Friday, January 11, 2019

Batman 66 - Episodes 101-104 Reviews

Settling into this third and final season, we've got a flower themed villain (but not the one you want), another team up and a surfing competition to behold.

3x07: Louie The Lilac


In 1966, DC comics created a wonderful character named Poison Ivy, who we all know has an affinity and control over plants. In 1967, the third season of this show instead of adopting Ivy into the series (which would've been great) decided to create a similar but male equivalent to Ivy with purple wearing, flower influenced gangster, Louis The Lilac (Milton Berle) who even managed to get the Dynamic Duo nearly eaten by a man eating Lilac while trying to make a deadly name for himself in the perfume industry. Eventually Louie and Poison Ivy would meet in the comics and I do think had this show gotten a fourth season, the latter would've appeared on it. As for this episode, it's pretty nifty with Louie being another strong original villain, not to mention the delightful team up with Alfred and Batgirl to boot. 8/10

3x08: The Ogg And I


In the previous season, this show introduced us to one of their best original character with Egghead (Vincent Price) and knowing that he was a clear success, decided to bring him back for another two part adventure. This time though, he's joined by Russian royalty, Olga - the latter played by Anne Baxter who previously played Zelda in the first season. In this story, they kidnap Commissioner Gordon and our terrific trio work together to try and rescue Gordon, only to come afoul of some rather effective tear gas. The episode also boasted Olga wanting to marry both Batman and Egghead while Robin and Gordon nearly became a pot roast in this enjoyably madcap episode. 8/10

3x09: How To Hatch A Dinosaur


Keeping with the madcap zaniness of the first part of this story, the second part certainly doesn't let things up either. The idea of Egghead and Olga stealing a giant egg with the hope of awakening a Neosaurus is delightfully bonkers and for a scant moment, I actually thought their plan was going to be a resounding success. A little part of me was slightly disappointed to see that it was Batman only pretending to be the extinct dinosaur in order to scare Olga and Egghead into surrendering themselves to O'Hara but it still made for a rather funny scene. Similarly funny was the balancing Alfred had this episode with giving both Batman/Robin and then Batgirl the same information without either group knowing that he was working for the other. 8/10

3x10: Surf's Up! Joker's Under!


Last episode there was the threat of a dinosaur actually popping up, so I thought the zaniness quota for this season was met but apparently not. In this surfing themed episode, the Joker used a device to steal all the surfing abilities out of Barbara's friend, Skip while his minion briefly turned the Dynamic Duo into surfing boards. Then there was the fact that both Batman and Joker took part in a surfing competition, as observed by Buzzy and Duke (aka Gordon/O'Hara undercover rather unconvincingly I might add). Episode wise, this is definitely one of the most memorable episodes for the Joker. His best, I'm not sure but definitely one of his most memorable though. 8/10

Next blog I'll delve into The Londinium Larcenies/The Foggiest Notion/The Bloody Tower and Catwoman's Dressed To Kill.

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