TV Review - Batwoman: Season 2

When I first reviewed this series a year and a half ago, I wasn't that impressed. It was a great step in providing audiences with a lesbian superhero, or at least another lesbian superhero. This series is part of a collection of about a half-dozen TV shows featuring crossover characters, known as the Arrowverse. The TV shows all feature characters from DC Comics, developed by celebrity TV producer, Greg Berlanti. Of those shows, there is one that beat this one to the punch in terms of having a lesbian superhero as the lead character. That series was Legends of Tomorrow (2016). In terms of a female-led, superhero series, with lesbian characters in general, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) was one of the earliest before Berlanti came along.

This is great in terms of representation, but, in terms of providing us with a superhero series that was any different or any more exciting than the five others. At this point, these shows in the Arrowverse are like police procedural shows on CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX. They can add diversity to their casts, but they don't do much to change the formula of how police procedural shows have always gone. The same is becoming true for these superhero shows. The exception is actually Legends of Tomorrow, which took a more comedic and silly tone to the whole thing. There's humor in all of these shows, but this one in particular leans more toward the dark and gritty, in the vein of Christopher Nolan's Batman films. For example, this series leans into depicting brutal murders like neck snaps and head shots that it's hard to embrace the humor.

Javicia Leslie (The Family Business and God Friended Me) stars as Ryan Wilder, a homeless woman, living out of her van. When a plane crashes near where her van is parked, she realizes that Batwoman was inside. She can't find Batwoman's body, but she does find Batwoman's suit, a bullet-proof and technology-enhanced weapon that she can wear. She steals the suit and uses it to fight crime. She doesn't do so initially out of the goodness of her heart. At first, she wants revenge, but, as she begins to work with the people who worked with the previous Batwoman, she starts to realize the higher calling of trying to do good in the city of Gotham pushing against the bad guys and bad girls who are causing chaos.

For those wondering, Leslie takes over as the lead in this show from the actress Ruby Rose who played Kate Kane aka Batwoman in the first season. There's speculation as to why Rose didn't return for this season, but no definitive answer. The producers of this show could have simply re-cast her character with another actress to play Kate Kane. It's been done before. Eartha Kitt replaced Julie Newmar in Batman (1966). Now, that was one of the few and perhaps only times where an actress of a different ethnicity or race replaced an actress in the same role. Newmar was a White woman and was replaced with Kitt who was a Black woman. That kind of race-bending normally wouldn't occur. Classic examples include Bewitched (1964) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), but there are numerous examples of all kinds of TV shows from dramas and comedies to soap operas where actors have been replaced with other actors of the same race.

When Kitt replaced Newmar, I don't know but I don't believe Kitt being a Black woman was ever something that was raised within the context of that show. Kitt being Black was not something upon which there was comment in the show, as it probably didn't feel the need to comment. Her presence there in the 1960's was probably enough in that show's view. This series walks a tightrope or fine-line in that regard. It seems like it wants to comment on the race of Ryan, this Black woman and at the same time, it seems as if it wants just to let her presence be enough or stand on its own.

However, her Blackness here never really comes into play, except for the fact that Ryan was imprisoned, falsely accused of a crime she didn't commit. Of course, the Black community has had numerous issues with police and the criminal justice system, going back decades but really put to the forefront this past year in the wake of George Floyd's death and the Black Lives Matter movement. Unfortunately, it's difficult for this series to resonate with that issue, given that it has taken the police pretty much out of the equation. In almost, every TV show or film regarding Batman or subsequent characters, the Gotham Police Department has played a role with the iconic character of Commissioner Gordon having a presence. This series has not only removed Commissioner Gordon, giving him an absolute zero presence but when it comes to any Gotham Police, their presence is practically nil.

Dougray Scott (Hemlock Grove and Desperate Housewives) co-stars as Jacob Kane, the father to Kate Kane, but he didn't know that she was Batwoman. He instead is the head of the Crows. The Crows is a private security firm that basically acts as the city's police department. I neglected to get the details as to why that is or what the hierarchy is. It's not that there aren't actual cops who show up, but any interactions that the characters here have are always with agents in the Crows or with Jacob himself. When it comes to superhero stories, operating outside of the law and the authorities usually goes without saying, but Batman is different in that he's always had a relationship with Commissioner Gordon and thus the police. This series can operate without that, but commentary on Black Lives Matter and related issues rather fall away.

It's not that it would make much of a difference because unlike Black Lightning (2018), this show isn't really concerned with exploring issues, particularly pertinent to the Black community. Maybe it will as the series goes along, but right now, the series still feels firmly centered on Kate Kane and dwelling on her disappearance, as well as reckoning with her identity. I suppose it's only logical that the writers and producers would not want to turn the page and move on so quickly. When ABC's Roseanne (1988) was revived in 2018, it lost its actress playing the titular character. That series was then re-branded The Conners (2018) and it arguably took two seasons for that series to "move on" from that loss, so I probably shouldn't expect anything more from this show.

But, what's annoying is that at least in The Conners, it's definitive that the previous titular character is dead. This show, however, is really doing the soap opera thing where the death of Kate Kane isn't definitive. It's dangling the fact that she could return, as if the show doesn't want to be fully committed to the idea that Ryan is now the lead. It's early, so Ryan as a character feels very removed from the rest of the cast that feels inextricably tied to Kate Kane, but that could evolve over the season. Hopefully, it does and Ryan won't just feel like an interloper and a placeholder in a series that's now supposed to be centered around her.

Rated TV-14.

Running Time: 1 hr.

Sundays at 8PM on CW.