kevin75

the whole batman/catwoman thing was indeed in a parallel earth that was totally taken care of by 'crisis on infinite earths' back in 1986. this was DC's big event to streamline their history and get rid of all of the multiverses. since then, there has been no batman/catwoman thing except for much flirtation.

as a comic book fan, the whole premise of these characters really bugs me. why do they have to change stuff up? i read an article a couple of days ago from some comic book news publication and they talked to one of the producers of BOP and he said something to the effect that because this property wasn't as well known as batman, that that gave them more freedom to change the characters around. WTF?? why take the oringinal concept that has been fairly successful in the comic medium and screw it up? am i just overreacting?

Danny_boy

I watched the pilot and was so bored I fell asleep. New Gotham wasn't gothic enough, Huntress's costume was lame, and the show just looked like syndicated cheese a la V.I.P.

I agree with MicFreJas about the mutant powers thing. Total X-men rip off. And why would Huntress be superhuman anyway? Bruce Wayne was just a badass, he had no actual super powers. That's what makes him the coolest of all superheros. I suppose she could have inherited her powers from her mother, but that's just lame. I'm sure it will be cancelled before long.

Gizmo

Danny, well, if you watched through it enough you would hear a cat scream about every 10 seconds when she was fighting, meaning her powers came from her mom.

Dr. DVD

Having seen it, here is my opinion: POSSIBLE SPOILERS




The good:

-Mark Hamill as Joker's voice.

-Dina Myer Nice to see her in a role where she wasn't too incredibly bad and actually had some brains.

-The subtle winks to Batman fans (aka Harley Quinn as a psychiatrist, Arkham Asylum, inference of The Scarecrow as the villain.)

The bad:
- Mark Hamill NEVER being used again as Joker's voice after the first two minutes!!! I really got excited when I saw his name, thinking that they might actually be doing something right. I was wrong.

-Dina Myer in the Batgirl outfit. I always thought the outft itself was dumb, but Dina really looked stupid in it.

-Letting the subtleties go to waste. Mia Sara's "Call me Harley" line and revealing her as the main villain really took away the fun of seeing her IMO. They should have just left her as a psychiatrist with her name on the door for people to figure out. Nuff said.

-The acting. Dina was better than she normally is in stuff, and that's not saying much. The other two (Helena and that psychic chick) shouldn't hang up their waitress uniforms just yet.

Overall, I feel the longevity of this show either being last night and nothing more or this one year at best. If this thing does wind up being successful, then the stars will definitely spend the rest of their lives condemned to comic book conventions and signing pictures of them in their prime. Probably best that it flops.

Zien

Not awful. Better than The Twilight Zone!

The complaints about the comic-changes--I think it's kind of the WB-world version of the comic books, with this plot added. A mix between the movies and the cartoon, then throw in the background of BoP into it. For example, they said Batman left 7 years ago. The last Batman movie was in 97, which is almost 7 years ago. But the Joker was still alive, and he wasn't Jack, he was Luke. Huntress being a meta-human (definitely cashing in on X-Men) makes sense, since in Batman 2, Catwoman dies and is brought back to life by cats. (Not sure of her comic book story.)

I hate the eye-cat shot and the cat-noise that happens in every damn fight scene, though. Liked the brief use of the original Batman Elfman score near the beginning. Huntress' costume blew, and no mask makes no sense. Harley Quinn is cool, and I think Mia Sara is still hot...just in a Mrs. Robinson kinda way.

If they show continues like it is, it won't make it. Hopefully it was just a 70 minute set-up and will be better as the plot develops and it moves forward. Otherwise, it's time to watch Ghost Dog talk about weird crap on UPN.

Iron_Giant

The show was not bad. I knew who the real bad guy/girl was from the very beginning.

Dr. DVD

Yeah, and that was very annoying I might add. Having seen it, here is my opinion: POSSIBLE SPOILERS




The good:

-Mark Hamill as Joker's voice.

-Dina Myer Nice to see her in a role where she wasn't too incredibly bad and actually had some brains.

-The subtle winks to Batman fans (aka Harley Quinn as a psychiatrist, Arkham Asylum, inference of The Scarecrow as the villain.)

The bad:
- Mark Hamill NEVER being used again as Joker's voice after the first two minutes!!! I really got excited when I saw his name, thinking that they might actually be doing something right. I was wrong.

-Dina Myer in the Batgirl outfit. I always thought the outft itself was dumb, but Dina really looked stupid in it.

-Letting the subtleties go to waste. Mia Sara's "Call me Harley" line and revealing her as the main villain really took away the fun of seeing her IMO. They should have just left her as a psychiatrist with her name on the door for people to figure out. Nuff said.

-The acting. Dina was better than she normally is in stuff, and that's not saying much. The other two (Helena and that psychic chick) shouldn't hang up their waitress uniforms just yet.

Overall, I feel the longevity of this show either being last night and nothing more or this one year at best. If this thing does wind up being successful, then the stars will definitely spend the rest of their lives condemned to comic book conventions and signing pictures of them in their prime. Probably best that it flops.

madara

OMG! Someone actually was able to watch this in its entiredy?
12 mins in, having realised I was loosing IQ pt for every min of this travesty I quickly turned it off. Besides feeling alot dumber I want my 12mins back too

Dr. DVD

Having seen it, here is my opinion: POSSIBLE SPOILERS




The good:

-Mark Hamill as Joker's voice.

-Dina Myer Nice to see her in a role where she wasn't too incredibly bad and actually had some brains.

-The subtle winks to Batman fans (aka Harley Quinn as a psychiatrist, Arkham Asylum, inference of The Scarecrow as the villain.)

The bad:
- Mark Hamill NEVER being used again as Joker's voice after the first two minutes!!! I really got excited when I saw his name, thinking that they might actually be doing something right. I was wrong.

-Dina Myer in the Batgirl outfit. I always thought the outft itself was dumb, but Dina really looked stupid in it. Also, how did Joker know she was Batgirl? Obviously he did or he wouldn't have been taunting her like that.

-Letting the subtleties go to waste. Mia Sara's "Call me Harley" line and revealing her as the main villain really took away the fun of seeing her IMO. They should have just left her as a psychiatrist with her name on the door for people to figure out. Nuff said.

-The acting. Dina was better than she normally is in stuff, and that's not saying much. The other two (Helena and that psychic chick) shouldn't hang up their waitress uniforms just yet.

-That stupid cat roar. DUMB!!!

Overall, I feel the longevity of this show either being last night and nothing more or this one year at best. If this thing does wind up being successful, then the stars will definitely spend the rest of their lives condemned to comic book conventions and signing pictures of them in their prime. Probably best that it flops.

AgtFox

Yes, Helena Kyle was conceived by Batman and a reformed Catwoman on Earth-2. Earth-2, as termed in Crisis on Infinite Earths, was where the Silver Age heros resided. This would be characters such as the original Superman, Batman, Flash (Jay Gordon), etc. as well as the Earth that housed the JSA (Justice Society of America). They all looked older than their counterparts on other worlds.

Basically because of the JSA having Silver Age Superman, Batman, Flash, etc. and with the same (but younger) characters having other books that lived in or Earth-1 and them being in the JLA (Justice League of America), DC created the maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths to streamline everything into one world with only one Superman, Batman, Flash, etc. in the universe instead of many. It also gave DC a change to reboot Superman and Flash (for instance) and make Superman's powers weaker than they were (at the point Crisis started Superman was pretty much invincible, even in some cases to Kryptonite) in the Silver Age version.

This also allowed some other DC properties to reside on one earth as well (the Marvel family: Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, etc. all lived on a different earth than the rest of the DC universe).

Anyway, getting back on topic. It seems the TV show is borrowing both from the pre and post-Crisis stories. From the pre-Crisis stories they get the lineage from Batman that is not in effect in post-Crisis (Huntress is a daughter of a mob boss now). Birds of Prey, along with Barbara Gordon being paralyzed, is a post-Crisis story. If you ever want to read about Barbara being paralyzed, go out and purchase the graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. In some ways it is the Joker at his absolute psychopathic best.

Smallville also relies heavily on both pre and post-Crisis storylines. In post-Crisis, the only kryptonite in the world was green kryptonite. This very season, they will introduce red kryptonite into Smallville. The Clark/Luthor dynamic is very akin to post-Crisis stories as well. So, Birds of Prey is not the only one confusing continuity.

MonkeyG

"I hate the eye-cat shot and the cat-noise that happens in every damn fight scene..."

That was very annoying, reminded me of the old Thundercat cartoons.

Dr. DVD

Nope. It was a cheap rip-off, not a new thing for comic to tv adaptations.

Eric F

If you read Alan Moore's classic Batman: The Killing Joke, you'ld get a better sense of what had happened. I won't give it away, as it's one of Alan Moore's best works. The back story of BoP is loosely based on it (as is the last 10+ years of Batman comics).

Well worth the $5 price.

Soybean

Yeah, the show sucked. Can't hold a candle to Smallville at all. Filled with cheesiness and cliches. The cat noise was horrible. I have a lot of complaints. I'll watch again, for sure, but with West Wing in the same time slot, it'll be annoying to have to tape one of them.

Numanoid

I thought the same thing (she even has her mannerisms). I was thinking, "Gee, didn't take long for Kristin Kreuk to get her sister a job", that's how close they seem. If they intentionally picked Rachel Skarsten for this reason, that would be so very, very lame.

devilpants

I guess I'm in the minority, but I liked Dina Meyer as Batgirl. She looked great in the costume. Now if that was a weekly show (classic Batgirl), I'd tune in, but this mess of a show doesn't make it.

Lou Pole

Some of the background is also taken from the Batman: No Man's Land novel.

greydt

Being a fan of the comic book, I'll give the show around half a season to win me over. Some of my likes and dislikes:

likes:
- Dina Meyer makes a great Oracle
- looking forward to Mia Sara getting more into the Harley character
- Rachel Skarsden is cute

dislikes:
- like someone else stated earlier, that cat growl following the Huntress really needs to go. I'd throw in the eye changing scenes as something that needs to be removed as well.
- If the Huntress becomes the stereotypical hot-head character in every episode, it's going to get REALLY annoying
- is that cop guy going to "somehow" appear in every episode? (and is he suppose to be the "Muldar" of the Gotham police department?)
- also mentioned by someone else, doesn't Huntress not having a mask pose a problem to having a "secret identity"?

Overall, it seems to be following the usual genre plotline using the X-files template: a conspiracy plotline interspersed with solo stories. I'd like to see this show get better, but I have a bad feeling about it.

CaptainMarvel

Ugh! Ugh ugh ugh. UghUghUghUghUghUghUgh.

BAD show! Bad.

[CM swats the show across the nose with a rolled up newspaper.]

I don't know where to start... from the idea of Batman not knowing that Selina Kyle was pregnant with his kid... to the stupid cat growling thing... to the lack of mask... to the fact that Black Canary is now, well, Dawn, from Buffy... to the ...

Ugh. One redeeming line, about the meteor rocks, and that's only good because it's a reference to a DC show done well.

Gah.

Patman

What is sort of weird is that in the comics, it's Marvel that does all of the "re-imaginings" with many of their current titles, like the Ultimate series which set characters' origins in present day and move forward without all of the baggage of the long-running titles for their popular characters. But in the films, they are keeping the origins updated, but very close to the original origins that most people are familiar with. Marvel adaptations from the 80's to the mid-90's were atrocious. Does anyone remember the TV shows/movies for: The Punisher, The Fantastic Four, Captain America, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Hulk (was passable), and Doctor Strange?

Luckily for us, we live in an age where the studios are comfortable throwing enough money into the special effects to do the super-hero subject matter right. Earlier, we simply didn't have neither the budget or technology to translate comics to the big screen without it looking super-cheesy.

DC's already done the origin stuff with the 1st Superman and Batman films. To re-tread that stuff would not be something I'd want to see. But DC is in a quandary of putting up entertaining films featuring their big guns.

While I'm sort of puzzled by the choice of doing a re-vamp/interpretation of the Birds of Prey for TV, I think it's more of a vehicle to get young women (looking for empowered female characters) to tune into the WB, nothing more, nothing less. So, maybe that's the main demographic that the WB is after, and for many of us males expressing how cheesy it is, it still may gain enough viewership among females to keep it afloat.

fujishig

It's definitely going for a female audience. At least, during the tons of commercials there were many, many feminine product ads.

It reminds me a lot of Mutant X, if only for the cheesiness of the sets and the fact that Huntress has the EXACT SAME POWERS as one of the Mutant X girls. You know, cat eyes, cat agility, blah, blah blah. The fight scenes were really horridly done, too.

I was hoping they'd address this secret identity thing a little more. I mean, at first I thought it was a clark kent/superman kind of thing, since huntress does look really different with her hair up when she's bartending. But then that guy recognizes her right off the bat? I mean, that cop, at the very least, got a very good look at her. Does she expect to distract people with her cleavage so that they're not looking at her face?

On the other hand, I'm kind of glad that they didn't go the whole superhero costume route. Just look at that commercial for next week's Charmed episode to see how bad leather and masks can look...

The other major thing that bugged me (along with a whole bunch of minor things): they send that girl (Black Canary) to the docks all by herself, when she's already shown that she can't even fight off one teenager. "Well, you can't be in two places at once" I'm sure they came across that problem before... Not to mention that they send her in with some funky hardware on her head, so Oracle can see everything. And then she uses a flashlight anyway. She's lucky the villain wasn't still in his lair...

I also don't understand what Canary was planning on doing in Gotham besides wander around being homeless, hoping that she finds people she dreamed about years ago.

I'm giving it a chance, though. It does show, however, that Smallville was really smart in not going the costumed route, and focusing instead on a maturing Clark Kent and his buddies. I don't really mind the changes to the comic, since this is a whole different universe anyway. I hope it improves, and that people give it a chance to improve.

movieking

It wasn't a great show, but I like the premise (not to mention the hot chicks), so I will give it a chance.

BTW, I know that the episode was supposed to be expanded, but the station that I watched it on seemed like it was able to squeeze it all into one hour, it just seemed like they had quick, choppy commercials. Anyone know what the actual non-commercial running time was? I think that regular shows are about 43 or 44 minutes.

minifigg

I liked the premise too...
HOLY GOD< that was supposed to be MIA SARA.
She looks SOOOOOOOOOOO bad now.
Whoa.
mini

Danny_boy

Well obviously the powers come from her mother, I'm just saying that I think it was bad. I saw some of the fight scenes, the close-ups of her eye changing were stupid and overdone. I not a comic book reader so perhaps I'm way off base here, but I think Huntress would be much more interesting if she were more like dad. For those who have read them, what is she like in the comic books? I had such high hopes for this show, but found it to be a huge let down.

fujishig

Well, in the comic books, Huntress is not related at all to Batman or Catwoman (she was pre-Crisis of Infinite Earths, but not now... trust me, it's confusing). She doesn't have any super powers, wears a purple outfit with mask and cape, and shoots people with a little crossbow.

Of course, Black Canary in the comics is older than Huntress, is a veteran superhero, has no psychic powers, and currently has no powers at all (though I think her sonic scream might be back, I'm not sure).

Oracle is pretty much the same.

Birds of Prey the comic book is mainly about Oracle and Black Canary, though they do get other women superheroes in every once in a while. I don't read it though, so I don't really know all that much else...