I’m definitely interested. Everything I’ve heard about it has been pretty positive, and I like the concept. I think they might have already aired the pilot (which I did not see), but Episode 1–“slick”–is to air tomorrow night.
Anyone see the pilot already? Have any opinions?
Well, it’s a show with potential, but the pilot did seem a little plodding. Lots of exposition, and Batman’s departure from New Gotham (name change unexplained) was a big hole that needed some more exposition, but never got it. (I would actually have liked to see some more scenes involving Batman himself, but I guess all they had budget for was a stand-in). I’m curious to see where they go with it, but the pilot lacked the novelty or freshness of the “Smallville” pilot, which presented a fairly hefty dose of old mythology in a new way.
But Ashley Scott is quite the hottie, and the tight leather corset certainly was appealing. 
I missed part of the series premiere, but will probably be watching this one. I like action shows especially ones with strong female leads. I’ve also been a fan of Batman for years. Boy blunder would have been better as a girl.
I saw the pilot, and wish I hadn’t. That way I might have imagined that there was a cool new superhero series on TV, that took the newly revived interest in the comic genre and used it to springboard an interesting drama with a cool cast of characters.
As it is, I’m left with an exploitative series full of character cliches and lousy dialog, rife with a lack of imagination and plodding, predictable plots.
Yeah, I caught most of the pilot. (I was playing a game of Civ2 on the computer at the same time.) It didn’t really grab me. I’ll probably give it a few more episodes, but frankly, I’m not too hopeful. We’ll see.
I thought it was a stinker. My friends and I stopped watching a taped episode of Firefly to watch it. Let me tell you, going from Firefly to this was a mistake. Where Firefly has witty dialogue (pause worthy at points) this show seems to full of itself. I think I’ll pass. But keep Smallville comming.
I liked it. There are some things that I hope the change, (like the tiger growl sound effect for Huntress) but I’m gonna watch it again next week.
I did feel like the sould have just called the villain in the first episode the Scarecrow though.
Why did they change the story? The original Huntress was the daughter of Catwoman and Batman. But, after they had both retired. They were married in a ceremony that all the tabloids put on the cover. Helena’s birth was public knowledge. Catwoman was killed when she and Bats had to put on their tights for a last mission. Bats deflected a bullet. It ended up killing his wife. Years later, he put on the tights again to save Gotham from a super criminal with massive powers. He was outclassed and he knew it. He died protecting Gotham. Helena becomes the Huntress. She has fond memories of mom and dad. Her personality is alot like her father’s.
Now-Bats and Catwoman have sex in an alley or on a rooftop. He never knows he has a daughter. He leaves the city for reasons they don't bother to give us. Catwoman is fatally stabbed by the Joker. I have a BIG problem with that. The Joker is a genius with gadgets and chemistry. But, he's not great at hand-to-hand or stealth. But, somehow, he sneaks up to Catwoman and kills her. Helena grows up to be a juvenile delinquent with serious issues.
They crammed too much in. I understand why they had little footage of Catwoman, Batman, Joker, and Batgirl. But events that important shouldn’t be skipped over in the first 5 minutes. I would’ve made the premiere 2 episodes. Episode 1 deals with Barbara going from BatGirl to Oracle and Helena becoming the Huntress. Episode 2 has Dinah come to town and help foil the what-if-the-ScareCrow-was-a-boring-guy-in-a-suit guy.
I understand why they changed the Huntress costume(DC did the same thing when they brought out the new-she's-not-a-relative Huntress a few years ago). But where's the mask? In one scene, Helena is tending the bar in the exact same outfit she fights crime in. Superman at least had different mannerisms as Clark Kent. But Helena's acting exactly the same.
“I am the weapon.” No, you’re supposed to have a utility belt! The Huntress is supposed to carry all the same goodies Bats did. The animated series and some of the films used the utility belt without being camp. Why isn’t it on this show?
Dinah-The comic BoP has the Black Canary. She has a sonic scream. Her first name is Dinah. When I saw promos showing a blonde actress playing Dinah, I assumed she was BC. Instead, they bring in a totally new character, but with the same name. If they wanted to bring in a new character, why didn't they go with a new name? They made us expect BC, then gave us somebody else.
The cat’s eye, and the jaguar noises have to go.
Huntress talking to the cop-OK, I can understand how the average criminal, afraid, and at night would either not see Helena’s face or not remember it clearly. But she stands in a well lit room and has a conversation with a veteran cop. He isn’t panicking and he’s trained to remember details. It should take him all of 30 minutes at headquarters to ID Helena.
I’ll watch a few more episodes in hopes that the writing will improve.
Plus, I thought they made a great choice with the actress who plays Harley. I can’t wait to see her outfit and just how the writers deal with her insanity.
Intresting. I thought of Firefly to compare it too as well, but I have the oposite reaction than you. I found Birds Of Prey’s pilot to be about ten times more interesting than Firefly, which I probably will not continue watching(I don’t like Smallville, either, for the record.) At least Birds Of Prey is fun.
I don’t really have a problem with not having an explanation for the city name change. Perhaps there will be a comic book tie-in “Secret Origins” that includes transcripts of the city council debate on the topic.
As for Batman leaving town, I got the idea from the ep that he left because he “went mad” after, despite years of training and experience, he lost yet another “family” to a psychopath’s bullets. I didn’t need a road map out of Gotham to figure that.
There’s dialog in an upcoming ep as to why Huntress doesn’t wear a mask, or at least her reply to the question “why don’t you wear a mask?” I never really saw Huntress too often in the comics (other than a few issues of Justice League maybe?) so I didn’t really notice the presence or absence of the utility belt. I did like the mini-crossbow she used in the comics so I sort of missed it. Maybe she doesn’t use a utility belt or gadgets for the same reason she doesn’t live in Stately Wayne Manor.
I also don’t understand why they would include a character named “Dinah” who isn’t Black Canary. Although I suppose she could still call herself “Black Canary.” Did we ever hear a last name of Dinah’s character or are we just assuming it’s the same as the comic?
In all I’d rate the pilot a 6 of 10. I try to give pilots the benefit of the doubt and I’ll watch BoP for a few more eps to see if it gets better.
Well, in IMDB, she’s listed as Dinah Lance, and the series synopsis says she’s going to be called Black Canary. Makes sense, given that the original Birds of Prey comic series had BC and Oracle teaming up in exactly the same way Huntress and Oracle are (legwork/brains).
Why she’s a kid, and has no sonic powers (yet), and does have psychic powers, all these remain a mystery.
Dina Meyer as Oracle is just friggin’ gorgeous, especially while wearing those glasses.
::thinking back to brief nudity scene of Dina Meyer in Starship Troopers:: 
So, who watched it last night? I actually thought it was pretty good. Better than the pilot, anyway.
And damn, that Huntress is a hottie!
I watched it last night (borrowed a co-workers tape), and while I didn’t hate it. it wasn’t great, either.
New Gotham - Isn’t that a throwback to the ‘Earthquake’ storyline in the Batman comic books? As in, the name after they rebuilt the city?
It should be interesting watching the development of Harley Quinn (Mia Sara - “Bueller? Bueller?”). I didn’t even catch who the character was in the pilot until they said her name was Dr. Harleen Quinzel - I thought - “Oh Shit! Harley Quinn! Cool”
Do you mean the whole No Man’s Land thing? Because I’ve read the book for no man’s land and I really don’t think Huntress was related to Batman in that. Especially consideringthat Nightwing had slept with her and Batman knew and Batman’s utter contempt for her wearing the Batgirl outfit and then not dying to save people she had sworn to protect. I’d really just love a nice long explanation from the writers over the whole history and expected relationships here.
Kitty
Originally posted by me
**
Up until the Crisis On The Infinite Earth series, DC had many alternate Earths. Earths 1 and 2 concern the Huntress.
Earth 1-Introduced in the silver age of comics.
Flash-Barry Allen, who gained his powers due to a lightning bolt strinking his lab
Green Lantern-Hal Jordan. Jordan was given his ring by the a dying member of the Green Lantern Corps, an organization dedicated to protecting the universe.
Earth 2-Dates from the golden age of comics. The characters from Earth 2 are several decades older than their Earth 1 counterparts.
Flash-Jay Garrick, gained his powers from breathing the vapors of heavy water.
Green Lantern-Alan Scott, his ring and lantern are fashioned from a mystical green rock that fell to Earth centuries ago.
After Earth 1 was introduced, it became the primary DC world. But, all the other Earths (Earth X, Earth C, Earth S, Earth 3, etc) still existed as alternate realities.
Since the Batman and Catwoman of Earth 2 are older than those of Earth 1(Except Elseworlds, all current Batman related titles [Robin, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Nightwing, Azrael, Shadow of, Legend of, Detective etc] take place on Earth 1), they retired and got married. Their daughter, Helena Wayne, went on to become Huntress 1.*
In the late 90's or so, some moron created the Huntress 2. The Huntress 2 is the daughter of a mafia don. She is not related to Batman or Catwoman in any way. The Huntress 2 is the one who appeared in No Man's Land.
The TV Huntress is based primarily on Huntress 1.
*-Technically, The Huntresses I listed are 2, and 3. There was a golden age villianess named the Huntress. She wore a leopard themed outfit(I’m not thinking of the Cheetah either. ) and married the SportsMaster. His costume and weapons were modified althetic gear(Golf flags made into poisonous spears, razor edged boomerangs, baseballs that could crush skulls etc) which he used with olympic level skill.
Not to out-geek DocCathode, but the mafia-tied Hunts, Helena Bertinelli, is a late '80’s character, created by people who worked on the earlier Helena Wayne Hunts. I would appreciate you not calling Cavalieri & Staton “morons.”
Miss Bertinelli was actually a pretty cool character, originally New-York-based, who has suffered immensely from her being brought into the Batman supporting cast & subsequent treatment.
I’m not going to get into it, DocCathode, but at this point no matter whether you’re dating by simple years of publication or by number of appearances Helena Bertenelli pretty much is the Huntress.
In any case, CoIE was 17 years ago, let it go, already.
I sit corrected on the date. Before I revise my opinion of Cavalieri and Staton, what else have they done?
Fer example John Byrne was a genius with Fantastic Four. His work with Superman was an atrocity(I have the backing of the SDMB’s Comic Guy, Fenris on this opinion.).
BTW- You’ve read the comics. You’ve seen the show. Can you tell me why the heck she isn’t carrying a crossbow???
Has it really been that long?
Did it really happen when I was 10?
Despite my age, I suddenly feel like I should be sitting in a rocking chair on some porch, yelling at the whippersnappers and talking about the good old days.