VOD (1)
Seasons(3) / Episodes(51)
Plots(1)
Three years after Batman mysteriously disappeared, Gotham is a city in despair. Without the Caped Crusader, the Gotham City Police Department was overrun and outgunned by criminal gangs. Enter Jacob Kane and his military-grade Crows Private Security, which now protects the city with omnipresent firepower and militia. Years before, Jacob's first wife and daughter were killed in the crossfire of Gotham crime. He sent his only surviving daughter, Kate Kane, away from Gotham for her safety. After a dishonorable discharge from military school and years of brutal survival training, Kate returns home when the Alice in Wonderland gang targets her father and his security firm, by kidnapping his best Crow officer Sophie Moore. In order to help her family and her city, Kate will have to become the one thing her father loathes – a dark knight vigilante. With the help of her compassionate stepsister, Mary, and the crafty Luke Fox, the son of Wayne Enterprises' tech guru Lucius Fox, Kate Kane continues the legacy of her missing cousin, Bruce Wayne, as Batwoman. (HBO Europe)
(more)Reviews of this series by the user NinadeL (11)
Batwoman (2019)
Batwoman herself is a very interesting character. The original version of the character dates back to 1956 and its modern incarnation has been with us since 2006. It used to be typical Silver Age fun, of which there was plenty of in the pages of Batman comics. Today, Batwoman is one of the proud members of the extended Bat-family. When Batwoman comics were published under the names of Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III, it was an absolute delight. Each book, whether "Detective Comics" or the "Batwoman" solo series, was a great piece of art, the stories had a great atmosphere, and you could often look at the two-page collages for hours. The crossover with Wonder Woman was great, and the relationship-building with Maggie Sawyer... After that came the first animated film and now a live-action series within the Arrowverse. Yet it is completely different, and for fans of the comics, it's a pure slap in the face.
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Season 1 (2019) (S01)
While the Batwoman comics are 18+, the series is for 12+ and that might be saying it all. It really doesn't make much sense to add a solo Batwoman to the CW family of shows based on DC comics, because everything else is so fired up and audience-appealing, especially to teens. But it happened, and teenagers were exposed to their first lesbian (and Jewish) protagonist. It's a great move in theory, but how do you turn a mature read into something that young people will sit down and watch week after week? Firstly, leave the parents as the most important people, and then secondly, we'll highlight the strength of the sisterly bond and let it bubble up with a mix of catchphrases, supporting characters from Gotham, and then we get the result. Acting-wise, it's much better than the stoic Ruby Rose in the lead role, veteran Rachel Skarsten as the psychopathic Alice, who starred in the series version of Birds of Prey years ago. The sidekicks are interesting. However, what is questionable is the level of violence depicted, which seemingly separates Batwoman from the explicitly positive Supergirl and other caped crusaders. But if you can guess who Nocturna or Duela Dent are, give yourself some points. Here and there we get some quality L drama and various winks at DC goodies. So really, it's just a matter of how serious you are about DC adaptations.
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Tell Me the Truth (2019) (S01E07)
The first episode with the series' Julia Pennyworth. Casting Christina Wolfe was a classic whitewashing drama because in the comics she's the dark-skinned daughter of Batman's butler Alfred and Mademoiselle Marie (but only since 2014). Originally, everyone was white, and Julia started as Julia Remarque, whose character was most influenced by her mother being a heroine of the French Resistance during World War II.
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Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part 2 (2019) (S01E09)
That was pure fun. Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor? :D The return of Brandon Routh as Superman? Matt Ryan's next guest appearance as John Constantine? Tom Welling and Erica Durance as Clark Kent and Lois Lane from Smallville (Earth-167)? And last but not least, Kevin Conroy finally as Batman, since he's voiced him in so many cartoons? If there is anyone who only follows only Batwoman, they must have been really surprised after the last massacre. Because this isn't an episode - it's fan service.
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Season 2 (2021) (S02)
It took three years for the emotions to settle. In the meantime, I watched all of Supergirl and Superman & Lois. But now I'm quite curious about how the series managed to continue with the new Batwoman played by Javicia Leslie. The problem (or advantage, depending on how you look at it) is the fact that the new wearer of the costume and mask, Ryan Wilder, is a completely new character. She was created specifically for the situation in the series after the main actress, Ruby Rose, decided not to continue. Ruby Rose ended her DC career prematurely due to a spinal injury, which is understandable, and I hope she continues her work in much safer conditions in the future. The creators were left with a situation where all the supporting characters remained in place, and the new heroine was a girl who had been unlucky in life. Ryan Wilder has a lot of baggage - false accusations, months spent in prison, a childhood spent in foster homes, and several traumas. From this, you can piece together a motivation for doing good, especially if the girl knows martial arts. Surprisingly, the series is still running well in its second season. It's still quite dark compared to other DC shows on CW, but that's definitely not a minus. Alice has an interesting new side story, and the only real disappointment is that Ryan Wilder practically doesn't exist in the comics (she appears in a few panels in "Batgirl #50/2020," "DC Essential Graphic Novels 2021," "Batman: Urban Legends #5/2021," "DC Pride 2021," "Earth-Prime 2023"... her only coherent story is in the "Earth-Prime 2022" miniseries, which isn't much). But a solo title of Batwoman hasn't been published since 2018, so there's really nothing to address here. She simply shone in the era of The New 52 and then merged with the others in the Bat universe.
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Bat Girl Magic! (2021) (S02E03)
The first episode with the mysterious Safiyah Sohail, known only to readers of Batwoman vol. 2 from the DC Rebirth era. In the comics, she's the former lover of the original Batwoman, but in the series, she's rewritten as Alice's nemesis.
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Rule #1 (2021) (S02E09)
Anyone who was waiting for Kate Kane's funeral has finally gotten their wish. All the supporting characters had enough time to grieve, and in the end, even the most unlikely twist was written very well.
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Season 3 (2021) (S03)
The development of the Batwoman series is truly intriguing. The first season emerged at a time when the Arrowverse was expanding into unprecedented dimensions. The solo "Batwoman" series had a great reputation among readers after 2011, but the fundamental problem was that its comic book depiction was geared towards adults, while CW series are pure teen entertainment. What they managed with this conflict in the first season was a clear compromise, whose effects we see primarily in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Part 2 crossover. Ruby Rose played a generic lesbian with a short haircut and in the larger DC team, she seemed out of place. That's why the first season was easily dominated by Rachel Skarsten as the villain Alice, stylized into a dark version of Lewis Carroll's world. In the second season, there was a recast after Ruby Rose's spinal injury, and thanks to Javicia Leslie's appearance, Batwoman became a BLM manifesto, which rubbed against the audience until halfway through the second season, but then it all fell into place. Alice was humanized, the Gotham gang in the new lineup got used to each other, and even with this complicated genesis, the final shortened third season ran like clockwork. The creators began to fully enjoy the world, where Batman may have disappeared, but his villains and their successors are still going strong. Of course, the main antagonist of the series was still Joker, policewoman Renee Montoya experienced another chapter of romance with Poison Ivy, and Ryan Wilder found her biological mother. The almost Oedipal drama always framed the omnipresent L drama, for which even the creators of The L Word would not be ashamed. In the end, Batwoman offered qualities that no one expected from the series, and I'm glad for that progress.
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Loose Tooth (2021) (S03E02)
This series isn't afraid to take risks, and it's as if they knew there were only a few episodes left, so they have something special prepared for each one. This time, they introduce the next generation of Killer Croc. The original comic character dates back to 1983, and in feature films, you can find him in Suicide Squad.
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Freeze (2021) (S03E03)
Next up is a meeting with Mr. Freeze, another classic villain who has been lurking around Gotham since 1959. Check out the TV series Batman 66 and Gotham, the classic animated series Batman and Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, and the feature film Batman & Robin.
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A Lesson from Professor Pyg (2021) (S03E05)
The world of Batwoman is great because it draws on classic Batman villains. So, there's always talk of the Joker, and every now and then, someone like Flamingo and Professor Pyg (characters appearing in comics since 2007) shows up.
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