Oh, how things have changed for me as a fan of the caped crusader. My history with Batman The Television Series is one of great importance. As a small child of no more than a handful of years I immigrated to the United States from a humble little country in South America. My grandmother watched over me while growing up in Los Angeles, while my mother worked two jobs just to make ends meet. It was during this time, and while still learning the language, I came across Batman The Television Series. I would watch the show in syndication on a tiny 10 inch black and white television, enthralled with the characters while at the same time learning the ins and outs of the English language.
It wasn’t until a few years ago when the series began airing once again on television did I realize how amazing and groundbreaking it really was. Now, things have come full circle with the release of the shows third season on DVD. For many, Batman The Television Series helped kill the caped crusader, but it’s safe to say that without Adam West and this interpretation we wouldn’t have Frank Miller’s seminal 80s tale and the Christopher Nolan series of today. We wanted a darker and grittier Batman, and while we got that in spades, we lost some of the magic that made Batman, well, Batman.
Now we can see this shift to a more upbeat and return to camp with a lot of Batman properties. People are tired of the Dark Knight’s, well, darkness. Where recently everything Batman wants to show us a tortured character –how many times do we have to see his parents murdered– many have demanded that DC once again take a lighter tone with the hero. This can be seen with Batman The Brave and the Bold cartoon series of recent memory, the resurgence and popularity of the Batman 66 comic series, as well as a plethora of 1966 inspired merchandise. And I for one can’t get enough of it, as Batman should be allowed to be fun from time to time.
The Batman Box Set of the entire series has been out for a little while now –I was at the San Diego Comic-Con panel where the cast talked about it– Warner Bros. has been steadily releasing the DVD sets as individual seasons. This is a great way to either catch up once again on some of the dynamic duo’s most famous adventures for fans, but also a great way for younger Batman fans to jump into the series without shelling out hundreds of dollars on the complete collectors set, but Warner Bros. wants to send that over my way I’d be all for it, just saying.
Season three of Batman The Television Series is actually one of the more important seasons for a number of reasons. Episode one starts off with a BANG as Batgirl — my favorite of all the bat-family– gets introduced into the series. Re-watching the episodes I find it so strange that Batgirl pops in and out much in the way we would later see Batman do in his more serious iterations. One minute she’s there and the next she’s vanished without a trace, even surprising Batman with her skill and quickness. We also get to see the amazingly talented and ever beautiful Joan Collins make an appearance for two solid episodes, as well as Vincent Price as the always eggcellent Egghead, with even Milton Berle drops by to get in on the fun.
This third and final season is packed onto four discs and has been lovely remastered from the original. Everything looks amazing, and the colors that give the show its distinct look pop as they never have before. You also get a fifth disc that is loaded with a number of bonus features to give fans a little more insight into the show. The DVD set will run you $26.99 on Amazon and for that price your really can’t go wrong. You are getting an incredible amount of content for the price, and the laughs you’ll get from sitting through some of the shows witty writing is more than worth it.
Batman The Television Series – The Complete Third Season goes on sale today, November 4th 2015 and would make a great gift for any Batman fan this holiday season.
Find it on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/1Q33JbI
*A copy was provided for this review*
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