It seems much longer than just two years ago that I reviewed the Batwoman live-action TV series on CW. It had some good elements and considering it came with a lot of baggage it inherited from the comic Batwoman: Elegy, overall it was pretty decent. Ruby Rose did fine job as Kate Kane, intense, never quite hopeful, but never totally hopeless. I didn’t much care for the Alice story, overall and honestly dislike the manic pixie nightmare type character that the Bat-verse is so fond of, but Rachel Skartsen did a fine job as Alice. And then Ruby Rose announced that she was leaving and Javicia Leslie was taking over and I thought…well, cool! Then they told us that she’s be an ex-con struggling against the system and I thought, well, ugh, white people writing performative black trauma, how unique and not at all stereotypical.
But here we are at Season 2 of Batwoman and it is significantly better than season 1. All the things that did not work at all in Season 1, are now working to the series advantage.
Skartsen’s Beth has turned out to be a great character once Kate was taken out of the equation. Nicole Kang’s Mary Hamilton, the character I liked best in the first season, has been able to step up, Leslie’s Ryan Wilder is a far, far, more interesting character than Kate, whose existence had been written as stagnating in the wake of her past experiences. Even Kate’s romances were left over from her past, Sophie and Kate were annoying. Yes, they do that do Ryan as well. I agree the lesbians do hang on to exes, but this is a little tired. That said, Sophie and Beth make a far more interesting working partnership and Ryan making Sophie see that “all crows are bastards” is not a terrible allegory. The writers seem to be taking care to be writing about the criminalization of poverty and the inequality of the justice system, rather than racism, but also not being completely gormless about how they are intertwined. And Leslie’s character is trying to move forward.
What had been an ensemble flapping around Kate, waiting for her to listen to any of them, has now coalesced into a solid team looking for Kate (whatevs) and fighting new and different baddies, something I can get behind, finally.
If it were me, I would have them find Kate, wrap up all that offscreen and move the hell on to some future baddie.
Notably, where the first season was lesbian, this season is queer af. Gay, lesbian, gender fluid, pronouns, all come up in discussions. Gay trauma not performed when it might have expected to be, which wasn’t bad. Queer baddies and goodies which I also like. This show has more than doubled the number of lesbians in Gotham so far, as well. Now we’re up to, like 7, lesbians. Not quite enough for a softball team. Maybe 8 if Mary is queer too.
Absolutely still may fave character is Mary Hamilton. She’s the secret Scarlet Pimpernel in the cast and I hope they don’t break her spirit for another psycho baddie plot. That would be the day I stop watching.
Ratings:
Cinematography – Still way too dark -7
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Queer – 9
Service – Kissing, sex implied
Overall – 9
A much, much, stronger cast and writing than season 1 which was held down by Elegy‘s plot. I look forward to more.
Between this and WandaVision I have come to believe that, freed of their comic book storylines, we’re actually seeing some excellent television writing for comic book characters.
I’m also enjoying the new season. Ryan Wilder is a good character – funnier and warmer than Kate, and much more in tune with the streets of Gotham. Javicia Leslie is also physically bigger than Ruby Rose, which does help the fights – RR always seemed too slight to me to sell the army-brat-turned-physical-combat-vigilante part of the role. I’d still prefer to see a buff woman in the cowl, Sara Conner style, but that’s just me. I also hope they can exorcise the ghost of Kate quickly and move on to other stories – maybe Rose has indicated she would come back to the show in a non-Batwoman capacity? Can’t see any other reason why they’d specifically keep her alive, unless DC said they can’t kill the character. Also hoping Ryan gets to meet a love interest or two that isn’t one of Kate’s exes! They haven’t done much in that area yet.
On the downside, the series still suffers from all the lack-of-subtlety issue that have always plagued it. Part of it is the stuff that is intrinsic to the Batman mythology that will always grind me the wrong way – cities as crime and drug riddled hellholes, street crime like robbery/burglary/assault given way too much focus, and mental health patients/caregivers turned into grotesques. I understand, those make great setpieces and excuses for fights in an action show, and much of it inextricable from the Batverse mythology. But I guess I just “know too much” at this point and, knowing how much more crime and evil is perpetrated by the rich and the powerful rather than the stereotypical “street thugs”… I’m not sure I can truly escape to simplistic superhero stories anymore.
I’ll be interested if the delve deeper into the (glaring) problems with an organization like the Crows, as well as Gotham’s wealthy. For now it seems like it’s focused on the Safiyah stuff, though.
PS – The whole thing with the Desert Rose toxin and the bats was terribly handled. First off, bats aren’t physically dangerous to people and don’t bite. Second… all of the other physics, biology, and toxicology in that episode. Ah well, *comicbookhandwave*…
Well that’s it. Everything that’s not built out and also everything dragged in from the larger Bat-verse is all handwave. This isn’t an original story about mental health and social inequity, it’s a Batman spin-off, so bats are scary in this universe. In ours, they are cute mice with wings. ^_^