Saturday, May 9, 2015

Romero's Joker

Watching this first season of Batman I'm so impressed with the casting of all the actors, even some of the henchmen. I've always given Cesar Romero's portrayal of the Joker short shrift, but now I'm really enjoying it.  He doesn't have quite the complexity of Hamill's Joker, but try as he might not to, Nicholson cribbed a lot from Romero for his portrayal.  I have no idea what the late Heath Ledger was taking from, but that really wasn't the Joker anyway, just some clown in costume makeup pretending to be Mr. J.  But of course I digress in the grumpiest of old man sort of ways, don't I?

Still, this Joker is a force to be reckoned with, as he outwits Batman several times in the five episodes he's been in.  Romero doesn't even quite go over the top with his portrayal of him, which is amazing.  No, there's not a lot of nuance here, but you can tell all the actors were having a great time with the series early on.  It's evident in all the perfomances, right down to several of the henchmen,

I've always loved the show, but seeing it complete and uncut really gives me a greater appreciation of the series.  We'll see if that holds up for the entire run, but this first season is gold.

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