“Caped Crusader” is a playful journey through origin stories that have been well-told, but not always in this specific manner. For example, Harley Quinn returns to her roots as a psychologist named Harleen Quinzel (Jamie Chung), seen as Bruce Wayne’s shrink before revealing her villainous intent in a later episode. Harvey Dent (Diedrich Bader) is not yet Two-Face, just an aggressive district attorney. Even Batman is a mysterious figure on the fringe of Gotham, a vigilante being tracked by Commissioner Gordon (Eric Morgan Stuart) and his daughter Barbara (Krystal Joy Brown). The Bruce Wayne (Hamish Linklater) here is a figure in the shadows, something that returns him more to the original Detective Comics iteration of a crime-solver, often closer to noir than action.
While origin stories are undeniably overdone, the return to the basics here feels fresh after years of moody Batmen in film and television. It allows the writers to be playful with characters they’re reshaping in a way that marries versions of them from generations ago to something that would play for all audiences today. For example, in the premiere, Penguin is rebooted as Oswalda Cobblepot (Minnie Driver), a crime lord so truly evil that she’s willing to murder one of her own children to get what she wants.
The version of Catwoman here is pretty familiar, but Christina Ricci is still having a blast with her, and the writers get to have some fun with lesser Gotham villains too, like Gentleman Ghost (Toby Stephens), Firebug (Tom Kenny), and a spectacular episode involving Clayface (Dan Donohue), returned to his origin story from the ‘40s as a failed actor named Basil Karlo. In a time when superhero culture seems dominated by multiverses, there’s something charming about a property that seeks to recreate what comic book readers fell in love with almost a century ago.