The Top 20 Batman: The Animated Series Episodes

Before I write any of these top ten lists I normally come up with a list of every possible candidate for the list that I can think of.  With the Batman Beyond and Superman: The Animated Series lists the possible candidates was around 15-16, but when I was trying to come up with a BTAS top ten, the candidate list got up to the mid-30s when I realized a top ten was way too restricting for such a great show (my favorite television show actually), so therefore I decided to make a top twenty list instead of the usual ten, and I'd basically just look through the entire list of episodes to choose my top twenty (although there definitely are some bad episodes and not all the good ones are worthy of top twenty consideration).  Also, the episodes from The New Batman Adventures I counted as part of Batman: The Animated Series, basically because everyone else does, including the people who make the DVDs.  As usual, two-parters are counted as one episode.  Anyways, here's the top twenty:

20. Never Fear

The reason this episode made the list is almost entirely due to The Scarecrow's redesign (and recasting) as they turned a kind of cool, but not that scary villain, into THE most terrifying villain of any of Batman's rogues.  Of course it also helps that The Scarecrow actually has a plan that makes sense, and Batman's encounter with the crocodiles (or are they alligators?) is one of the five most badass moments in the series.

19. See No Evil

One of my personal favorites and not as much an objective choice as the others on this list are.  I've always been a sucker for moral ambiguity, and this episode has boatloads of it.  Instead of pitting Batman against the typical supervillain, he goes against a common crook (albeit an invisible one) who just wants to see his daughter again.  This episode really is a testament to the brilliance of the creators of this show, as they never fall into any of the typical cliches  and leave you conflicted throughout the entire episode  while keeping you unsure of what the outcome will be.  Then, when it's all over, you have to decide for yourself who was in the right.

18. On Leather Wings

The first episode of the series, and for my money the best debut episode in the history of television (which honestly isn't saying that much) and it really established the tone of the series. However, I didn't rank it in the top twenty just because of its importance as a good debut, if this episode was #1 or #37 it wouldn't have made a difference in ranking, as this is a really good episode in itself.  The pacing is great, Kevin Conroy's using of different voices for Bruce Wayne and Batman respectively is expertly highlighted, the action sequences are terrific, and there lots of great little details as well.  My favorite seemingly unimportant moment from this episode is the introduction of Harvey Dent pre-transformation to Two-Face, which, in conjunction with other episodes, made Harvey's transformation into Two-Face all the more affecting.

17. Growing Pains

Although it's incredibly conventional and typical The Joker is my favorite villain of Batman: The Animated Series by a fairly significant margin.  However, my second or third favorite villain is Clayface, and its because of episodes like this.  This is one of the most emotionally affecting episodes of the series, and Robin's line to end the episode is arguably the saddest of the series.

16.  Legends of the Dark Knight

This episode is terrific because its so amazing to see the Sprang and Miller creations in animated form, this was doubly awesome for me because those were the Batman comics I grew up reading (I have a cool dad). Also I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Firefly, so his appearance is just an added bonus to an already great episode.

Quick aside: The episodes on this list that I have numbered 15-9 are really interchangeable and their order basically depends on what mood I'm in.

15. Avatar

Often overlooked when compared to Ra's al Ghul's debut episode "The Demon Quest,"  but this episode is even better. "The Demon Quest" felt sort of rushed (even though it was a two-parter) and really just seemed to take itself too seriously, and although it was really good (top 25) there were enough flaws (Talia not really having any sort of character depth) that kept it from being a top 20 episode.  Avatar on the other hand, while being one of the least believable of all the BTAS episodes in terms of realism, does almost everything right.  The premise of the episode is basically Batman meets Raiders of the Lost Ark.  The episode is about Ra's returning and trying to find this the tomb of an Egyptian Queen that's said to contain the secrets of eternal life, and Batman and Talia team up to try and beat Ra's to the tomb.  Basically the perfect adventure episode.

14. Harlequinade

Although Harley Quinn was already a very popular and firmly established character, this was her first solo showcase as well as her best (better than "Mad Love" and "Harley's Holiday").  This episode is one of the funniest and most entertaining of the entire series, as Harley Quinn and Batman team up to form one of the most unlikely buddy-cop tandems of all time as they work together to stop the Joker from blowing up Gotham.  Also as an added bonus, it features the best musical number of the entire series and of my favorite random reoccurring gangster characters in Boxy Bennett. 

13. A Bullet for Bullock

Of all the episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, this is the one where they really perfect the noir atmosphere.  It's a very interesting look not only into Harvey Bullock's life but also into the world he inhabits.  One of the best things about BTAS was how, unlike Metropolis in STAS and whatever random city they happened to be in in Justice League, Gotham felt like a living and breathing place, rather than just some backdrop in which the heroes fought.  Seeing the streets of Gotham through the eyes of Harvey Bullock is a great experience.

12. Mudslide

The first time we see Clayface since his terrific introduction in "Feat of Clay," Mudslide is somehow manages to simultaneously be one of the funniest and saddest episodes of the entire series.  Leading up to the dramatic finale you have Hagen doing his Marlon Brando impression, lines like "Dr. Bates used to own a motel. . .", and Clayface's shell which looks exactly like an Oscar statue.  Then it gets serious as Batman cold-heartedly stops Clayface's operation and  it all comes to a close with a climactic fight in the rain.  Another thing I really liked about this episode was the resemblance to '30s and '40s monster movies, I'm a big fan of James Whale's horror movies and this episode really reminded me of them.

11. His Silicon Soul

The best "evil double" story of all time, and a very artful and subtle look inside Batman's head (much better than the overrated "I Am the Night").  I mentioned earlier how much I liked moral ambiguity, and this episode was one of, if not the most, morally ambiguous of all the BTAS episodes.  The Batman duplicate only has the best intentions and you really sympathize with him when he's only trying to make sense of what's happening, and his final lines before he sacrifices himself to save Gotham are some of the most touching in the entire series.  

10. Birds of a Feather

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the Penguin, and that's probably part of why I have this episode ranked so highly, but this episode still is really good.  This episode is one of the more tragic ones as Penguin shows his desire to reform and almost does it, until he walks by the wrong room at the worst possible time.  Then he breaks out the umbrellas and everything spirals towards its inevitable conclusion.  This episode really hit home for me, because I like the Penguin a lot, but all of his solo episodes before this were just horrible.  So when I saw this, I was really happy that they finally did justice to his character.

9. Read My Lips

This episode is great because it works on so many levels.  This episode has one of the most psychologically fascinating and arguably most messed up villain in all of Batman's rogues gallery, it has brilliant pacing, it has that great noir atmosphere, it has pulp elements, it's funny, and it's sad, to put it succinctly: it takes everything that's great about the series and combines them brilliantly.

8. Feat of Clay

The most uneven of any of the Batman: The Animated Series two-parters, with the first half being almost nothing but exposition while containing some very mediocre animation,  and the second part is just spectacular.  The first half really does add to the second,  because it's all been building to something and it's just all the more rewarding having slogged through the first part to get part 2, where they just really blow the wheels off of everything.  Clayface is one of the very few BTAS villains to have actual superpowers (him and Man-Bat) and they are some damn badass powers at that.  The animation in the second half is quite possibly the best animation seen in the entire series and contains some of the best sequences in the entire series.

7. Over the Edge

Often a little overrated, "Over the Edge" is still one of the best episodes in the entire series.  "Over the Edge" is probably the darkest of any of the episodes (not that that in itself means its good) but its all handled very well and makes for one of the most interesting of all the episodes.  If they had ever needed to close the series this would have been the perfect episode, but obviously you can't really kill off Batman, and as such this episode suffers from the "it was all a dream" ending.  This is doubly annoying not only because it means everything else that happened previous to you discovering it was a dream didn't happen, but it also detracts from the episode on an intellectual level as well.  Although it may be an insight into Barbara Gordon's mind, it really isn't that interesting because all that you find out was she apparently doesn't think too highly of her father's intelligence.  However, everything that happened before the conclusion was amazing, so this episode is still one of the best of the entire series, and the best to come out of The New Batman Adventures.

6. The Man Who Killed Batman

As soon as you see the title card for this episode you know it's going to be great.  This episode has so many memorable moments it really is a testament to the quality of this show that I have it ranked as low as seventh.  "The Man Who Killed Batman" has many great individual moments and most of them are Harley and Joker's doing.  However, what really makes this episode so great is that the audience gets to see Batman through the eyes of the common crook/mob boss/and supervillain all in the same episode.  The resulting effect is a replenished sense of awe and admiration for Batman that may have diminished a bit over the course of the series leading up that point.

5. Almost Got 'Im

"Almost Got 'Im" is somewhat similar to "The Man Who Killed Batman" because for the majority of the episode the story is told from the villain's perspective, with Batman himself taking on the rather unusual role of the villain.  This episode is just pure fun and doesn't really attempt to do anything "deep" psychologically or philosophically.  Yet, everything is so well done and perfectly executed that it becomes one of the definitive BTAS episodes.  Also as the Nostalgia Critic brought up in his own Top 11 Batman: The Animated Series List one of the real joys of this episode is just seeing the villains interact with one another.

4. Two-Face

Two-Face on its own is amazing, but when taking into consideration that Harvey Dent had been introduced as a character on the show previous to the two-parter, it was doubly impactful. If you were watching the show previous to this episode, then you knew Harvey as Bruce Wayne's best friend and a guy who was on the same level as Jim Gordon.  He was one of the few good guys in Gotham, a man who was trying his best to save the city (with a little help from Batman) not to mention that he also had been saved by Batman in previous episodes.  That's who Harvey Dent was, Bruce Wayne's best friend and a crusading D.A. and as such was a guy who was always going to be saved.  So when he turns into Two-Face it really is one of the saddest episodes in the series and one of the few times Batman fails.  Also this episode has what I consider to be the most badass moment of the series ("you're talking to the wrong Harvey").

3. Heart of Ice

I said earlier in my Batman Beyond top ten list that "King's Ransom" was the Batman Beyond equivalent of "Heart of Ice," and while that certainly is true, as good an episode as "King's Ransom" is, "Heart of Ice" is on a completely different level.  Often considered the best episode of the series and the one I would recommend to anyone who was trying to get into the series and were basing the decision of whether or not to off any one episode.  This is the standard for which all other episodes are judged.  "Heart of Ice" shows a hero and villain who are two sides of the same coin, one represents vengeance (Freeze) and the other justice (Batman).  Everything in this episode is perfect, for almost any other television show this would have been good enough to be the best (except serialized shows like The Wire where you can't really split it up into individual episodes), but in Batman: the Animated Series it just barely makes the top three.

2. The Laughing Fish

Almost always considered a very good episode by every reviewer I've seen, yet somehow never shows up on any top tens, this is one of the very best BTAS episodes.  "Heart of Ice" and "The Laughing Fish" are basically equal in my mind, but I give the slight edge to "The Laughing Fish" because of how much I love The Joker, and this is the definitive Joker episode. While Mark Hamill may turn in an incredible performance as The Joker in Return of the Joker, I consider this to be his finest performance.  This is just an incredibly entertaining episode and is also the episode where Harley Quinn really emerges as being a necessary sidekick to The Joker and cements her place in the series. 

1. Perchance to Dream

The greatest episode of television ever and the best of the series, this is just an amazing work of art.  I literally wrote an eleven page research paper about this episode for one of my English classes my first semester of sophomore year of college, this episode is just sublime.  While it's already terrific just for how they deal with the alternate reality that Bruce wakes up in, and just how expertly paced the whole thing is, this episode goes to an entirely different level when you really consider the psychological implications of this episode and how far it delves into Bruce's mind.  At one point he actually psychoanalyzes himself (the conversation with Leslie (who would actually be a figment of his own subconsciousness seeing that this is a dream))! I can't really do this episode justice without posting my entire research paper, however this guy can: http://www.toonzone.net/anbat/btas/ptd.html

If anyone who read this is really interested in Batman: The Animated Series and that's why they looked at this blog post, then check out this website: http://www.toonzone.net/anbat/index.html. The reviews of each of the respective Batman series episodes are fascinating and incredibly well written.  I probably unintentionally plagiarized him several times in my brief descriptions of each episode just because I've read all of the reviews several times. So that's my semi-bibliography.  But seriously though, check out that website.