime-fighting and seeing no other way to spend quality time together, they decide to be partners.
Really, the only bad thing I could say about the episode, aside for it bringing up too many memories of the superior "Reckoning", was that the name "Dick" makes some lines sound "dirty" to us adults. "Master Dick is requiring more of your attention", that kind of stuff. Why not just call him "Richard"? Granted, part of this is Frank Miller's fault. Robin's design looks much sleeker in motion, I like the sleek pants and the cape that vaguely resembles wings. The episode moved a bit too quickly at times, but as they wanted this to be a two-parter, they had to cram in Robin's entire origin in about 20 minutes, which is naturally a rush. And one could argue 1997's "Sins of the Father" (Tim Drake's origin sequence from B:TNGA) was almost equally crammed.
A solid debut to THE BATMAN's 4th season and Robin. I was quite impressed and I hope the rest of the season follows through on better writing and not wasting so much time on bad Joker or Penguin appearences. Hopefully Batgirl will be less annoying, too.