Review by Willis Butcher Jr.
Posted: January 2003

Critic Score: D

Batman's Little Girl Is All Grown Up.

No Longer the Hunter, meet Birds of Prey

Calmly moving through the night with stealth and ease, the Huntress waits to impart her version of justice upon those who participate in crime. Possessing both a sense of honor and a mischievous persona, the huntress battles her inner demons. She is a bird of prey. Fans of all ages were excited to hear the news that the WB would be launching another show based on the comic icon "Batman." "Birds of Prey" was billed as the next hot show starring sexy and alluring women as heroines of the night.

Unfortunately, "Birds of Prey" had one innate quality that prevented it from being interesting, it sucked!

Disappointing as it may seem, the unavoidable truth regarding "Birds of Prey" will soon come to light. The WB has done us all a favor in canceling a show that had everyone thinking, “Are you serious?” from the word go. I remember my initial excitement when I saw the first trailer during a commercial break of my favorite show. I had just rushed back into my room after grabbing a bowl of cereal. I sat on the floor and waited eagerly for the opening song….”Somebody saaavvvvve meeee,” belted from my TV. It’s time to watch Clark, not yet Superman, dismantle his less than formidable foes. As the show went to a commercial break the television screen went black. There was a light mist of fog and you see Batman standing on top of a building illuminated by the moon. Then, a smooth voiceover explaining what you would get when you mix the world’s greatest detective with the world’s greatest thief; bats begin to chirp and fly up towards the moon, and the voice says, "Birds of Prey," Wednesday on the WB. Oh my goodness, I thought, a show about Superman in "Smallville" and now one created by the same people behind "Smallville," "Birds of Prey" - a show about Batman’s daughter. Yes! It can’t get any better than this. Sadly, that was the last time I had any measure of excitement about the show. I felt like I was watching another nauseating trip through the twisted world of Anna Nicole. As it turned out, the first two episodes would be prove to be my last.

Let’s begin with the first episode. In the first episode, a voiceover provided by Alfred (isn’t he Batman’s butler?) describes the long-winded and impractical plot of Birds of Prey. Batman (Bruce Wayne) has a love affair with Catwoman (Selena Kyle) that results in a daughter Helena (Huntress). After discovering her parents’ secret identities, Helena, driven by her father’s abandonment and the death of her mother, decides to fight crime. Batman has left Gotham City and crime is running rampant (The voiceover never explained why the fearless caped vigilante would suddenly disappear). As she embarks on her crimefighting mission, the Huntress decides she is going to need help, enter Oracle, once known as Batgirl, now paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair after being shot by the Joker. Oracle (Doesn’t she work for Batman?) is a computer guru and provides some much needed parental guidance to her fledgling protégé. (Remind you of "Dark Angel" anyone?). The show slowly progresses and shows a young girl who, in a dream, has a vision of Helena’s mother being killed. She is a meta-human who has the power to see visions of people’s pasts after touching them. I am sorry to report that she, unlike her two counterparts, has no alter ego, no secret identity, and not even a fancy name. But wait, there is more. Enter the cop with a heart of gold and the belief that they are being aided by some powers of the night. Next, I introduce you to Helena’s psychiatrist Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Harley Quinn, a shrink?) who patiently sits and listens to Helena moan about being abandoned by her father, and how her mother so unexpectedly died. This ploy seems the most ironic of all. Dr. Harleen Quiznel who herself suffers from psychiatric episodes as the sidekick of the most notorious wacko of them all, the Joker, sits in a chair to offer advice to another wacko. The formula simply did not work. I felt like I was sitting in a math class listening to a teacher say that two plus two equals five. The show was trying to make lemonade out of lemons, but ended up sour.

Although the show attempted to tap into the target audience of shows like "Alias," "Dark Angel," "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer," and "Smallville," fans ultimately felt abandoned. Campy… cheesy… boring, are the only words I heard from friends and strangers alike when I asked them about "Birds of Prey." The question that everyone asked was, where is Batman in a show that is supposed to be about his child? "Birds of Prey" portrayed Batman as weak and afraid, with his daughter, Helena valiantly trying to clean up the mess that Batman supposedly left behind. Executive producers Laeta Kalogridis and Brian Robbins used the visual imagery from the "Batman" comics to come up with the scenery in "Birds of Prey." As noble as their intentions were, they failed to fit the mold of crime fighting chicks around "Birds of Prey." The women were aesthetically appealing and the other actors in the show were not unfamiliar to anyone who watches television. So what went wrong?

To begin with, there were many inconsistencies between what "Batman" fans already knew, and what "Birds of Prey" tried to introduce. In the comics, the "Huntress" has a dysfunctional relationship with Batman and is not considered part of his inner circle of Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Oracle. She also fights in the same Gotham City that Batman does, not New Gotham. Aside from that, "Birds of Prey" lacked irony and left fans without anything to look forward to for future episodes. The short-lived series also lacked both the element of parody seen in other shows like "Alias," and the much-needed paradox of innocent girl out to prove herself as a heroine ala "Buffy." And on top of that, she didn’t even have a mask. I know if I got in a fight with her, and she introduced herself as the "Huntress,” I’d say, “Uh-uh, you’re Helena.”

In a perfect world, it might have been interesting to see how "Birds of Prey" would have evolved and whether the numerous plot holes and character flaws could have been resolved over time. Unfortunately for fans of genre entertainment, in the cold calculus of television, any new series (especially fantasy and/or science fiction) must quickly find its legs or it will wind up on the chopping block faster than you can say Nielsen ratings. In the final analysis, the hasty demise of "Birds of Prey" shows that, among other things, it takes a lot more than sexy women in tight fitting suits to attract a regular audience.