Birds of Prey: The Complete Series (review)
Like, oh my god, chick superheroes! And they are, like, as totally dull and shallow as chick superheroes almost always are in Hollywood’s limited imagination. But hey, they look fantabulous -- if your idea of fantabulous conforms to a narrow set of phony pop-culture standards -- what with all the tight leather and the bared midriffs and the pouty collagen-enhanced lips and the vapid stares. After all, this was a hit on the WB during the 2002-3 TV season, and these adventures of the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, the “metahuman” Huntress (Ashley Scott: Jericho), as she protects New Gotham City after her dad like totally abandoned it -- bummer! -- are all WB, pandering to a level of adolescent angst that even adolescents would find superficial. Through 13 episodes, Huntress and her so-bitchen roommates -- Oracle (Dina Meyer: Saw II), who used to be Batgirl until the Joker tried to kill her and is now a computer expert confined in a wheelchair (bummer!); and Dinah (Rachel Skarsten), who is learning how to use her metahuman skills while going to high school (bummer!) -- mope a lot, wallow in self-pity, and once in a while fight crime, which gets conquered pretty darn easily, leaving plenty of time to rescue a baby, fall in love with inappropriate men (all of whom are as screamingly dull as the gals), and have gabfests over fears of committment. I wish it were as funny as it sounds, because then it might be entertaining. Also included in the four-disc set are the unaired pilot and all 30 episodes of the animated Web series Gotham Girls.
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comments
posted by JoshDM (Fri Jul 25 08, 10:39AM)
I heard the Gotham Girls stuff was pretty sweet.
posted by ThatTickles (Fri Jul 25 08, 11:50AM)
"...the tight leather and the bared midriffs and the pouty collagen-enhanced lips and the vapid stares."
I'm so there. Does the DVD set come with lube?
posted by MaryAnn (Fri Jul 25 08, 1:03PM)
Really? What is appealing about Barbie dolls with no personality?
posted by Ken Patterson (Fri Jul 25 08, 2:12PM)
Um, no it wasn't. It was canceled, but was mercifully allowed to finish off it's story arc. If it were a hit, there would have been more episodes. Personally, when it was on, I rather enjoyed it and now have the DVD set waiting for me to watch it...
posted by JoshDM (Fri Jul 25 08, 2:19PM)
When it was on, we judged the the show to be better than "Dark Angel", but not as good as "Smallville".
Which isn't much considering... Smallville. :P
posted by ThatTickles (Fri Jul 25 08, 2:47PM)
No, not really. I've never seen the show. I was just making a "buy-our-stupid-T&A-DVD" joke.
I guess it either wasn't funny (although I'm still chuckling at the idea of a DVD box set that comes with lube) or feminism/gender-roles is not quite an appropriate area to crack wise about on this blog.
posted by Ryan (Fri Jul 25 08, 5:07PM)
Actually, there was one absolutely laugh out funny episode of this show, where they had an extended fight scene set to the track of T.A.T.U's 'All the Things She Said.'
Really.
posted by amanohyo (Fri Jul 25 08, 7:41PM)
Hah! Just imagining that scene has me rolling on the floor. "This is not enooooough!" *clumsily dodges kick* Did they pause for an ironic dance break?
posted by Jerry Colvin (Fri Jul 25 08, 7:48PM)
That song and all other half-decent songs (including the theme!) were replaced by generic filler music for this release.
Also, all episodes are presented in letterbox non-anamorphic format (except for the pilot, which actually is widescreen anamorphic) -- something that has upset those few of us BOP fanboys who had been looking forward to this release for years.
posted by Cathryn (Fri Jul 25 08, 9:55PM)
Oh, god, I remember this show. I watched the first few episodes, but then there came a point where I was so bored with it I couldn't be bothered to keep watching. It's not even bad enough to be good. It's just bad enough to suck.
posted by MaryAnn (Sat Jul 26 08, 5:14PM)
It started off a hit, but obviously audiences caught on to the fact that it was crap and stopped watching, because later episodes saw rapid declines in viewership.
You can if it's funny.
posted by Prankster (Mon Jul 28 08, 1:12PM)
This is based on a comic book (written by a woman, Gail Simone, no less) which I'm told is quite good. I wouldn't know, as I tend to steer clear of the corporate superhero stuff, but it's still going after a hundred issues, and tends to get good reviews from comics bloggers, so I figure this is another case of Hollywood dropping the ball. (Howard the Duck and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Also excellent comics, now forever remembered as terrible movies.)
posted by David C (Tue Jul 29 08, 2:14PM)
The comic book has been pretty darn good for a long time. First written by Chuck Dixon, later by the aforementioned Gail Simone, both of these extended runs are highly recommended.
The show was really annoying for fans of the comic book on a number of levels, but perhaps the most irritating is that *Birds of Prey*, the comic book, was practically tailor-made for a TV adaptation - no or low-powered leads, a TV-friendly setup with a photogenic "base" and missions "on location," straightforward action-adventure storytelling....
As comic book TV properties go, it was pretty hard to screw up *Birds of Prey*... but they managed.
Emblematic of the show's problems is an anecdote from star Dina Meyer told to the comic's original writer when they met once:
When she got the part of the tough, self-reliant, athletic (but now wheelchair-bound) Barbara Gordon, Dina Meyer started training pretty extensively with traditional human-powered wheelchairs, and even took lessons from a martial arts trainer in stick fighting from a seated position.
And when she showed up on the set, they had this high-tech powered wheelchair contraption, never had Barbara in any action scenes, etc....