DJ And The Bat
Posted on | October 13, 2008 at 7:38 am | 4 Comments
Pet Peeve of the Day: Last week, Variety announced that the CW Network is going to develop a new show called The Graysons based on the early life of Batman’s sidekick Robin, before his parents died and he was taken in by the Dark Knight. Supposedly this is either a replacement of sorts for Smallville (featuring the same producers), or a companion piece if Smallville actually survives to get renewed for yet another season. There’s some more info on that here.
Entertainment Weekly has already posted an article explaining why this is a colossally bad idea. But let me add a few reasons of my own:
1) I hate shows that have a built-in expiration. At some point you have to actually have Dick Grayson be taken in by Batman and become Robin. In the comics, he was still pretty young at that point (pre to early teen). It sounds like they want to stretch that out and make him older in the TV show. This is the same sort of concept that has made Smallville such a nightmare for the writers. Clark Kent on Smallville has still not donned the suit and the Superman moniker, and yet he’s faced almost every Superman villain possible. The show has been on for eight years, and at this point he’s through with high school (and presumably college, though they never spent much time showing him there) and is now working for the Daily Planet in Metropolis with Lois Lane. It’s like “C’mon, become Superman already! How long are we going to drag this out!!” Practically everyone in the world knows that Clark has powers and a lot know he’s an alien. The show doesn’t even take place in Smallville anymore, really. I don’t want to see the Robin thing get dragged out forever too.
2) Dick Grayson and his parents were circus acrobats. Shows with a circus setting don’t do too well. Remember Carnivàle? I really don’t want to see the stereotypical strongman, bearded lady, etc etc, and I’m sure most of America feels the same.
3) It dilutes the Batman legend. In order to make it interesting, they’re going to have to have some early versions of Batman villains. I’m sure there will be some alternate origin for the Joker involving the Grayson’s circus, since he’s is a clown after all. That would just be wrong. I can just see a teen Penguin flopping around. Like with Smallville, by the time Dick (excuse me, DJ) becomes Robin, he’ll probably have already encountered most of Batman’s rogue’s gallery. Probably before Batman does. And will there even be any mention of Batman? I doubt it. He should’ve been operating while Robin was young, but they probably won’t be able to say anything about him because Warner Bros does not want to interfere with the movie franchise.
So, it’s just a bad idea all around. Please don’t do this, CW. Thank you. I think you would be better off developing a Smallville spinoff based around Green Arrow and Black Canary.
Latre.
In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention I used to wear a Robin costume (homemade by my mother) when I was a kid. Yes, Robin. Not Batman. I think there may even be some video of that floating around somewhere.
Poignant Search Term Of The Day That Led To This Blog: “daddy’s little boy fiber figure”.
Comments
4 Responses to “DJ And The Bat”
October 13th, 2008 @ 5:58 pm
At some point you have to actually have Dick Grayson be taken in by Batman and become Robin.
Not necessarily, as smart as Lisa Simpson is she has been in the same grade since the 80’s.
October 13th, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
I’ve seen enough of the TV production process to state with some confidence: it’s a good system, insofar as it keeps certain kinds of people occupied and unable to do their mischief in areas which really matter to society.
Granted, there’s a lot of crappy ideas on TV, but I’d rather have ‘em there than, say, running the air traffic control system or maintaining the machine that purifies granny’s insulin…
October 13th, 2008 @ 10:45 pm
Lisa: Yes, but The Simpsons wasn’t poaching off a pre-established franchise or situation: we know that Dick Grayson turns out to be Robin; we have no idea how Lisa turns out (or if she does), so it’s not a problem that we suspend reality and keep her in the same grade forever. (It’s even less of a problem when these sorts of cartoon temporal anomalies are nudged and winked at from behind the bright yellow animated fourth wall.)
Anyway: I don’t care about the series Flasshe describes, but it wouldn’t bother me if American TV series could be trusted to end at an ending, instead of being recognized as a cash cow and milked endlessly regardless of the sense, from a cow’s-eye view, of such a situation.
October 14th, 2008 @ 2:45 pm
Another difference is that since Lisa is a cartoon girl, she doesn’t age. Unless they want to constantly recast the Dick Grayson part, you can’t do the same thing on a live action show.
Anyway: I don’t care about the series Flasshe describes, but it wouldn’t bother me if American TV series could be trusted to end at an ending, instead of being recognized as a cash cow and milked endlessly regardless of the sense, from a cow’s-eye view, of such a situation.
Yes, I wish American network TV could be more like British or Japanese TV in that respect: plan an ending and stick to it. It will be interesting to see what happens with Lost, since they do have an ending planned with a set end date and all. Babylon 5 pulled it off, more or less.
The Smallville creators always said that the last shot of the last episode would have Clark donning the tights. But now the original creators are no longer with the show and its life has been extended far past the point anyone thought it would go. So it gets more and more ludicrous every year as they try to account for the actor’s aging and the perpetual stuck-in-pre-Superman limbo situation of the show.