Was Batman Season 4 Hit or Miss?

NC: Hello, I'm the Nostalgia Critic. I remember it, so you don't have to.

NC (vo): Just at the height of Batman The Animated Series' popularity, Warned Brothers decided to do a spin off with Superman, using the same people. And that show seemed to do well enough that for it's next season, and Batman's fourth, they decided to combine both of them together in the New Adventures of Batman and Superman; but that wasn't the only surprise people were given. Batman went through some serious notable changes; including new designs, new characters, and just an all around new feel. It was still the same animation and same voice actors, but the evidence was clear: this was a a different Batman than what we saw before. Season 4, or the Red Sky series as I like to call it, was very controversial.... at least, among fans. Some say it was a welcome change of pace; others say it was trying to fix something that was never broken.

NC: Whatver the reason for the changes, it invites the important question: Was Season 4 a hit or a miss?

NC (vo): From a character standpoint, we still have the same backstory; only some of them have moved on since we last saw them. We see that Dick Grayson is fed up with being Robin, and has moved on to being Nightwing, leaving Robin to be played by another orphan, only have his age this time, named Tim Drake. It's nice to see Grayson go rogue and develop his own badass persona, but it's still strange to see Bruce Wayne take someone even younger under his batwing as Robin! This guy has to be worst parent of the year! But.... (sigh) you could argue that's the leeway of comic books, and even the idea of the original Robin took a pretty big suspension of disbelief. Plus, I surprisingly like the kid. He's got a lot of energy, he's smart on his feet, and he actually has some good one liners here and there.

Bruce: Playing hooky

Tim: It's summer vacation!

(Bruce stares at him)

Tim: Never mind, forgot who I was talking to.

NC: Not the best nightly camouflage

NC: Plus, if Batman can still dress his adoptive son as a neon fire...

NC (vo):...hydrant

NC (vo): And then you have the Joker. Um, how do I put this? He looks terrible. I mean, God Jesus, what have you done to him?! Of all the ways you could redesign, arguably, one of the best Batman Villains of all time; it seems like this...intriguingly takes every wrong step. The Joker is Batman's opposite: he's a bright, loud, colourful clown; so, why suck at all the colour from his face, and give him black expressionless eyes? Yeah, I know, a lot of designs at the time were doing this, and I still don't get why! He looks less like a Batman villain and more like a dancing prop from Steamboat Willy. I don't think it's any coincidence that on the dvd when they talk about the redesigns of all the character, they smartly leave out the Joker. My guess is they'd of already gotten enough complaints about him already So much so that when the spin off movie, [Batman Beyond] Return of the Joker, came out, they went back to a design much closer to the original. It was definitely a welcomed return. NC: But, for all the bitching about the Joker, in my opinion, it all evens out with redesign of the Scarecrow!

NC (vo): Holy shit! Where did this freakiness come from? That calm neutral voice suddenly sounds frightening, coming from between those skull like teeth.

Note: This transcript is incomplete