TV Review Series: Birds of Prey (2002)

When I heard that there was a show that was about Batman and Catwoman's daughter, I thought, how have I not heard of this before? How has this show gone under the radar? Forget the premise, the fact that it's about the daughter of Batman and Catwoman should make it awesome! How could this have been forgotten?

Then I found out why.

There's a lot that I like about this show. But there's a lot that is kinda sad.

I guess I'll start with the bad.

It looks cheap. Anytime the camera tries "zooming" around New Gotham, it just looks like a 12 year old kid did it on his computer. Actually, I'm sure there are some 12 year old kids out there that could do something on their computer and make it look better than this.

The worst was the "birds eye view" of Huntress running across the rooftops. Not only was it terrible, but it was reused over and over throughout the season. The same shot.

So the show was cheap.

Next, the acting.

Most of the main cast was fine, but the character playing Dinah Lance (Black Canary's daughter) was just awful. The kind of acting that pulled you out of the show and reminded you, this is a WB/CW production.

What next? The costumes? It seemed like the costumes kept changing, without any actual reason. Not a huge complaint, but annoying nonetheless.

Hmm, story?

Several of the episodes were very good, and many of them played well with the idea that Harley Quinn was in the background of the criminal world rising to power. And I'm aware that, oftentimes, especially in first seasons, some episodes are more the "Freak of the Week" style than a story arc. But some of these episodes seemed so shoehorned into the seasons, it was distracting.

One of them was about a villain from Batgirl's past returning. And while this seemed like it was out of place, they at least took the time to show a background scene, to set a little background up to establish the story.

Another episode, however, is unforgivable. Without any previous exposition of Helena Kyle/Huntress' experience in high school, suddenly an episode comes along about her high school reunion. The villain of the story ends up doing everything because he "loves" and is otherwise obsessed with her. But we're shown nothing to make us believe that, and the actor is so sub-par that it's not believable. It's just out of nowehere, and goes back where it came from without me caring much for the episode.

Background

For something with the premise of "Batman's daughter and Batgirl" there was a notable lack of Batman. Catwoman was referenced significantly more, but still not much. Also, the story takes place in "New Gotham" but it never tells when "Old Gotham" became "New Gotham" or explore whether its the same town or two different towns. It gets into this a little bit in the "Gladiatress" episode, but it never really explains it like I would have liked. The whole story takes place in the future, but it doesn't care to explain our present/their past.

Ok, the good now.

Even though its a CW show,

Even though the main cast is three women,

Even though the main villain is also a woman,

And even though the theme song is very feminine,

I was still able to enjoy most of the show.

If you're a Family Guy watcher, you may remember the episode where Brian creates What I Learned on Jefferson Street and then input of the studio execs and whatnot and the actors turns it into Classholes. I feel like that's what happened with this show.

It seems like one person had a very strong vision for a female-oriented franchise that could hold its own with the likes of Smallville. Female lead, female supporting cast (with some guys in there too), and a female recurring villain. And that could have worked. But it seemed like somebody else was like "we should put the lead in her bra for a scene so that guys will watch this show" and it got diluted. And then somebody else said "the subject material is too mature, let's focus on this girl in high school to appeal more to younger viewers" followed by "let's have them fight over a freaking sweater because that's what the tween girls that watch this show do." It just seems like it lost focus and was trying to be too many things. And unfortunately it never got a second season to grow and find its niche.

That probably doesn't sound much like a compliment, but it is. I view this show as very similar to the first season of Smallville and Arrow, but with less commitment and focus overall. But I think it could have been much better if it lasted longer than 13 episodes.

So?

Unfortunately, because it's fairly rare, its also fairly expensive. At $35, it cost me more than most of my seasons of Smallville or Supernatural, and it's just not worth it. If you ever see it for $20 and you want to check it out, go for it if you're enough of a fan to look past the flaws. Otherwise, just know its basically a girl version of Batman.