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I am so frakking tired of this plot
Mar. 23rd, 2009 06:26 am#291: "Because I love you" is never enough reason to kill someone in and of itself. Neither is "so we could be together." (Birds of Prey)
Mar. 23rd, 2009
Birds of Prey: Closing Thoughts
Mar. 23rd, 2009 08:19 amI finished it. The show had more going for it than I originally thought.
They did finally get the continuity up on its own two feet. Setting it in the future of the conventional DC Universe meant that they could throw in all sorts of references to existing material but it would still be strange to the characters and therefore not alienate new viewers. I calmed down about it when they introduced the real Black Canary, but I didn't really get it until they put in Clayface. If there would have been more of that, it would have been marvelous.
Also, I cannot stress enough how pleasant it was to see a show of this nature that was actually aware of diversity. The lead characters are all women and stand on their own. Neither of the big female villains was set up as a sexy femme fatale. There was a non-exploitative lesbian. They moved through Reese's mixed heritage without making a big deal out of it because it didn't matter to the characters in the situation where it came up. They imported the whole meta-racism thing from X-Men, and handled it intelligently. Barbara kicked peoples' asses from a wheelchair. It was more inclusive than any similar show I've seen; and even if they stumbled a few times on it (the "I need to walk to solve this problem" syndrome comes to mind), they consistently went out of their way to be good about it and deserve a whole lot of kudos for it.
On the other hand, even at the end of the season the only characters I was actually sold on were Helena and Reese. Barbara was boring and the rest of the cast (including Alfred!) usually felt like they were trying too hard. While I'm intrigued by the possibilities of Harley as the Big Bad, she needed some character development to get there instead of just being normal Harley in a nice pantsuit. (Also, Harleen Quinzel? How did Oracle not make that connection?)
On the other other hand, Helena. Rowr.
Weirdly, the writing in the series reminds me a lot of the writing in the actual comic. Chuck Dixon, when he started writing Birds of Prey, had no idea how to write women. He inserted a bunch of your typical girl jokes about make-up and food, and the characters were pretty much one interchangeable stereotype. But after he'd been doing it for a while the characters started finding their own voices. They started to exist as real people as opposed to collections of cliches and powers. The television series was in the process of doing the same thing; I feel like Dinah would have really started coming into her own somewhere in the middle of next season, and that Barbara would have gradually accrued a personality as well. But, like many things, Birds was cut off before it really had a chance to shine.
I'm not going to grieve for the series; I didn't love it enough for that. But I will definitely grieve for what it represented, and for what it could have been. There's enough in there to feed my fannish imagination; and really, that's all I can ask of a series.
They did finally get the continuity up on its own two feet. Setting it in the future of the conventional DC Universe meant that they could throw in all sorts of references to existing material but it would still be strange to the characters and therefore not alienate new viewers. I calmed down about it when they introduced the real Black Canary, but I didn't really get it until they put in Clayface. If there would have been more of that, it would have been marvelous.
Also, I cannot stress enough how pleasant it was to see a show of this nature that was actually aware of diversity. The lead characters are all women and stand on their own. Neither of the big female villains was set up as a sexy femme fatale. There was a non-exploitative lesbian. They moved through Reese's mixed heritage without making a big deal out of it because it didn't matter to the characters in the situation where it came up. They imported the whole meta-racism thing from X-Men, and handled it intelligently. Barbara kicked peoples' asses from a wheelchair. It was more inclusive than any similar show I've seen; and even if they stumbled a few times on it (the "I need to walk to solve this problem" syndrome comes to mind), they consistently went out of their way to be good about it and deserve a whole lot of kudos for it.
On the other hand, even at the end of the season the only characters I was actually sold on were Helena and Reese. Barbara was boring and the rest of the cast (including Alfred!) usually felt like they were trying too hard. While I'm intrigued by the possibilities of Harley as the Big Bad, she needed some character development to get there instead of just being normal Harley in a nice pantsuit. (Also, Harleen Quinzel? How did Oracle not make that connection?)
On the other other hand, Helena. Rowr.
Weirdly, the writing in the series reminds me a lot of the writing in the actual comic. Chuck Dixon, when he started writing Birds of Prey, had no idea how to write women. He inserted a bunch of your typical girl jokes about make-up and food, and the characters were pretty much one interchangeable stereotype. But after he'd been doing it for a while the characters started finding their own voices. They started to exist as real people as opposed to collections of cliches and powers. The television series was in the process of doing the same thing; I feel like Dinah would have really started coming into her own somewhere in the middle of next season, and that Barbara would have gradually accrued a personality as well. But, like many things, Birds was cut off before it really had a chance to shine.
I'm not going to grieve for the series; I didn't love it enough for that. But I will definitely grieve for what it represented, and for what it could have been. There's enough in there to feed my fannish imagination; and really, that's all I can ask of a series.