“If I Were Going to Save You in Some Dramatic Fashion, I Would Totally Dress as Wonder Woman.”
When Batwoman was originally announced, I wasn’t sure about watching the show for multiple reasons. However, knowing that the character was going to be a part of the giant Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover event last fall, I decided to give the show a try. Honestly, I’m still trying to figure out what I thought of the first season.
The show follows Bruce Wayne’s cousin Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) as she takes on the bat mantle left behind by Bruce. And does Gotham City ever need a hero. The police are all but disbanded and the city is instead protected by a private security firm run by Kate’s father Jacob (Dougray Scott). Assisting Kate in her new quest is Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) son of Bruce’s friend Lucius Fox.
Kate’s quest to drive out the criminal element in her city is hampered by her complicated family life. Not only does her father think that Batwoman is a vigilante who must be stopped, but she has a step mother and step sister, Catherine and Mary (Elizabeth Anweis and Nicole Kang) who think that they should be able to dictate Kate’s priorities now that she’s back in town. Meanwhile, Jacob’s right hand woman is Sophie (Meagan Tandy), Kate’s ex who Kate still has feelings for.
But it’s Alice (Rachel Skarsten) who complicates things the most. Kate had a twin sister who supposedly died in an accident years ago. However, she survived, and her experiences turned her into the psycho Alice, who has delusions based on Alice in Wonderland. Kate’s joy at learning her sister is indeed alive also includes the heartbreak of seeing what has happened to her. As Alice begins to terrorize the city, will Kate find a way to save her? Or is it too late for Alice?
One reason I was hesitant to watch this show is that Kate’s character was described in the early press for the show as an out, woke lesbian. Considering how much the shows in the Arrowverse can preach at us when they want to, I was worried that this show would do that. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments that do preach at us, but instead the writers focused on the characters and story and left the sermons out of the show for the most part.
Another reason I was hesitant to watch the show was because I know how dark Batman and related characters can be. I’m not a big fan of Batman as a result. Here, the show met my expectations. While the majority of the episodes were okay, there were a few shows that got very dark, especially shows that dug into Alice’s backstory. If you don’t like dark, you’ll definitely want to avoid this show.
Of the shows in the Arrowverse, this is the one that most people seem to dislike. I can certainly see why. The writing was only okay. I could see about half the twists coming, although the ones that surprised me were very good.
I think the worse part was the acting. While Ruby Rose’s acting did grow on me, she never seemed to be completely comfortable in the role. That affected the rest of the cast as well, who seemed to be better in scenes she wasn’t in.
The standout in the cast was Rachel Skarsten. She is clearly having fun as Alice, and that comes through to us. I couldn’t look away from the screen when she was on it. And yes, I do realize I’m praising the darkest character on the show while complaining about the show being dark.
And it was Alice and her storyline that kept me coming back to the show. I was rooting for there to be a happy ending with the character. I want to see her caught and punished (I’m a guy who likes justice), but I also want to see her redeemed and return to her former persona. I think that could be an epic storyline over the course of many seasons if the writers do it right.
Like many shows this season, we only got 20 of the planned episodes of the show. That’s unfortunate since the writers weren’t able to wrap up any storylines. Instead, things stopped rather suddenly. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a great cliffhanger, but the normal climax for the season isn’t here. Just to be clear, that is no one’s fault, and I fully support them suspending production to protect the cast and crew. But it does taint the season.
Honestly, I was still debating whether I was going to keep watching the show in season 2 (I’ve been the fence about the show all season), when Ruby Rose announced that she wouldn’t be back next season. Instead of recasting the character, the producers have decided to introduce a new main character to become Batwoman. That makes me wonder just what the rest of the cast is going to do since everyone is defined by their relationship to Ruby’s character. Not to mention, how are the cliffhangers I just talked about going to be resolved? Or are they just going to start something new with season two and not get back to that for a while? Eventually, they have to address the cliffhangers, but I don’t see them doing that for several episodes as they basically start from scratch.
Fortunately, I don’t have to decide yet about season 2 since it won’t be premiering until January. If you haven’t started watching Batwoman yet, I’d wait to see how the show handles season 2 and the reaction to it. There is no reason to rush out and watch season 1 until you see whether anything introduced here is resolved or becomes an unrelated prologue to the new character.
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