With 24 more episodes ranked, the larger second season comes to a close and its time to pour over some numbers and overall thoughts.

You know the drill by now. I keep a big dumb spreadsheet and use the point totals from that to rank directors, writers and composers. I’m once again leaving out animation as Koko & Dong Yang handled every single episode.

1. Season Review
2. Director Rankings
3. Writer Rankings
4. Composer Rankings
5. Episode Rankings
6. Rogues Roundup

Season Review

As mentioned at the top of the season, the network demanded they dispense with the corporate espionage angle and ditch the middle-aged villain, Derek Powers (who turned into a freakin’ glowing skeleton!) Instead, the team were made to play more into the high school drama. Almost every episode of the sophomore season features at least one scene in the school itself, Terry’s friends get much bigger roles, including new addition Howard Groot and of course his plucky new sidekick, Max. It was my experience up until recently that everybody adored Max, but I have begun to see some backlash against her of late, presumably because it lessened Bruce’s role.

While all of that may sound extremely offputting, and what sceptics feared when Beyond was first announced, I don’t think that was necessarily a detriment. Sure, there are a number of truly rotten episodes this season, and I’d definitely say it’s weaker than the first, but these mandates allowed us to expand Terry’s world and grow some of the sideline characters. They probably didn’t take that aspect quite far enough, and to still not have done much with the main character’s girlfriend after 37 episodes is a crime.

Instead I think this season suffered from a lack of Paul Dini’s guiding hand, Curt Geda beginning to pull away to work on the movie, and a much lower hit rate when it came to introducing new villains. Having Blight, Inque, The Royal Flush Gang, Spellbinder, Shriek and Curaré all debut in a short span of time AND bringing back Mr. Freeze is as good as it gets, really. That might even be a higher hit rate than an equivilent span of episodes in BTAS to be honest. Conversely many of the Season 2 debuts are pretty bad, and even the best ones are only okay. Stalker, Mad Stan, Dr. Cuvier (and the general idea of Splicing), Earthmover and Robert Vance just aren’t as good, and only two of them appear more than once.

For me the best parts of the season were demonstrations of how Terry had grown into his role of Batman, tackling a number of problems without Bruce’s help, and in one instance having to win the day without his advanced Batsuit. They toyed multiple times with him potentially revealing his identity for the greater good, which Bruce vehemently disagreed with of course.

But it’s hard to get away from the feeling their hearts just weren’t in it as much after making such a concerted effort to hit the ground running with their brand new shiny toy in season one. Maybe they resented the changes. After all, the network forced them to STOP using the school as a location again mid-way through due to Columbine, so they had to try and use high school characters without the school and without placing them in too much peril. That whiplash of tone and directives can’t have been easy to accomodate. Still, some of the best episodes in the show alongside the dreck.

Director Rankings

Rankings are just based on the point totals for the episodes and do not necessarily reflect who I think the best directors are yada yada yada…

Starting with Season 2 rankings:

1. Dan Riba (7 eps)
2. Butch Lukic (8 eps)
3. James Tucker (1 ep)
4. Curt Geda (5 eps)
5. Kyung-Won Lim (3 eps)

Although this isn’t far off what I’d sanction. I’d move Curt Geda up to first or second and that would be it. I love his work and while 5 episodes isn’t nothing, that accounted for a third of season one, whereas this time it’s less than a quarter. His episodes were also worse this time around, but as I always say, that doesn’t actually mean HE got worse.

Butch Lukic & Dan Riba handled the bulk of the work, and you can do a lot worse in my opinion. In fact, I think both may be better than the BTAS directors who had thelargest episode counts.

James Tucker makes his DCAU directing debut and he’ll go on to have a huge hand in multiple shows. His lone episode was the perfectly fine if infamous Eggbaby. And bringing up the rear is Kyung-Won Lim who helmed 3 episodes, two of which were fine and one that was bad. I’ll say again that it’s not that they’re non-American, it’s that I think outsourcing these responsibilities to a third party is generally always going to worse results, just as it would if a Korean show asked an American director to do an episode.

There were some fun opportunities to get even more whacky visually, such as Terry battling The Brain Trust, the Splicers, Earthmover, Zeta and all the VR stuff. While some other elements may dip, Beyond is never not gorgeous.

As for what this does for the overall director rankings:

1. Curt Geda (10 eps) (-)
2. Dan Riba (10 eps) (-)
3. Butch Lukic (11 eps) (-)
4. James Tucker (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
5. Kyung-Won Lim (3 eps) (NEW ENTRY)
6. Yukio Suzuki (2 eps) (↓)

Okay now THAT looks correct. Maybe the raw numbers DON’T lie!

Writer Rankings

Starting out with the Season 2 rankings:

1. Hilary J. Bader (5 eps)
2. Alan Burnett (5 eps)
3. Stan Berkowitz (8 eps)
4. Evan Dorkin (1 ep)
5. Sarah Dyer (1 ep)
6. John P. McCann (2 eps)
7. Shaun McLaughlin (1 ep)
8. Rich Fogel (5 eps)
9. Paul Dini (1 ep)
10. Robert Goodman (3 eps)
11. John Shirley (1 ep)
12. James Tucker (1 ep)

Seems about right. Burnett & Bader were actually tied, and as veterans of BTAS/TNBA who penned a lot of episodes I liked, I’m cool with them claiming the top spot. Almost all of Bader’s episodes landed in the top half, including my favourite of the season, while Burnett’s were clumped closer together in the middle. I will note that Burnett has more story credits than teleplay ones, and I again slightly regret not breaking it down like that throughout this endeavour.

Just below them is a four-way tie with Stan Berkowitz and a trio of one-and-done writers. I placed Stan on top because of his multiple credits. He’s got by far the most credits in the season and overall, and ends up being one of the lead creative forces on the show. I like him and his episodes… but he’s not Paul Dini.

Rich Fogel and Bob Goodman sit near the bottom despite being prominent DCAU names with a lot of credits. No disrespect to either of them, but they have seemed a step below here and in TNBA. Goodman will end up devoting a lot of his creative energies to the doomed spinoff, The Zeta Project, but he’s not done here.

As for the overall Top 10 after 2 seasons:

1. Paul Dini (1 ep) (-)
2. Hilary J. Bader (8eps) (↑)
3. Stan Berkowitz (12 eps) (↓)
4. Alan Burnett (7 eps) (-)
5. Robert Goodman (6 eps) (-)
6. Evan Dorkin (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
7. Sarah Dyer (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
8. Shaun McLaughlin (1 ep) (NEW ENTRY)
9. John P. McCann (2 eps) (NEW ENTRY)
10. Rich Fogel (7 eps) (↓)

I miss Paul Dini. Even though he only wrote one episode in each season, he sits atop the pile and I’m not even mad about it. He’ll make a few more appearances next season, but was presumbly writing scripts for the Beyond movie during season two, as well as finishing up his duties on Superman: The Animated Series.

Everything else feels about right, though I always take one-and-done writers with a pinch of salt. Bader, Berkowitz, Burnett and Goodman are all decent. Fogel is a little less so.

Composer Rankings

As always, I don’t actually understand music on a technical level and I don’t comment on it during the episodes nearly enough. But let’s start with the Season 2 rankings:

1. Kristopher Carter (7 eps)
2. Lolita Ritmanis (7 eps)
3. Michael McCuistion (7 eps)
4. Shirley Walker (3 eps)

Carter & Ritmanis actually tied and with an identical episode count I broke it alphabetically. There really wasn’t much in it between them and McCuistion, and I REALLY enjoyed the communist equal split of their episode counts, which was true in season one as well, with Ritmanis havine one more than the other three.

Walker’s episode count dropped off and her placement was much lower than the other three, but she’s obviously an immortal queen who I will never say a bad word about. I thiiiink she began to scale back her work around this time, having done a LOT of BTAS & STAS, and doing comparaitively less for Beyond and The Zeta Project.

Basically I think they’re all really good! Let’s look at how it impacts the overall rankings:

1. Lolita Ritmanis (11 eps) (-)
2. Kristopher Carter (10 eps) (-)
3. Michael McCuistion (10 eps) (↑)
4. Shirley Walker (6 eps) (↓)

No ties here, and Ritmanis’ lead on Carter is actually pretty big. Not much in it between the other three though. Again, they’re all good!

Episode Rankings

Like my Season Review says above, this is just a worse season of television, which is a bummer given there’s almost twice as much of it. I do think the Top 6 are some are just straight up good and among the best in the show… but there are a number of pretty bad ones towards the bottom and the majority are intensely medicore.

Season 2 in a bubble:

1. Eyewitness
2. Babel
3. Lost Soul
4. Sneak Peek
5. Zeta
6. Bloodsport
7. Earth Mover
8. Armory
9. Final Cut
10. Once Burned
11. Splicers
12. Hidden Agenda
13. The Eggbaby
14. Revenant
15. Terry’s Friend Dates a Robot
16. Sentries of the Last Cosmos
17. Mind Games
18. Hooked Up
19. Joyride
20. April Moon
21. The Last Resort
22. Payback
23. Plague
24. Rats

Aaaand the overall, with the season numbers in brackets to demonstrate Season 1’s overall superiority:

1. Eyewitness (S2)
2. Meltdown (S1)
3. Babel (S2)
4. Shriek (S1)
5. Disappearing Inque (S1)
6. Rebirth: Part 1 (S1)
7. A Touch of Curaré (S1)
8. Spellbound (S1)
9. Lost Soul (S2)
10. Sneak Peek (S2)
11. Zeta (S2)
12. Bloodsport (S2)
13. Black Out (S1)
14. Earth Mover (S2)
15. Rebirth: Part 2 (S1)
16. Dead Man’s Hand (S1)
17. Armory (S2)
18. Final Cut (S2)
19. Once Burned (S2)
20. Splicers (S2)
21. Hidden Agendas (S2)
22. Golem (S1)
23. Ascension (S1)
24. The Eggbaby (S2)
25. Heroes (S1)
26. Revenant (S2)
27. Terry’s Friend Dates a Robot (S2)
28. Sentries to the Last Comos (S2)
29. Mind Games (S2)
30. Hooked Up (S2)
31. Joyride (S2)
32. April Moon (S2)
33. The Winning Edge (S1)
34. The Last Resort (S2)
35. Payback (S2)
36. Plague (S2)
37. Rats (S2)

Rogues Roundup

As mentioned above, the new arrivals for Season 2 just aren’t as good. A few make a lasting impact (Mad Stan, Stalker and the general idea of Splicing if not Dr. Cuvier himself), but most are single-appearances and more than half of them are bad. Creating an entirely new pantheon of villains is a difficult task, and the great ideas were bound to run dry as the show went on.

Based entirely on their Season 2 appearances, I’d go with:

1. Shriek
2. Curaré
3. Earthmover
4. Ian Peek
5. Dr. Cuvier (and pals!)
6. Spellbinder
7. Mad Stan
8. Robert Vance
9. Armory
10. The Jokerz
11. Willie Watt
12. Stalker
13. The Mayhem Family
14. The Royal Flush Gang
15. Agent Bennet
16. Bullwhip’s Gang
17. The Brain Trust
18. Cynthia
19. Simon Harper & The Sentries
20. Kobra
21. Payback
22. Falseface
23. Ratboy
24. Dr. Wheeler

I would imagine I’d catch some heat over Stalker being so low. I just don’t think he was very well written in his debut even if his design is cool, and his return episode hurt him a LOT.

Spellbinder appears in my favourite episode of the season, but he’s only in it at the end and without a meatier appearance to help him, I couldn’t in good conscience put him in the Top 5.

I miss Inque 😦

As for the overall rankings:

1. Inque
2. Shriek
3. Curaré
4. Mr. Freeze
5. Derek Powers/Blight
6. Spellbinder
7. The Jokerz
8. Earthmover
9. The Royal Flush Gang
10. Ian Peek
11. Dr. Cuvier (and pals!)
12. Mad Stan
13. Willie Watt
14. Robert Vance
15. Armory
16. Stalker
17. The Mayhem Family
18. The Terrific Trio
19. Agent Bennet
20. Bullwhip’s Gang
21. The Brain Trust
22. Cynthia
23. Simon Harper & The Sentries
24. Kobra
25. Dr. Stephanie Lake
26. Howard Hodges & General Norman
27. Paxton Powers
28. Jackson Chappell
29. Payback
30. Falseface
31. Mr. Fixx
32. Ratboy
33. Dr. Wheeler