I love the look of the first season, It had great camera angles, stark, moody lighting and dramatically deep-focused shots, something sorely lacking for most of the second season and all of the third season.
For instance I recently watched "True Or False Face"/"Holy Rat Race" and some of the shots were so well done:
The compact framing and deep focus actually used the small television screen to its advantage. I think that the unique look of the show definitely played a part in its early success.
I particularly enjoy the look of "A Riddle A Day Keeps The Riddler Away/When The Rat's Away, The Mice Will Play", "True Or False-Face/Holy Rat Race", "The Purr-fect Crime/Better Luck Next Time" and "The Bookworm Turns/While Gotham City Burns"
When I hear dissenters of the series say, "Batman was never shown at night," I have to gently correct them--as you two have perfectly mentioned, there was such great use of shadows in these particular episodes The episodes afterward paled compared to these greats in many, many respects, but certainly in cinematography. Thanks much for the great thread and posts.
