Joker's Favor

Here we get an idea what might happen when an average citizen has the misfortune to come into the life of the Joker. Here a man with a bit of road rage realizes he's picked the wrong "other driver" to express his displeasure to. Unable to evade the Joker on the freeway or lose him in city streets, he's trapped.

In an uncharacteristic act of charity, Joker agrees to spare his life in return for an unnamed favor at any time in the future.

Two years later we find the man has changed his name and his job, and even moved to Springfield, Ohio! Just what I would have suggested he do, and the writers impressed me by thinking of it, too. But will that be enough to fool the Joker? And what will the "favor" be?

For a psychopath, The Joker is pretty well fleshed-out, even if his plans usually tend toward the hopelessly inane. This time, he's jealous of Commissioner Gordon's honorary banquet. And 'Joker's Favor' is precisely its title: he calls in an old debt from some hapless loser to plant a bomb during the reception. It's a friendly reminder that the clown's a gangster at heart, echoing "The Godfather".

This is mostly just a showcase for Joker and Harley Quinn. The actual favor plot is lackluster, but against that, Hamill and Sorkin really shine.

7/10

A guy named Charlie is having a bad day. He has a road rage encounter with the Joker and to save his life he must agree to do a favor for the Joker at some future time. Two years later he calls in his chips and asks for a tiny favor. To open a door at a testimonial for Gordon, where much of the police force is attending. The plotting is quite good here as Batman must intervene. The final scene is excellent with a unique twist. In this one we are also introduced to Harley Quinn, the unbalanced woman who assists the Joker in his enterprise. The animation and portrayal of the Joker is excellent. His comic appearance is unnerving.

Finally a Joker episode. So this man has a ''debt'' to pay to the Joker. I love how he probably thought that Joker would forget about the whole thing but Joker remembered even 2 years after what happened. I wonder exactly what was that gas that Joker used which made everyone to freeze and remain still. I wish this episode continued in a part 2. I mean we had 2 episodes about Clayface why not Joker too? I expected more chaos and tricks from Joker but it seems like it was pretty easy and fast for Batman to stop him. That's why in my opinion this should be 2 episodes. Ok while this episode was good, I definitely needed more Joker. My rating is 7.5/10.

Every so often we get wacky and original story premises from Batman: The Animated Series, stories that could only happen in a show like this and it's this creativity that makes for some of the best stories. In this episode, we get shown a man who's had a bad day at work and driving home snaps at someone on the road, unluckily for him, this someone turns out to be the joker. From here we have a fun yet sinister romp of the joker cashing in on a favour he was promised by Mr Collins. The highlight of this episode is definitely the ending where the Joker gets a taste of his own medicine and we even get a laugh out of Batman. 9/10.