DC fans this has been quite the week for the company with not one but two movies out one animated and the other being Joker and the fact that both Supergirl and a new show have premiered just last night. While it would have been super easy for me to take a look at Supergirl since i've been watching the show on and of since it first started it's the new show that i'm going to be taking a look at and so here is my spoiler filled review of the pilot episode actually called pilot for Batwoman.
The plot of the episode is that military graduate and security agent Sophie Moore has been kidnapped by a new gang themed around Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and this brings back Kate Kane who tries to find the missing agent. I'm not going to go to deep into the actual plot of the episode here just because if I did i'd be here all day writing just that bit I will say that it did a good job of setting up certain characters and character arc's for the season but at the same time there's very little sense of where this season is going.
Technically reprising her role from the Elseworlds crossover is Ruby Rose as Kate Kane / Batwoman and she is joined by Ex Birds of Prey Star Rachel Skarsten as Alice , Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore , Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton , Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox , Elizabeth Anweis as Catherine Hamilton-Kane , Rachel Maddow as the voice of Vesper Fairchild , Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane and Brendon Zub as Chuck Dodgson.
I honestly didn't mind the acting in this episode I always say that you can't expect great acting from a pilot episode because all of the actors are trying to find there characters and it's true here. The acting isn't that good and the chemistry isn't quite there yet but that's to be expected from a pilot episode and just based of this episode alone I can see the acting and the chemistry getting better over the course of the season.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They spoil what could have been a really cool reveal at the end of the episode because they reveal that the season's main villain Alice is in fact Kate's presumed dead sister. To me that's a waste of a good reveal because we hardly know these characters so just imagine how much cooler it would have been if we got that reveal at say the end of episode twelve or thirteen when we've had much longer to get to really know the characters it would have made for a great holy s**t moment but here it just feels wasted.
Now if you'll recall in the Elseworlds crossover event we did meet Kate fully dressed as Batwoman and so this series does act as a prequel. However it's hard to say how far back we've gone because there's no indication what so ever of a time frame and the fact that it's basically a prequel means that we already know that Kate is going to come out on top by the end of the season and so there's no tension what so ever it's not the fault of the show runners but rather who made the call to have her appear in Elseworlds who's at fault.
Speaking of Alice I freaking loved her in this episode she's wonderfully insane and just out there she's everything the original book Alice was and then some. I honestly couldn't wait for her scenes to come up because I was having such a good time watching her and the fact that she quotes Alice's Adventures In Wonderland just really helped sell the whole wonderland gimmick to me and I can't wait to see more of her this season.
I've held of talking about this long enough but I just have to talk about this there was some controversy surrounding the show. The first of which had to do with the casting of lead actress Ruby Rose who is a lesbian but apparently she's not lesbian enough to play this openly gay character and that to me is just so freaking stupid because there's no such thing as being lesbian enough what does that even mean anyways someone please help me out.
The second bit of controversy comes from the fact that from the trailer this series seemed to be pushing an agenda and yeah I kind of agree the trailer did do that. However some of the cringyness from the trailer wasn't in this episode and so I don't really think that this series has an agenda what so ever however there is a certain line of dialog spoken in the trailer which is in this episode and it's the batsuit line I hated that line in the trailer and hate it in this episode the suit it perfect just the way it is giving it to a woman suddenly doesn't mean the suit has faults that's just bad and forced writing right there.
As to be expected there is going to be alot of action in this show and there is some in this very episode and I have to say that for a TV show the action wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong it's not that good either but given that these shows always have a small budget it's a miracle that we get anything at all and I do feel that Batwoman shouldn't have fought Alice in the first episode that's something that should have been held of until later in the season like maybe the season finale or if your going to have them fight here have Batwoman only just win like make it a really close fight so then that way she has growing to do as a fighter.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall in terms of pilot episodes this wasn't that bad in my opinion but there's alot of room to grow as for if i'll be checking this series out week to week i'll probably watch the first few episodes and then take it from there and since this is a pilot episode i'm not going to give it a rating since it's the start of a journey and not the whole thing and so i'll only review the whole show when it ends it's run and not it's first season.