Payback
Episode #36 - Payback
Original Airdate - May 13th, 2000
A new vigilante, who calls himself Payback, begins taking revenge on the
tormentors of troubled teenagers.
Media by Bird Boy
Review by Zanna |
Credits:
Written by Robert Goodman
Directed by Kyoung-Won Lim
Music by Michael McCuistion
Animation by Koko / Dong Yang
Voices:
Will Friedle as Terry McGinnis/Batman
Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne
Bill Fagerbakke as Howard Lewis/Payback
Mitch Pileggi as Dr. Stanton
Adam Wylie as Kenny
Curtis Armstrong as Warren
Max Brooks as Drew
Mark Jonathan Davis as Vid-News Anchor
Rebecca Gilchrist as Receptionist
Bumper Robinson as Zack
Tia Texada as Trina
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Review
Gotham's futuristic Batman tangles with a black suited, laser whip
wielding vigilante called Payback. This new "defender" specializes in
terrorizing the people who bully or abuse teenagers. Based on
information that Bruce pulls together from Payback's previous attacks,
Bruce theorizes that someone from the Gotham Youth Counseling Center is
involved. Terry joins a teenage support group at the center to
investigate.
This episode, like many of the recent episodes, dealt with troubled
youth and not the homicidal, larger-than-life villains of BTAS or TNBA.
There was no clever or twisted master crime or colorful criminal
character. The villain's only claim to fame was a dark costume and a
laser whip. Though the laser whip was an interesting weapon, it lost
some of its impact when it was shown to be only a sculptor's tool being
used by the vigilante.
The saving element of this episode was that a bit more time was spent
showing more of the Bruce-Terry relationship and showing a bit more
insight into some of Terry's detective training. There was some good
dialogue exchanges between Bruce and Terry.
For instance, when Bruce is patching up Terry's head after Terry is
attacked at the center, Bruce asks, "Why weren't you watching your
back?"
Terry responds defensively, "I was too busy watching my front. Am I
supposed to have eyes everywhere?"
"Only if you want to live to a ripe, old age," Bruce answers.
Sarcastically, Terry says, "You don't make it sound too inviting."
Later, in the last scene, when Bruce asks Payback what he is, Payback
answers, "Your worst nightmare."
Bruce replies, "You have no idea what my nightmares are like."
The last time the words "Your worst nightmare" are spoken in a Batman
episode, the impression was menacing. This time, spoken TO Bruce, the
words evoke little terror, but since the words are directed at Bruce,
they had a different, but significant impact.
Of some trivia interest, the actor that provided the voice for the store
manager in the opening scene was Curtis Armstrong, currently seen in the
OnStar Batman commercials as the Joker. (He also played Booger in the
Revenge of the Nerd movies and Herbert Viola in the Moonlighting TV
series.)
While this episode is not one of this season's strongest episodes, I
enjoyed the interaction between Terry and Bruce, which gave the story
more interest.
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