[4.2/10] This one was rough. Maybe I’m just tired from the scores of other on-the-nose, overly didactic anti-drug episodes that came out around this time. (See also: the two-parter from season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but it’s hard to do anything but roll your eyes mightily at the paint-by-number “drugs are bad” routine that this episode pulls off.
What’s good in this episode, then? Well, I like the recurring motif that Terry is exhausted and pulled in too many directions from having to maintain his school life, his social life, and his extracurriculars as Batman. As I’ve said before, I often think of Terry as a Peter Parker analogue, so exploring his difficulties and exhaustion through this double life, in a way wealthy Bruce Wayne never had to, is a solid tack.
I also enjoyed the fact that the root of “slappers”, the thinly-veiled PED analogue that all the members of the futuristic jai alai team are using, comes from Bane and the “venom” formula he used to use. As corny as the “this is what will happen to you if you use steroids” packaging is, it’s neat to see what happened to the old bruiser, and legitimately haunting to see what he’s become.
Still, this is such a generic anti-drug episode that it’s hard to take it even a little silly. You can basically hear the show’s producers cashing their check from DARE or whoever through the whole thing. The jock’s plight is off-the-shelf. Terry’s “it’s not even mine” routine is just as stock, and the fact that the whole thing ends in a generic fight with Bane’s caretaker going overboard with the slappers makes this one comically over the top in the point it wants to make.
Overall, this is an early nadir for the show, promoting a good message but doing so in such a blunt way that it almost wraps back around into campiness.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-05-02T19:32:31Z
[4.2/10] This one was rough. Maybe I’m just tired from the scores of other on-the-nose, overly didactic anti-drug episodes that came out around this time. (See also: the two-parter from season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), but it’s hard to do anything but roll your eyes mightily at the paint-by-number “drugs are bad” routine that this episode pulls off.
What’s good in this episode, then? Well, I like the recurring motif that Terry is exhausted and pulled in too many directions from having to maintain his school life, his social life, and his extracurriculars as Batman. As I’ve said before, I often think of Terry as a Peter Parker analogue, so exploring his difficulties and exhaustion through this double life, in a way wealthy Bruce Wayne never had to, is a solid tack.
I also enjoyed the fact that the root of “slappers”, the thinly-veiled PED analogue that all the members of the futuristic jai alai team are using, comes from Bane and the “venom” formula he used to use. As corny as the “this is what will happen to you if you use steroids” packaging is, it’s neat to see what happened to the old bruiser, and legitimately haunting to see what he’s become.
Still, this is such a generic anti-drug episode that it’s hard to take it even a little silly. You can basically hear the show’s producers cashing their check from DARE or whoever through the whole thing. The jock’s plight is off-the-shelf. Terry’s “it’s not even mine” routine is just as stock, and the fact that the whole thing ends in a generic fight with Bane’s caretaker going overboard with the slappers makes this one comically over the top in the point it wants to make.
Overall, this is an early nadir for the show, promoting a good message but doing so in such a blunt way that it almost wraps back around into campiness.