WORST

5. THE BATMAN (2004-2008)

I’m not sure how we fell from Batman The Animated series to the wholly unwatchable The Batman. This moronic attempt to uber-cool Batman fails on so many levels you begin to think it could be performance art. Everything and I mean everything that made Batman The Animated Series so wonderful is stripped away so we can essentially watch a video game being played with commercials in it.

The dark and inventive animation of the first series is replaced with this weird American hybrid of Anime and computer graphics. Batman’s eyes are fucking huge, like weirdly enormous. He looks more like bugman than anything else. I was also all set with the crackling pop culture dialog between hipster Robin and the dry-witted Batgirl. Pepper in the ironic wit of Batman and you feel more like you’re watching an indie band show in Hipster Hell USA than a superhero cartoon.

Let’s not forget either that they gave The Joker dreads or that he was turned into this lumbering buffoon. In fact all of the villains were given spiffy new makeovers and wacky new origins just to make sure they didn’t go too fast for the kiddies.

Even the creators knew this show was a failure because they tried each season to change it around and make it different. Essentially they were polishing a turd and not matter how many new characters, new styles and voices they crammed into it the show continued sucking until it was mercifully yanked off the air.