Batwoman (2019 series)
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Batwoman is an American superhero television series developed by Caroline Dries for The CW. It is based on the DC Comics character Batwoman and shares continuity with the other television series in the Arrowverse. The show was canceled in April 2022 after three seasons.
Plot
Three years after billionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter ego, Batman disappeared, his cousin Kate Kane sets out to overcome her demons and become a symbol of hope by protecting the streets of Gotham City as Batwoman.
Why It Can't Glide
- A very unoriginal story about Kate Kane, the cousin of Bruce Wayne/Batman, who takes the mantle of the caped crusader instead of being inspired by him and just ends up being incompetent in later episodes. Another in season 2, is even more unoriginal revolving around a homeless woman named, Ryan Wilder replacing Kate Kane as Batwoman to get revenge on the villainess Alice for murdering her mother and it goes on for the final 2 seasons.
- The show takes itself WAY too seriously. Now, Batman IS a (mostly) serious character who keeps himself fighting crime and not killing, but this show is extremely serious without moments of levity, which can turn audiences away due to how bleak it is.
- Attempts to modernize the Batman mythos but ended up ripping it off.
- It's stated that before the show's events, Batman killed the Joker and left Gotham 3 years ago. This is a disgrace to Batman fans as it completely neglects the dynamic relationship between the two and robs them. But it is reasonable how Kate Kane took the mantle of Batwoman. Also, it is possibly one of the worst plot twists ever in Batman and television show history (the only good thing about this is that the Joker will never need to show up in this awful show).
- To add salt to the wound, Bruce Wayne/Batman doesn't show up in person, as of season 3 and is forgotten when the show was canceled.
- It doesn't feel like a Batman show at all, and it's just more like a generic Power Rangers show made for teenage edge lords than mature audiences. Likely, the creators of this show never wanted a Batman show of their own, and it shows.
- The tone is indeed inconsistent and barely tries to be dark.
- For some reason, the cast that is new to the show, didn't have any acting classes, resulting in dry and unconvincing acting that is super lifeless as it feels like they either feel depressed or shocked.
- This is nothing against amateur actors, who can be great in other productions (see Redeeming features).
- Moments in the show that make little-to-no sense like
- Kate Kane/Batwoman constantly lets Alice go despite killing so many people. And now Ryan Wilder/Batwoman does the same with Marquis.
- Batman has lethal weapons in the Batcave.
- Luke letting Kate come into Wayne Enterprises despite not knowing her etc., which rehashes several storylines from the previous Arrowverse shows.
- Batwoman saying that she's not gonna let men do a woman's job, although she took Batman's job and it wasn't hers, to begin with.
- The CGI is lazy, awful, and ugly to look at compared to the Arrowverse shows (specifically the creatures tasked by the Anti-Monitor), especially for an era where CGI is at its best (so far.).
- The sound effects are annoying to hear.
- The pacing is way too slow and boring. But rely too much on filler.
- The show takes the time to constantly mock Batman, even going as far as to have Kate say she's better than him, despite being so incompetent.
- They even have Lucius Fox, who is Bruce Wayne's business manager, killed off, making that a waste of potential, especially given Bruce's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and police commissioner Jim Gordon does not even appear in the show which makes Lucius the closest related character to Batman.
- The ninth episode, "Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part Two", has Kevin Conroy who was the voice actor of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman: The Animated Series play as the Earth-90 counterpart of Bruce Wayne/Batman, reveal that this version broke his rule on killing when his universe's Kate Kane died and tried to kill the other universe's Kate and Supergirl with no remorse.
- In that, Kate and Supergirl killed him in self-defense, effectively wasting all of Kevin Conroy's time and talent. And of course, you don't even see him wear his own Batsuit.
- Misandry: All men are portrayed as either weak, evil, or incompetent.
- Baffling and dumb moments that make no sense, like Batwoman being able to stop a subway train with a cable attached to a motorcycle, a vehicle that, in reality, should've broken apart when that happened.
- The Wayne Enterprise journal plotline is just pointless, given Alice wants to kill Batwoman and nothing else. She even discovers Kryptonite in the Wayne Enterprise journal, an object that is a weakness for Superman and other Kryptonians and thus has no relevance to a BATMAN related show.
- This was made for a planned crossover for a Superman TV show, Superman and Lois, but was scrapped due to COVID-19 and Ruby Rose leaving the show.
- It uses victim complex, which is a throwaway point that is always used in various Arrowverse shows.
- The characters in this show aren't even likable and are treated like cliched stereotypes same as the other Arrowverse shows:
- Batwoman/Kate Kane is an unlikeable protagonist due to how incompetent she is. She is quite arrogant, annoying, and selfish, even becoming a killer when she choked August Cartwright to death for chopping her mother's head and ruining her life. This not only completely goes against the main rule of Batman and related Bat-family superheroes that don't kill anyone, but this also makes her the villain would later happen in the final 2 episodes of season 2.
- Mary Hamilton is just another supporting Chinese or Asian character but is a rehash of Alex Danvers, Supergirl/Kara's adopted sister. She is mostly forgettable as a new character who was never even from the comics.
- Vesper Fairchild is an annoying radio talk show host who talks way too much about Batwoman when after fighting crime.
- Ryan Wilder is another example of this weird rule that females have to have male names, a victim complex, and a homeless criminal who takes the mantle of Batwoman after Kate Kane's disappearance. She even doesn't have a comic counterpart before her.
- Poor grasp of the source material, showing the writers didn't care about faithfulness nor continuity:
- Kate Kane's origin is changed into being in a car accident rather than being separated from her sister at the hands of a group of gunmen in the comics.
- Beth Kane/Alice's origin is drastically changed with her being adopted by the Cartwright family instead of being kidnapped by gunmen the same as Kate, who is also her sister.
- Alice has a love interest named Ocean who was never even from the comics.
- Kate Kane has a half-sister named Mary Hamilton in the show since the comics do not.
- Kate's bat cave takes place in a Wayne Enterprise tower than her home.
- Kate Kane's father, Jacob is a selfish parent and generic police officer who wants to hunt down Batwoman. Since, in the comics, he did know of her daughter's vigilante identity. He doesn't return in season 3.
- Originally, Alice was supposed to have white makeup and red lips, but the show does not.
- Safiyah Sohail was the former lover of Kate Kane in the comics but in the show just a generic "terrorist crime lord" who is just a bad rip-off of Ra's Al Ghul from the Batman comics and has no connection to Kate loving her.
- Russell Tavaroff/Menace was a former friend of Luke Fox/Batwing who uses the "Snakebite" drug from the Venom offshoot belonging to Batman villain, Bane to get revenge on his bullies who humiliated him and had vandalized his school locker.
- Here in the show, he is a corrupt agent of Crows Security and a former member of Black Mask's False Face Society with no connection with Luke Fox and no friendship with him.
- In the comics, Hush/Tommy Elliot was a child whose father died in a car accident since Batman/Bruce Wayne's father, Thomas, a surgeon, didn't save his father.
- But in the show, it's changed that he was in a car accident after Bruce Wayne's parents were killed years ago. As such, Batman was there in the accident and didn't save his father when Kate Kane was a little girl. Thus, Tommy grew to hate Batman for "anchoring" him to his mother who was left injured from the car accident, too.
- Rather than banging a mirror that led to his scars and needing bandages to cover his face when Bruce was upset for impersonating his looks during high school depicted in the comic, Batman: Eternal, he gets his face cut off by Mouse at Arkham Asylum.
- Wasted a bunch of decently-known Batman villains, like the aforementioned Joker, Magpie, Nocturna, Duela Dent, Black Mask, Victor Zsasz, Mad Hatter, Killer Croc, Professor Pyg, Poison Ivy, and especially Hush, whose turn to villainy was rushed along with being scared.
- The TV-only villains (not based on the comics) are unconvincing and try much to sympathize with compared to the villains based on the comics:
- August Cartwright is just some mentally "good-mannered" doctor who kidnapped Beth Kane/Alice. In the present, he brainwashes his son Joseph/Mouse to have Alice get drugged from a fear gas.
- Mabel Cartwright, August's mother, is just some old hag who is the source of his son's mentally unstable nature and Beth Kane's turn to villainy as Alice. She often tasks Beth Kane/Alice to cut off her mother's face from her severed head to regain her beauty.
- Tim "The Titan" Teslow is a drug addict and later a killer who was the toughest rewarded Football champion who uses doses of steroids to become tougher which led him to murder a footballer.
- Candice Long/ Candy Lady is a child trafficker who works for the False Face Society and kidnaps Ryan Wilder before she becomes the second Batwoman.
- Kevin Johnson is a juvenile foster child who helps Rudy/Panda try to kill the Security officer and leader of the Crows, Jacob Kane to prove himself to the False Face Society. After Ryan/Batwoman comforts him to put down the gun, he barely shows any emotion.
- Propaganda: Just like Supergirl and Stargirl, to some degree, there is forced Third Wave Feminist propaganda, showcasing Warner Bros, DC Comics, and the CW's Arrowverse at its worst.
- Instead of taking the hint and just canceling the show, or even recasting Batwoman/Kate Kane with a new actress (which did happen on March 21, 2021), the producers instead decided to change both the lead actress and the lead character into a black woman with no comic counterpart. Having the title role swapped out so quickly gives viewers even less reason to care about the show.
- The soundtrack is rather forgettable compared to other Batman-related soundtracks and does not fit its dark tone.
- The background music feels too light-hearted and annoying to listen to.
- The fight scenes are subpar and not well choreographed.
- Like the other Arrowverse shows, the cinematography is sub-par and downright bland even by TV standards. Too often does it rely on awkward closeup shots of the actors' faces?
- Lots of cliffhanger endings that go out of nowhere.
- The second season did not improve at all as of that. It even introduces a homeless woman, Ryan Wilder, who becomes Kate's replacement as Batwoman and doesn't have any reason why, but now is a Mary Sue. Making the season, even more, blander than the first season.
- Of course, Luke Fox did become Batman in the Future State event, making him a better African-American version of himself than Ryan.
- Every episode features tons of padding and filler.
- The fight between Ryan/Batwoman and Alice at the end of episode 7 from season 2, rips off Ellie sparing Abby and lets her go in The Last Of Us Part 2.
- Just like Reverse-Flash, Malcolm Merlyn, Lex Luthor, with his mother, Lilian, Grodd, and Damien Darhk, Alice is completely underused in 3 seasons and gets a lot of screentime.
- Marquis as Joker look more like a pimp than him.
- Using Joker's joy buzzer to bring Marquis back to normal is stupid. It's like saying that Batman all he had to do to get The Joker back to normal is to throw him again in a chemical tank.
- They introduce a "batblimp" that makes the shark-repellent bat spray from Batman (1966) or the bat credit card from Batman and Robin look more serious compared to this.
- It has many cliffhanger endings that go out of nowhere.
- Sequel bait ending: The series ends with the tease of Doctor Phosphorus. But because the show was canceled afterward, this will most likely never be resolved (although it was continued in the Earth-Prime comics series).
Redeeming Qualities
- Bruce, Ryan, Kate, and Luke's Batsuits look very good.
- Some of the action scenes are decent.
- Some lesser-known Batman-related characters appear.
- Despite being generic, Alice is a decent villainess along with Mouse, her partner, and Rachel Skarsten has fun with the acting portraying the character.
- Christina Wolfe was well cast as Julia Pennyworth, Alfred Pennyworth's daughter; although she's not an A-lister, this is a good way to raise her profile with her British accent.
- Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane and Camrus Johnson as Lucius Fox seems like an exception to the general misandry of the show.
- Bruce Wayne was finally cast for the Arrowverse and revealed what he looked like in person in the last episode, although it's a disguise used by Hush and appeared in a dream sequence by the hospitalized Luke.
- Luke Fox, Lucius Fox's son, was a decent supporting character, who is also another Bat-related superhero, Batwing, and becomes one at the end of season 2.
- Bevin Bru as Angelique Martin gets wider exposure through being in DC; she's a good up-and-coming actress. Although the acting being weak was mentioned above, this can be forgiven as she's not had many high-profile roles since starting in 2012 at age 21; this is her first major role and she does well with what she has to work with.
- Season 3 is shorter than the first two seasons, which means less agony especially since the series was canceled after.
- The concept of a sociopath being inspired to create chaos and destruction by the Joker is an interesting idea for season 3, depending on your point of view.
Reception
Despite receiving good reviews from critics, Batwoman has been heavily panned by the audiences and Batman fans alike, who consider it as a disgrace to Batman and the worst show in the Arrowverse. Also, some of the comments and videos would criticize the series as uninteresting, boring, poorly directed, and not trying to be dark. It also has low ratings and is one of the lowest-rated shows on the CW. The series currently holds a 3.4/10 on IMDb and has a 23% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Videos
JLongbone's Batwoman Reaction playlist Thorias Unlimited's Batwoman Review playlist
Trivia
- During the filming of Batwoman, its title actress, Ruby Rose said that she suffered an injury during stunt work and spoke out on the working conditions with the show while forced back to work by studio executives who considered the entire crew to lose their jobs if she did not. Rose stated that the production for the remaining final episodes was rushed and corners cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
- To make it clear, Rose was battling against co-stars Dougray Scott and Camrus Johnson's behavior on-set, preferring the former as abusive. In response, Scott suggested the allegations were made up entirely, while Johnson revealed that Rose was fired, feeling that chances were working on the show.
- In another response, Warner Brothers Television dismissed Ruby Rose's allegations and said that her contract was not picked up for season two due to workplace complaints. However, Rose disputed the evidence.
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