This episode is like Frank Miller directing Batman '66 TV on acid, except less violent, less campy and kind of nothing like that comparison at all. But Critters is a fantastic, underrated episode, nonetheless.

Yet, the thing fans most compare this episode to is a return to the style and tone of the reviled Adam West classic of yesteryears. The reason is, of course, the villain's premise... a genetist farmer. Apparently, this over the top. Clayface, the Lazarus pit, Etrican and Klarion, Man-bat, and Tygrus. But Farmer Brown, looking like a more twisted version of American Gothic, is not played for laughs; instead, he is excellently underplayed by Peter Breck and Peter Breck's magnificent voice.

The script is a wonderful thing in itself. Written by the East Texan who brought us the solid 10er Read My Lips from an idea by the creator of Howard the Duck, this script has great pacing, most every line works for the story, and some great set pieces (love that almost Truman Show like indoor farm).

And the lines aren't especially evocative of a sillier form of comedy. They are like the humorous, sometimes hilarious lines, in many an installment of the animated adventures of the dark knigth detective.

Before letting this review ramble on to long for an episode loathed by most likely to read it, I should give mention to the excellent technical merit of the animation, creature design, and especially the score. I wish I knew more about musical scores so I could say something charming here, but I will say, the music captures the mood perfectly. There is a certain creepiness below the surface being evoked. Now thats what I call 'purdy.'

In the end, I'll dock the score for a few too many Robin one-liners, but those aren't particularly endemic to just this episode.

John Goodman deserves a ten score for playing the immortal Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski. He has a free pass with me and I'm sure many others for that tremendous performance as a Viet Nam veteran and Jewish convert by marriage and despite divorce in what is now to me and many others an all-time classic. Thankfully we can also relish his performances in any other Coen brothers film, Monsters, Inc., Roseanne (this is a TV site, right), etc., etc., the list could go on and on. I shall end this review with two great quotes (and the rare clean ones; say "NO" to censorship) from The Big Lebowski: (1)"So you have no frame of reference here, Donny. You're like a child who wanders into the middle of a movie and wants to know..." and (2)"Donny was a good bowler, and a good man. He was one of us. He was a man who loved the outdoors... and bowling, and as a surfer he explored the beaches of Southern California, from La Jolla to Leo Carrillo and... up to... Pismo. He died, like so many young men of his generation, he died before his time. In your wisdom, Lord, you took him, as you took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364. These young men gave their lives. And so would Donny. Donny, who loved bowling. And so, Theodore Donald Karabotsos, in accordance with what we think your dying wishes might well have been, we commit your final mortal remains to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean, which you loved so well. Good night, sweet prince."