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View Full Version : Birds of Prey (the TV show)



Beleriphon
2006-06-21, 07:35 PM
Okay, after having watched the whole series I'm looking a couple of glaring plot holes in an otherwise not bad show. Fist Harley. How the hell does Babs not get that Helena's shrink is the Joker's girlfriend? Unless I'm missing something that is clearly missing from the introduction to the show.

Second, where is Robin, er Nightwing, in all of this? You'd kind of think that **** Grayson might an interest in helping out is old mentor's kid, or is friend Barbara.

Third, Batman just gives up and leaves? Then in the last episode we see Alfred talking to him on the phone as a last scene, so obviously he's somewhere. I don't see Bats just giving up and moving shop as it were. I alwasy say Tim Drake (is that the current Robin?) taking up the reigns of Batman. I mean Batman should die on the job since he's so old he just isn't fast enough to get out of the way of some young new nut job out for his head, not give up because the Joker has somebody killed. I mean if Joker whacking Jason Todd didn't do him in... ::)

Now I'm all for making changes to continuity with a story for TV or movies, but some these are making sweeping changes to the character motivations and values I've come to expect. If the show had made more sense, or not tried to cash in on Batman, it probably would have been alot better and lasted more than 11 episodes.

Anyhoo, how did you find the show compared and contrasted to the comics of the same name? I've never read them directly, so I couldn't say.

Edit: and I got this in the wrong section on top of everything else..... good grief.

Dhavaer
2006-06-21, 11:25 PM
Wouldn't this be better off in comics or Friendly Banter?

DeathQuaker
2006-06-21, 11:50 PM
Okay, after having watched the whole series I'm looking a couple of glaring plot holes in an otherwise not bad show. Fist Harley. How the hell does Babs not get that Helena's shrink is the Joker's girlfriend? Unless I'm missing something that is clearly missing from the introduction to the show.

As far as I can remember, Babs never meets or is really aware of "Dr. Quinn" until the end, so she wouldn't be able to warn Helena.



Second, where is Robin, er Nightwing, in all of this? You'd kind of think that **** Grayson might an interest in helping out is old mentor's kid, or is friend Barbara.

He's never mentioned except I think the town of Bludhaven is... he might presumably be there. It's also possible he's dead. I think the world of BoP is supposed to be roughly canonical with the Batman movies, sort of, so he does exist somewhere. OTOH, maybe he doesn't.



Third, Batman just gives up and leaves? Then in the last episode we see Alfred talking to him on the phone as a last scene, so obviously he's somewhere. I don't see Bats just giving up and moving shop as it were. I alwasy say Tim Drake (is that the current Robin?) taking up the reigns of Batman.

That's many Batman comic and movie fans' complaint about this series. The problem was they used the Batman link to get people to watch the show but left a rather large plot loop dangling because of it. Would've been better off to leave Bats... alone as much as possible to focus on the merits of, you know, the actual characters in the story.


If the show had made more sense, or not tried to cash in on Batman, it probably would have been alot better and lasted more than 11 episodes.

You've pretty much hit the nail on the head.

The show actually had a lot of potential, accepting that it was an "alternate universe" if you are aware of the comic books. Unfortunately it just didn't quite get to fulfill that potential... especially since at one point the executives made the writers drop the Harley Quinn storyline... only to ask them to bring it back again later....



Anyhoo, how did you find the show compared and contrasted to the comics of the same name? I've never read them directly, so I couldn't say.

The only real similarity between the Birds of Prey comic and the TV series is the characterization of Barbara. "Dinah" the psychic kid doesn't exist; in the comics Barbara's original partner was and is the Black Canary, martial arts expert, veteran Justice Leaguer, and bearer of the sonic scream. They have since recruited other members including the Huntress, the daughter of a dead mafia don who is sworn to end organized crime and who probably thanks the stars she has no blood relation to Batman whatsoever (the "child of Batman and Catwoman" comes from a character killed off in 1984; the executive producer used that character because she liked reading old Huntress comics growing up). The current lineup (which didn't exist when the TV show was on; it was just Babs and Dinah then) is Babs, Huntress, Black Canary, Gypsy (invisibility powers), Lady Blackhawk (pilot and small arms expert), and Lady Shiva. Yes, THAT Shiva... it's not going to last long, but there's a reason for it.

The comic also has a decidedly more international feel--it does not stick in one place (and while it used to be based out of Gotham, it is no longer) and has a lot of globetrotting going on. It also sometimes has more of an espionage/spy-saboteur feel than just out-and-out vigilante crimefighting, but there's a fair amount of that too. The plots get shaken up a bit... it isn't just "evil superhuman of the week" like it was on the TV show (though there was a bad period where the comic was a little like that several years ago).

The Birds of Prey comic also differs greatly from the TV series in that the comic is extremely well-written and features good and interesting character development. This is largely because a) they currently have a single writer, Gail Simone, who is talented and dedicated to weaving a strong storyline and is allowed to do so, because b) there aren't too many WB executives trying to stir the BoP comic soup, which was the curse of the TV series. Every executive demanded something different of the series, and the writers continually got mixed messages, so they never got to be consistent in how they wanted to develop the story. The show was very sadly screwed from the start, unfortuately.

NOT that I'm a huge Birds of Prey comic fangirl or anything. No, not me. ;)



Edit: and I got this in the wrong section on top of everything else..... good grief.

Hopefully someone will move it.

Beleriphon
2006-06-22, 10:11 AM
The show did seem to have a great deal of pontential, and like I said Batman as a character link is cool, but silly if he's still alive. I think it probably would have been better if they said he'd died at some point, fight the Joker or some other villain. OF course by keeping him alive, and hoping for a long running series, you get Bats as a guest character. Which in mind immediately over shadows every other character in the show given that he's a way more popular character, and could just kick all of their asses outright, thus removing any need for them to even be crime fighting super heroes.

As for the comic, it sounds pretty cool. I'm happy that they moved them out of Gotham since I never understood why writers insist on having other permanent heros in Gotham without being directly linked to, or helping, Batman. There's no point with Batman as an active hero, given that he does enough that nobody else is needed, excepting certain extreme circumstances.

Anyhoo, like I said it was a fun show, but it had way to faults to last. Which is too bad, with a better direction and more coherent ideas it could have become another Smallville (this is assuming that you think Smallville is a good show to start with).

One last thing, I noticed the production values seemed kind of low, with a lot of stage sets and very little actual location shooting, something that Smallville uses extensively with outdoor scenes.