Birds of Prey - Season Premiere 10/9/02 (1 Viewer)

[TheLongshot]

I missed the first 15 minutes, because my VCR decided not to record, so I saw it live. Personally, I think the pilot was hit or miss, but I've come to expect that of pilots (There are rarely great pilot episodes.)

Stuff I liked: The outfits (Yum!), Mia Sara at the end, the flashbacks.

Stuff I didn't like: Dinah was ultra annoying. The cat sounds. Some of the overly "clever" dialog.

Not bad, not great. Will keep watching to see if it gets better....

Plus (just speculating) it might turn out that the teenage Dinah is the daughter of the original Dinah Lance, AKA Black Canary, who was an expert in hand-to-hand combat, and very tough, and earlier incarnations had her possessing a sonic cry that would render most of her adversaries deaf and discombobulated temporarily. The teenage Dinah might have been given up for adoption by the original Dinah Lance. Who knows...

There was a rumor some time ago that the Black Canary would show up at some point, and yes, would be Dinah's mom.

Jason

 

[Matthew_Millheiser]

I'm a longtime DC geek, but yeah, this pilot was disappointing as hell.
The Huntress was just plain silly and annoying. Too cutesy, too self-consciously hip, bad acting, and that cat roar? Oy.
Dina Meyer did a very good job as Oracle/Batgirl; I really enjoyed her character, even if it's a riff on an archetype we've seen just one too many times before. Black Canary (or whatever they're calling her in the show; I guess we refer to her as "Dinah"..?) was way too much of a perky neophyte that the depths of her character nested comfortably in the warm waters of caricature.
The story was "ehhh"... not that good, nothing too horrible, something I'd expect to find on an episode of Mutant X, Nightman, Syndicated Hero Brand Ecch, etc..
And just what the fork happened to Mia Sara?!!?! Sure, Ferris Beuller was 16 years ago, but there's a huge honkering hunk of Crow's Feet going on. Ouches. Short cropped blond hair makes her look filthy and foul.
Pilots have been known to suck (No amount of editing, IMO, can fix the problems with B5's The Gathering), so I'll give this a few episodes to gel. But given it's up against The Amazing Race, it's got to get a lot better, really quickly...

 

[Bingo]

Well personally, I enjoyed it...and am glad to finally have something to watch on Wednesday nights.
....of course, this pushes the usual DVD viewing off a bit....

 

[Michael Martin]

I only caught the last half, but liked what I saw, for the most part. And I don't just mean Huntress in costume!
I agree with others that the show is a bit too self-consciously hip for its own good, but then again, WB is marketing towards young viewers, and maybe teens are less discerning than adults?
I thought the production design was good, the chemistry between the three leads was good, and the music was strong as well.
Also agree that use of the stock big cat growl MUST stop. Extremely cheesy and distracting.
We also need to remember it's only the first episode. Most series, especially genre series (X-Files, ST: NG, Buffy) take a while to find their own rhythm and personality. For a first episode, I thought it was pretty strong. I'd like to see where they go with it, assuming it sticks around for more than 4 episodes.

 

[CoreyII]

Count me among those who didn't like this show. Not only has Warner Bros. hit an all time low with this series but they've also in my opinion put the final nail in the coffin of the Batman franchise.

Birds of Prey like Dark Angel is just another girl power feminist action show with cliched female characters. Dina Meyer is too good of an actress to be wasting her talent on such a crap t.v. series.

I knew this show wasn't going to be good just by watching the previews, but the comic book fan in me decided to check it out anyway. After about the first ten minutes I called it quits. It seems that the WB is trying to replace the void that Buffy left, well I can tell you all right now Birds of Prey is not going to get the job done, not by a long shot.

Being a comic book collector since 1984 and in particular a fan of DC comics I am somewhat familiar with the Birds of Prey comic book. Its not a comic that I collect regularly but Im familiar with the characters having read them in other comic books. I can tell you the t.v. series isn't very faithful to the comic, especially with the Dinah Lance and Huntress character.

Personally I think Black Canary (Dinah Lance) is one of the worse characters in the DC Universe, but at least the t.v. series could have respected the comic book origin and not turned her into some pasty face 16 year old who looks like an extra off the Dawson's Creek set.

Like Smallville (which is a complete bastardization of the Superman legend) Birds of Prey is of course not geared to the comic book fan but rather the WB prime time demographic which is little pre-pubescent girls with Britany Spears and Mandy Moore posters on their walls.

Anyway, with cheesy costumes, bad acting (except for Dina Meyer), hooky fight scenes, and the in your face girl power attitude, I don't expect this show to make it past the spring ratings sweep. But then again I could be wrong except I will not stay with this show to find out. WB's Bird of Prey is nothing but a plucked turkey.

 

[CoreyII]

Oh, one other thing, having sufferd through a couple episodes of Smallville, enduring ten minutes of Birds of Prey, and reading endless articles about Warner Bros. revising the Batman and Superman film franchise, it seems right now that Marvel is kicking DC's butt when it comes to bringing their respective characters to the screen.

With Spider-Man having grossed over 400 million dollars in domestic box office returns, the X-Men grossing over 150 million, both Blade films combined grossing over 150 million, and with the Hulk, X-Men 2 and Daredevil all set to come out next year, Marvel is on a roll. DC and Warner Bros. need to seriously re-evaluate their situation.

 

[BrianB]

Like Smallville (which is a complete bastardization of the Superman legend) Birds of Prey is of course not geared to the comic book fan but rather the WB prime time demographic which is little pre-pubescent girls with Britany Spears and Mandy Moore posters on their walls.

How DARE WB aim shows at their audience!

 

[MickeS]

CoreyII wrote:


It's amazing that you managed to put together 2 rather long messages about the show based on just the first 10 minutes of it. Did you even get to see all the characters being introduced at that point? Did they show how they met?

/Mike

 

[Eric F]

What I dislike about the show is how they're just screwing with the Batman legend while Smallville screws with the Superman legend but pays homage to it.

Batman was never about "Super" anything. It was about human-beings dealing with terrible crimes, and learning how to cope. None of Batman's supporting cast and apprentices ever had super-powers. Some of the villians did, but never the best ones, and Catwoman for sure didn't.

 

[Michael Martin]

I also agree that it is utterly irrelevant that the show does not match the comic. As far it being in the "official DC Universe" - ugh! I think the comic fans (and I do appreciate their knowledge and dedication to the characters) need to be realistic. There is simply no feasible and audience-friendly way to communicate all the details, twists and turns of the MANY related comic, graphic novels and characters into 43 minutes.
I'm a Batman fan, but don't really care that the "universe" portrated in the show doesn't jibe with what I know of the character. It's a freaking TV show after all, and I try to simply watch it on its own merits, rather than expecting it to slavishly follow MY expectations for its "faithfulness" to the comics world.
I also find it interesting that only one of the leads or recurring characters is a male. Both the three main heroines and the assumed major baddie are all female. The cop (can't recall the character's name) will probably get more air time in the future, but almost certainly only in relation to his relationship with Helena. For me, having four distinct female characters (one of them in a wheelchair!) driving a dramatic show is great, especially since this is NOT a typical "chick show" (like Sisters from a few years back).
And if you need any other reasons to continue to give the show a chance:
Link Removed
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[Jason Seaver]

Like Smallville (which is a complete bastardization of the Superman legend) Birds of Prey is of course not geared to the comic book fan but rather the WB prime time demographic which is little pre-pubescent girls with Britany Spears and Mandy Moore posters on their walls.

Well, gearing it toward the comic book fan would be stupid. There's not enough of us in North America to make producing an expensive live-action series that caters to us worthwhile from a profit standpoint (see: "The Tick"). The trick is to figure out how to make good TV out of these characters.

"Smallville" is far from a bastardization; I think it's a very good translation to a different medium, as well as an amalgam of several different versions of the story, filtered through a "modern", "realistic" lens. "Birds Of Prey" is more problematic, because the general audience doesn't have the immediate familiarity with these characters that they have with Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, and it doesn't yet seem to know what kind of world it wants - one with costumed heroes or a more conventional one ("The Flash" had some of the same problems).

 

[Patrick Sun]

Well, I'm willing to give it a few episodes to see if the writers have a good gameplan for what the show is going to be about (besides being just a villain-of-the-week type of show featuring super-powered females).

Also, since I've seen the pilot earlier, I'm sort of "used" to it, and found the changes okay, but I won't say it was great, just average.

 

[BrianB]

Well, I'm willing to give it a few episodes to see if the writers have a good gameplan for what the show is going to be about (besides being just a villain-of-the-week type of show featuring super-powered females).

That's pretty much how I feel too, Patrick. I think it's got potential, but a lot of shows have that & never capitalise on it. We shall see.

Additionally, I think it's interesting to note that my wife enjoyed it MUCH more than I did. She liked the concept once she got a grasp on the background of the characters, she liked the 'feel' of it. She's got zero knowledge of the comic (or comics in general). She's far from a "little pre-pubescent girl with Britany Spears and Mandy Moore posters on her wall", but she's definitely much closer to the audience WB need to win over for the show.

 

[Eric F]

"Smallville" is far from a bastardization; I think it's a very good translation to a different medium, as well as an amalgam of several different versions of the story, filtered through a "modern", "realistic" lens. "Birds Of Prey" is more problematic, because the general audience doesn't have the immediate familiarity with these characters that they have with Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, and it doesn't yet seem to know what kind of world it wants - one with costumed heroes or a more conventional one ("The Flash" had some of the same problems).

The thing about Smallville is that the writers are clever. It's campy and there's lots of double meanings (at least) going on. The Jesus/Devil/Bible references are everywhere, just like the comic book. It's fun to watch for them. It's a pretty easy plot to follow, "good vs. evil", no dark hero type stuff.

I think Dark Angel did a better job of what BoP is trying to achieve. The similarities are close, and I was sorry to see that one go, as it was getting interesting toward the end of its run.

That said, out of all the DC properties, Starman would have been oh so much better for the "reluctant hero" stuff. But then again, Jack Knight has no superpowers, isn't female, and isn't a sadist, while the Huntress clearly is all these things (a bit disturbing considering the show is aimed at teen girls), although he does like to wear leather.

While adults can easily watch Smallville and enjoy it, I don't see myself sticking with BoP for long. I hope it improves.

 

[BradG]

Well, the ratings were very good for the WB on this show last night, so I think it may have a chance at running the full season.

Personally, I thought it "looked" great. I don't give a crap if it fits in with the "Batman universe" or if it doesn't fit with continuity. Making such strong negative judgements based on a pilot episode seems a little quick - the wife and I enjoyed the show very much.

I do prefer "The Amazing Race" however, but at least we have the dish so we can watch "Race" early and "Prey" later.

 

[Dave W]

I have to say that I really wanted to like this one but couldn't :frowning: just too far from source material for me. Huntress is a "Metahuman", the Dinah character was too Dawson's-Creek-ish I thought and that DAMN big cat sound... Sorry Only thing I thought was done right, was Barbara's character (Dina Meyer). Might watch another episode and give it one more chance but with Hockey season on now (Nice opener for Avs even though it was a tie ) and all the other new shows, DVD's etc. I can't wait on it to be good for too long...

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, the ratings were very good for the WB on this show last night, so I think it may have a chance at running the full season.

Well, that's from a pilot. I seem to recall "Harsh Realm" having a promising rating for the first episode before the ratings started decreasing geometrically the next week as the curious decided they wouldn't be missing much.

 

[Jeffrey_Scotts]

I watched the whole show and only going by the initial first airing, I won't be returning for another round of torture. Being a bit of a comic fan myself, I absolutly hate what they did to Smallville, which is pure trash going against DC history. Now, we have this junk and they haven't learned anything about how to do it right?

CoreyII said

Oh, one other thing, having sufferd through a couple episodes of Smallville, enduring ten minutes of Birds of Prey, and reading endless articles about Warner Bros. revising the Batman and Superman film franchise, it seems right now that Marvel is kicking DC's butt when it comes to bringing their respective characters to the screen.

Yes, it's obvious to anyone that has ever read comics. The answer is because Marvel remains almost completly true to the history of their works and is able to convey the transition on the screen. They don't take too many liberities, keep it grounded in the orgin, etc. Spiderman is a great example of this from this year's movie. While it's easy to point out some of the inconsistant issues (i.e. organic webbing), it remained as a whole totally true to it's history. The persona and actual feel of the comic came through on screen and they didn't even bother changing his traditional color costume for black. If you are going to watch a fantasy movie, why not buy the whole fantasy and stick with the original like they did with Spiderman?

DC on the other hand seems like they are willing to sell out their characters and re-imagine just about anything. Maybe it's because they are desperite and Marvel is kicking their butt too hard or maybe it's because no one their cares about their past, or maybe they are just stupid people running the company, I just don't know and anything I would believe about DC at this point. Just look at the trash they are considering re-imaganing for their new Superman VS Batman WB movie. If they think I'm buying a ticket they can think again. I don't know of anyone that loves Superman that would buy a ticket to see this trash. Unless they go back to their roots for their characters, they are totally ruined in my view.

Jeffrey

 

[Michael St. Clair]

DC and Marvel have gone half circle. From the early 80s to the mid 90s, you at least had Batman and Superman franchises from DC, while Marvel had crappy TV and direct-to-vid stuff (Doctor Strange, Spiderman, Captain America, The Punisher). Heck, even 'The Hulk' doesn't stand up that well IMO.

DC needs to get it together.

 

[Eric F]

Funny, I don't object with them messing with Superman all that much because it's written well and pokes fun at itself, but BoP is convoluted and confusing and isn't fun at all.

There's a different attitude to BoP. What is it that Bart Simpson said, "Depressing teenagers is like shooting fish in a barrel"? That's about sums up my feeling about BoP.

They can't write a show based on a popular Comic Book and then expect none of the fans to contrast the two.