tek's rating: ½

Birds of Prey, on The WB
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I highly anticipated this show, but found it fairly disappointing. It's based on a comic book I've never read, but would probably like to. It's set in New Gotham, in the future. The world is full of metahumans, but people don't seem to be aware of it. Years ago there was a crimefighter called the Batman. (Perhaps you've heard of him? Then you're at least one up on most people in this show.) He was not a metahuman, of course. Anyway, he had various protégés, such as Batgirl (aka Barbara Gordon) and Robin. His main enemy was the Joker, who shot Barbara, crippling her. Anyway, in the series, she calls herself Oracle (Dina Meyer), basically good with info on the Net and whatnot. She works with a metahuman called the Huntress, aka Helena Kyle (Ashley Scott), who is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman (who was a metahuman criminal, but she and Batman were in love anyway). Catwoman was killed by the Joker I guess, around the time he shot Batgirl. I think Batman killed Joker after that, and then left town. So Huntress and Oracle now fight crime together... Then this teenage girl named Dinah shows up in town, and she's a metahuman who has telepathy. She now lives with Oracle and Huntress I guess, wants to work with them.

Aside from that, there's a cop named Reese who Huntress sometimes sort of works with, but they don't really trust each other, plus he's got to get used to the idea of the existence of metahumans. Then there's Alfred, who was Batman's butler and now works for Oracle, I guess. And there's Dr. Harleen Quinzel (Mia Sara), who runs Arkham Asylum as well as apparently having a private practice, because she's Helena's therapist. But Dr. Quinzel is also Harley Quinn, the Joker's former girlfriend, who is now trying to rebuild a criminal empire...

Okay. Dunno what else to say, then. Um, there are some issues about humans and metahumans needing to learn to live together, but such issues are better handled by the X-Men, I should think. Still, the series had a good basic concept and a lot of potential, but the writing just wasn't there. No doubt the comic is far superior.... Even so, I did get the series on DVD, so I'll probably rewatch it someday. Although the main reason I got the DVD set was because of a bonus feature that has nothing (really) to do with the series itself: the entire animated webseries Gotham Girls.


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