It's Never Too Late

Here comes a subtle, yet interesting episode of Batman: The Animated Series. "It's Never Too Late" was the 12th episode made, but the sixth that they aired, which makes it the first episode we've got to that was good enough to be bumped up in airing order.

This is a touching tale of redemption, but before I can get to praising it, I have to take a point away for one thing that really bugged me. They repeatedly said that Rupert Thorne is much younger than Stromwell, but he looks about 20 years older than him. Why couldn't they make Stromwell look just a little bit older?

But I will give a point for a quick scene showing Thorne throwing a bum out of the restaurant, and as soon as you here the bum speak, you can recognize Batman's voice. I love it when Batman goes into disguise to gather intelligence — that is true detective work.

The score will rise to a 6 for the Godfather-esque scene of the evil Thorne trying to kill Stromwell in the restaurant. Thorne is one of my favorite characters because he can throw his weight around with manipulation and viciousness. He is just so much fun.

I'll add another point for the subtle, yet effective anti-drug message in this episode. Earlier, the show had tried to have similar messages, but they usually felt out of place or heavy handed. Here, it was handled in a very classy manner, I felt. Another good thing about this episode was its ability to include religion without being religious, which is a very difficult thing to do.

Along that note, I'll add another point for the surprisingly emotional flashbacks. They were black-and-white, which was a fun change of pace, and I also really liked how we only got half the flashback at first, and had to wait for the rest later. It was pretty nice storytelling for a rather sweet episode that adds diversity to the Batman canon.

Final score: 8