Mini reviews of Television seasons old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. Occasional bunnies.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Birds of Prey (2003)

BoP is set in New Gotham, built atop the ruins of old Gotham. Batman went AWOL years ago and left the city without a hero; perhaps he got tired of being the only one of the League that had to take the Bat-bus. In his absence, Oracle (Barbara Gordon) and Huntress (Helena Kyle) continue to fight crime. They suck at it. That's okay because almost everything about BoP sucks, so they're at least well-suited.

A third team member (a teenage metahuman—it's not even worth explaining what that is) strolls in and upsets the wonky apple cart. The dynamic trio struggle with bad guys, bad acting and poorly scripted interpersonal relationships. There's a cringe-inducing romance between one of the team and a police detective who has a poker permanently up his ass. It's as passionate as a damp patch on the bed sheets that an aged cat left behind.

Along the way a number of DC characters drop in as guest of the week; that's what kept me watching. I wanted to see who they would choose and whether or not they would attempt to tie the story in with existing continuities. There's a vague reference to Smallville. It's implied the team are aware of what's happening there, but I'm guessing for legal reasons it was never developed further. Both shows share the same producers.

Dr. Harleen Quinzel pops up regularly to give the series something resembling a story arc. She's the most interesting part of the show, but like all the rest suffers from some underdeveloped and lazy characterisation. It picks up around episode 9. It drags itself out of the pit of awfulness and reaches heights of mere mediocrity until episode 12. The double length 13th and final episode is actually really good, with the exception of an extended and dodgy fight scene. It gives the sense of camaraderie, danger and heart that everything prior to it had been lacking. It's ironic that the last episode is the very best.

BoP had the potential to be more adult orientated than Smallville. Most of the characters are orphaned adults (because everyone knows all orphans grow up to be superheroes) with unresolved issues that could've produced something dark and complex. It didn't. It got cancelled after one season.

13 episodes, most are approx 43 minutes each.

1½ vigilante dress code out of 5

4 comments:

Impudent Urinal said...

Aww yeah if this works.

Cat spots are the worst. What is it about cats' intestines that make their piss and shit smell worse than all other animals.

Passionate....

cuckoo said...

I saw the first ep of this shitfest.

It used that TaTu song for the climatic fight scene.

I rolled my eyes and never tuned in again.

Dr Faustus said...

I don't remember that song.
It took me about 6 months to watch it all. I got halfway through last summer and gave up because it sucked hairy balls. I watched the last 6 or 7 episodes over the past few days and the last 3 or 4 raised the score from a zero.

Borderline said...

I've seen this on the racks but never knew what it was until now. Too bad it sucks because I was always a fan of the Huntress character (and Nightwing).