Fine Finny Fiends
"Dick, I'm afraid you'd better put your Latin verbs aside for the nonce."
The final two parter of a splendid first season, then, and while this week's offering doesn't match the season's heights, it has plenty to offer. Plus, while Burgess Meredith's Penguin, for me, is a little eclipsed by Frank Gorshin's Riddler, it's certainly good to see him again.
There's an interesting conceit with Penguin's kidnapping and brainwashing of Alfred, which gives an extra frisson to the early scenes where Bruce is more than usually perturbed upon answering the Batphone. Then things return to normal, even with the return of "atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed" before we get some silly filler scenes full of weak wordplay around the Penguin's alias of "Knott A. Fish" as he adopts a nautical theme and, for once, has a girl presented as a beard... er, girlfriend, but shows no chemistry with her at all. And yet it's fun to see Alan Napier, in a very much larger than usual part, play a brainwashed Alfred with that twitch. And we get a wonderful moment where Batman stops Robin before crossing the street and implores him to "always look both ways".
A farly par episode, then, ending with a vacuum-packed cliffhanger.
Batman Makes the Scenes
"Only you could put that pusillanimous poltroon of a Penguin to fight!"
Saved by the utility belt again. But the waddling bird has fled, and the Dynamic Duo are almost back to square one- but they know the Penguin plans to rob the millionaires' dinner, and so they set into motion a complex plan involving a duped Alfred and, ahem, anti-Penguin gas pills. Which are obviously a thing.
It's a fun, fast-moving episode, more so than its predecessor, but so very much following the template you can almost predict what happens- not, I suppose, a particularly strong criticism you can make from this show. But, for once, while there's a lot to enjoy, a certain spark is missing.
What's this, though- Catwoman next week? The season is over, right?
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