| Review When I originally heard that Harley Quinn was being introduced into
The Batman universe, I was very skeptic. This version of The
Joker has been very, very inconsistent and the thought of him having a wacky female sidekick didn’t really appeal to me too much. Having said that, if you’d told me that he was going to have a Looney
Tunes sidekick in Batman: The Animated Series, I’d have probably rolled my eyes. I was slightly relieved when Paul Dini was said to be handling the script but given how he’s wrote some clunkers as of late, including
"The Big Leagues", "Far From Home" and other Static Shock
episodes I’ve done my best to forget, I still didn’t seem to be looking forward to this episode much. After watching the rest of the season and it’s greatly improved quality, I wondered if this would be the one where they’d slip up. Luckily, I was wrong. Harley Quinn fits into this world perfectly, and even more surprisingly, she’s fits in with this so-so version of
The Joker. Mistah J gets his best line in the history of the show in this episode with his crack about the state of Harley’s education and the presentation of her show, which literally had me bursting out laughing – I genuinely can’t recall the last time I did that in this show, or even if I ever have. The episode provides us with an original take on Harley Quinn, rather than a rehash on Mad Love with her acting as The Joker’s psychologist in Arkham Asylum, here, the dippy blonde is the host of a call in TV show which Joker appears to be fascinated with. I must admit, having watched this episode a few times, I prefer it to the
Mad Love show. I think the comic is infinitely better than the animated adaptation as Harley is far too OTT and annoying in the episode, but this episode is just too much fun and it’s nice to see an almost serious take on Harley’s character, given that she’s usually just comic relief as The Joker’s annoying girlfriend. It’s all still great fun however, and it’s got a really, really catchy musical scene which proves that while Kevin Micheal Richardson may be horribly miscast as the clown prince of crime, the man can sing! Speaking of the casting, Hynden Walch voices Harley Quinn and sounds almost exactly like Arleen Sorkin, to the point where my brother didn’t actually notice that someone else was voicing Harley. (It should also be noted, he hates The Batman with a passion, but has genuinely enjoyed most of this season). Her design is pretty faithful to Timm’s original design too – the odd flourish has been changed but she’s still looking very sharp. Her chemistry with The
Joker is pretty solid too – I genuinely hope that if we get a season five and The Joker reappears in the show that he brings Harley back with him. If he doesn’t and this is indeed the last time we ever see this version of The Joker then we can all smile, this is probably his best appearance since the show began. |
