New Animated show coming to HBO Max

[The Dark Knight]

Dude! I mean, come on, this looks fantastic! I can't tell you how psyched I am for this. This is the exact setting I wanted for live action. Sure, I would do the costumes differently, but man, this looks soooo good.

I'm so stoked for this! 

It looks good. But niggling apprehensions remain. Gordon has already been spoken about, but I've heard rumblings Penguin will be gender swapped to female. Harley and Montoya are going to be in a lesbian relationship. Police having SWAT units in the 1940s is anachronistic. It's the 1970s before you see any cops in body armor. This may be set in the 1940s but it's far from being historically accurate. Bruce Timm may be BTAS alumni but he's also the man behind the awful Killing Joke animated adaption, including Batman and Harley Quinn. It's about what you're doing now, and I haven't liked that much at all.

[Silver Nemesis]

It looks good. But niggling apprehensions remain. Gordon has already been spoken about, but I've heard rumblings Penguin will be gender swapped to female. Harley and Montoya are going to be in a lesbian relationship. Police having SWAT units in the 1940s is anachronistic. It's the 1970s before you see any cops in body armor. This may be set in the 1940s but it's far from being historically accurate. Bruce Timm may be BTAS alumni but he's also the man behind the awful Killing Joke animated adaption, including Batman and Harley Quinn. It's about what you're doing now, and I haven't liked that much at all.

I share these concerns. The creative landscape of the modern entertainment industry is very different from that of the 1990s, or even the 2000s. Even with proven talent returning, they'll still be subject to the same political and ideological pitfalls that are negatively impacting almost every other TV show at the moment. I've yet to see a single franchise that's improved after being 'updated for modern audiences'. Why bother setting something in the past if your portrayal of 'the past' is just a mirror for the present?

I'm looking forward to checking out the first few episodes of this series, but if it's as bad as most other recent TV shows then I won't bother watching the rest. Instead I'll content myself with reviews from the likes of The Critical Drinker, Nerdrotic, Midnight's Edge, etc, which may prove more entertaining than the series itself. But hopefully it won't come to that. I don't want Jar Jar Abrams adding another victim to the list of franchises he's helped ruin. Right now I'm still trying to remain cautiously optimistic.

That said, it's been a long time since I last saw a DC animated production – TV or film – that truly impressed me. A very long time.