The pilot is mostly set-up and is somewhat generic. The rest of the season builds upward from there and is definitely worth watching.

The pilot is mostly set-up and is somewhat generic. The rest of the season builds upward from there and is definitely worth watching.

"If only the series had some atmosphere; whether the action unfolds at
the school or out in the woods after dark, it has practically none."

"If only the series had some atmosphere; whether the action unfolds at
the school or out in the woods after dark, it has practically none."

To be honest, while I deeply admired the film, I was not as moved. The opening, featuring the brother's passing, is beautifully done. On the other hand, during the rest of the film, I felt increasingly frustrated with the brother's stubbornness and the feeling that he was culpable for much of what ensued. Those…

Fine article, though Mr. Adams treats "Whisper of the Heart" somewhat dismissively. It doesn't strike me a particularly "odd hybrid" at all—the fantasy elements are part of heroine's efforts and thoughts as a beginning writer. They reflect her creative progress. And part of what makes "Whisper" so moving is how…

Had a Lew Archer movie ever been made from Ross MacDonald's mysteries, James Garner would have been perfect for the role. I can't imagine anyone else in the role—Garner possessed wit and genuine warmth, a combination that is rarer than one might expect.

There is no point at which one should give up on Elvis because he did good work up to the day he died, though it was far more sporadic. He might have been stoned more often, but he never fully ceased to care. In '73 he recorded at Stax an album's worth of excellent tracks, including "If You Talk In Your Sleep" and a…

What a bizarre comment. How was Perkins more real? Because he wore a toupee and stuck to one genre?

Holmes' coke use was phased out early on, and the punch he gives in The Solitary Cyclist is one of the very few times in the stories where he has to rely on his fists. Downey is not miles away—he's in another country. 

No, more like "one or two of the stories." And Sherlock got the shit beat out of him in "The Illustrious Client," so Ritchie gets no points for pretending Holmes was Bruce Lee avant la lettre.

This is a solid episode, but it suffers from the blandness that blighted most of season one. Plus, the fight scenes are dull and repetitive, whereas the drama is under developed. Perhaps I'm misremembering Greek mythology, but Hades always struck me as a gloomy and restrained fellow and much less of a bastard than the…

YJ isn't bad—the animation is superb actually—but it's a show that takes itself a little too seriously (much like Saint Weisman's earlier shows). The characterization is "complex" to the point of being overly schematic, and while the show rightly shows that teenagers can be whiny, angsty, pouty, and silly (sometimes…

Congrats to Mr. Sava on making it through the very long first season of BTAS and for producing a fine set of reviews—I especially like his attentiveness to the show's visual aspects, such as the animation studios and directors. I'm happy to hear that Sava will return to the DCAU with Justice League, but I urge him to…

My Dad's a native Arabic speaker, and the pronunciation is definitely closer to BTAS's version than Nolan's. And from what I recall, the BTAS crew derived the pronunciation from Denny O'Neil, Ra's creator, who in turn derived it from a professor of Arabic at UCLA.

Exactly. TNBA was hardly a step-down from BTAS, and the animation represents Timm's style at its purest. And bland is a stupid adjective to describe any season that featured episodes as pitch-black as "Over The Edge" and "Growing Pains." TNBA-haters are deluded folk.

Eric Radomski didn't like this episode all that much.
From an interview with Radomski reposted at http://www.toonzone.net/for…
His feelings on "If You're Smart" follow:

"Greatly preferable to the live-action TV show or the movie versions. "

Derek Dreck
"I'll stick by my praise for Derek's early episodes"

Inside Bruce Wayne
Whereas most of BTAS explored the heads of its villains, MOTP is probably the show's deepest look into the mind of Brice Wayne—his desires, his disappointments, his basic psychology. I think it also disproves the oft-repeated cliche that Batman is the real person and Bruce Wayne is the mask. The…