The Best Live Action Batman Show...

My article title is a bit of a red herring.  There's only ever been one live action Batman show on television and while I have dear and dedicated love for Adam West and Burt Ward's take on Batman and Robin, their lovably silly version of the characters isn't the one I want to talk about.

So if not the one and only live action version then what could I possibly be talking about?

Person of Interest

A decade after the horror of 9/11, the world had changed in ways that would make George Orwell say "I told you so" if he were around to do so.  Naturally television figured out a way to use those changes as a foundation for a tv show.  Packaged as a cops 'n' robbers, save the day vigilante show, Person of Interest ran for four full and a half length fifth season.  I used to argue that it was really a great sci-fi show in Kevlar and it truly was.  Finch's "Machine" falls clearly into the category of (barely) science fiction, at least for the moment.

While the sci-fi tag was fairly obvious and easy to argue, my other opinion is a harder sell.

In my estimation, Person of Interest is easily the best live action take on Batman ever to hit the small screen.  You could argue it's the best Batman in the live action arena, period, depending on your tastes.  John Reese is Batman, armed with a simple gun instead of an arsenal of gadgets, working both daylight and nighttime hours and without the cape and cowl.  He might not dress, sleep or arm himself like Batman but in all the really important aspects Reese jumps right out of the comic book page.

Batman Family?  Check.

Reese has Finch and his machine on his side.  The Finch character is Alfred Pennyworth with a bit of Bruce Wayne and former Batgirl turned computer whiz, Oracle mixed in.  Fusco is Detective Bullock, the crooked cop with the heart of gold and Joss Carter is Commissioner Gordon.  By season 2 we even get Ace the Bathound in the form of Bear the military attack dog with superb comedic timing.  The character of Root evolves from the Riddler and Catwoman to a Batgirl/Oracle.  Shaw eventually takes over a Robin-esque role.

The Dark Knight?  Check.

Reese isn't interested in the law.  He saves people and when there's a moral choice to be made he's on the side of justice but not always the side of the law.  He's not the Punisher (I've heard that one bandied about but while Reese metes out punishment on occasion it's not his raison d'etre), he's Batman.

The World's Greatest Detective?  Check.

Reese will take on 10 guys in a bar to get a piece of information, dangle an informant off a balcony,  lift a wallet, plant a bug, blackmail a cop, chase a bad guy on foot, motorcycle or in a car.  He'll go undercover, date a subject he's meant to protect, run surveillance from a rooftop, a car or even a house in the 'burbs, blue-jack cellphones, disarm a bomb or do any number of other Batman-as-detective things in an episode.

The show constantly refers to him as "The Man in The Suit".  Sub out "Suit" with "Cape and Cowl" every time you hear it and you'll see what I mean.  The John Reese character is obviously and completely a non-cape wearing version of Batman.  You could literally take the story boards for the show, draw a cape and cowl on him and turn almost every single episode into a damned fine Batman comic. 

I bet that Person of Interest started out as a pitch for a superhero show, maybe even a Batman show.  If Hollywood was building Batman from scratch, there's little doubt he'd use a gun.  This show plays like an Elseworlds style story that imagines how a real guy might be Batman in the real world.  Watched through that lens, even the sci-fi argument takes a backseat to what Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams managed to do with this show. 

Interestingly, not long before Person of Interest got going, Jim (John Reese) Caviezel was up for the part of another DC icon, giving up the role of Superman to Brandon Routh for Superman Returns in 2006.  Watching Person of Interest, I'm pretty glad he didn't wear the red cape but I do dearly wish that someone had had the vision to cast him and his superbly square jaw and gravel voice instead of Christian Bale in the Nolan Batman movies.  Considering Nolan's brother is the creator of Person of Interest, it feels like a might-have-been that kinda-sorta happened anyhow...

I just wish they coulda given him a Batmobile.