The Truth Behind "Review Bombing" of Batwoman: It's Just a Bad Show
In modern media culture it has become the status quo for opinions to only be validated if they align with the focus of the medias' topical lense. Whenever an opinion is made that opposes that lense, it's pushed aside and ignored regardless of how well constructed or informed that opinion is. The recently released CW show Batwoman is just the latest of these examples as shill media sites are accusing the poor audience reviews to be a result of internet trolls review bombing it over an agenda push rather than as authentic criticism. But Here'ns the thing, I watched that pilot, and I can assure you, Batwoman did not need politics to get people to hate it, it did that all on its own by presenting one of the worst paced and written pilots I've ever seen, and while there were some cringe-worthy pushes in the episode they weren't all that prevalent. So maybe it's time to face the fact that Batwoman is just bad, and nothing else.
Now before I talk about the issues that I had, there were a few things that I want to mention that I do feel the show did well. I feel like it's important to acknowledge the little good because I want it to be clear that I went into this with an open mind and that despite the pilot being a disappointment beyond belief, there were moments of promise. The main thing I would like to applaud is the overall fight choreography. There is a fight scene in particular that I felt was fairly grounded, they designed the fight for Ruby Roses' Kate Kane to be able to use her environment to her advantage in a way that felt authentic and I applaud them for that. The overall design of the show was also fairly solid. However, the greatest thing that happened in the episode was, in my opinion, was the fact that Tyrone Powers' "The Mark of Zorro" (the film that the Waynes watched on the night of their murder) was being watched by Gotham at this movie in the park's event when Kate is shown in the cowl for the first time. The idea of that film being connected to the moment that created both Batman AND Batwoman I thought was genius. Sadly, however, this is where the silver linings of the episode end, and where the problems really just take off.
When the CW aired the trailer a few months ago, most people were not impressed and there was a lot of blowback over the forced female empowerment that felt derogatory towards men more than it felt empowering for women. Luckily the pilot did not showcase much if any of this at all, but unfortunately what they displayed was a rushed origin that fell flat on its face due to horrific pacing and terrible dialogue. The show's narration by the protagonist is Twilight levels of bad and makes an adult Kate Kane feel about as morally complex as Bella from the aforementioned series. If you wanted to make a show about female empowerment, it might help if your character didn't whine incessantly about how nobody understands her or wants her around. Any good plot points are both set up and resolved in the same pilot through tiresome exposition dumps that result in incredibly inconsistent character growth. The two best examples of this Ironically involve the two male pillars in Kate Kane's life: Bruce Wayne/ Batman, and her father Jacob Kane (who heads the PMC organization contracted with Gotham's safety).
When it comes down to her relationship with Bruce, they set up something that could have been a fantastic dynamic that provided an internal struggle for Kate in assuming the mantle of the Bat. Kate hates Batman in this show initially because of Batman's failure to save her mother and sister. She had always been angry that Batman was more invested in capturing the villain than taking the time to save her family (which is by far one of the most un-Batman things I could even think of, as Bruce Wayne would have stopped everything to save children specifically). However, on the other hand, in Bruce Wayne, she sees someone who always was there for her throughout her upbringing after the tragic loss of her mother and sister. This provides a potentially powerful inner conflict of character as Kate is determining where her place in all this should be. However, it's all resolved by easily the worst character of the pilot dumping 20 lines of exposition that amounted to "he was really sorry," to which Kate was immediately cured of her lifelong resentment and just put it all behind her. Nevermind the fact that that was a conflict that should have been allowed to be handled over multiple episodes and any use of it from here on in would feel hollow, no what's even worse than this is how she handles her father. Throughout the episode, Kate is seemingly trying to join her father's PMC group and become a "crow." However, it's brought to her attention (by a person that could hardly be called a reliable source as dressing up in period clothing, powdering your face, and going by Alice are hardly signs of any semblance of sanity) that her dad didn't want her around because she was a painful reminder of what her father lost. This understandably makes her mad and she confronts her father about it. By the episode's end, however, her father brings the confrontation to full circle by apologizing, that all he wanted was to protect the last vestige of his family from a similar fate. Despite the genuineness of this revelation Kate scoffs at her father and rejects his job offer, and goes onto another horrific narrative about how nobody wants her. Wait, so she'll forgive Batman that she's harbored an age-long resentment for because the caretaker of the Batcave says that he's sorry, but she won't see things from her father's point of view despite him being genuine in opening up and apologizing for trying to hold her back out of his own fear? That's just bad writing, and if it were the worst of it that would be one thing, but I haven't even gotten to the worst piece of bad writing that is present in the show.
It is a common tool when telling a narrative in an episodic form to reveal information to the audience only. It adds a layer of suspense that we know a piece of information that is not privy to the cast, and as such we get a feeling of tension as the protagonists investigate and begin to come to a conclusion towards this same information. As such I have no problem with the concept of revealing the identity of the series' antagonist of Alice to be none other than the believed to be the dead sister of Kate Kane: Beth Kane. For one, fans of her comics would likely have already known this as she was one of the first villains introduced for the character as a member of her own personal Rogues gallery, and secondly, as I already mentioned, this would fall into that previously mentioned literary trope. However, Batwoman completely messes this up by having this reveal done by the protagonist herself! This means there is no mystery for Batwoman to solve, all the tension that could have been built up for this reveal is wasted. This is either the ballsiest decision I've ever seen from a writing standpoint, or it's blatant ineptitude by the scribes. Given the track record of everything else throughout the episode, I am willing to bet the latter.
The biggest shame about Batwoman though is the media's attack of its criticism. Shill media sites are attacking the audience scores on aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and calling the very valid criticisms of these fans "review bombing" or "a result of toxic fandom" rather than looking at the real problem: that the product sucks. The industry has become so focused on pushing their personal politics down people's throats that they have forsaken quality writing and storytelling, then when they are told that the product is bad, they get mad and suddenly we are the bad guys for just pointing out the obvious. Batwoman is a bad show, and while it's supporters may claim that the sky is the limit for its potential, that's not that impressive of a statement when the starting point is rock bottom.
Now before I talk about the issues that I had, there were a few things that I want to mention that I do feel the show did well. I feel like it's important to acknowledge the little good because I want it to be clear that I went into this with an open mind and that despite the pilot being a disappointment beyond belief, there were moments of promise. The main thing I would like to applaud is the overall fight choreography. There is a fight scene in particular that I felt was fairly grounded, they designed the fight for Ruby Roses' Kate Kane to be able to use her environment to her advantage in a way that felt authentic and I applaud them for that. The overall design of the show was also fairly solid. However, the greatest thing that happened in the episode was, in my opinion, was the fact that Tyrone Powers' "The Mark of Zorro" (the film that the Waynes watched on the night of their murder) was being watched by Gotham at this movie in the park's event when Kate is shown in the cowl for the first time. The idea of that film being connected to the moment that created both Batman AND Batwoman I thought was genius. Sadly, however, this is where the silver linings of the episode end, and where the problems really just take off.
When the CW aired the trailer a few months ago, most people were not impressed and there was a lot of blowback over the forced female empowerment that felt derogatory towards men more than it felt empowering for women. Luckily the pilot did not showcase much if any of this at all, but unfortunately what they displayed was a rushed origin that fell flat on its face due to horrific pacing and terrible dialogue. The show's narration by the protagonist is Twilight levels of bad and makes an adult Kate Kane feel about as morally complex as Bella from the aforementioned series. If you wanted to make a show about female empowerment, it might help if your character didn't whine incessantly about how nobody understands her or wants her around. Any good plot points are both set up and resolved in the same pilot through tiresome exposition dumps that result in incredibly inconsistent character growth. The two best examples of this Ironically involve the two male pillars in Kate Kane's life: Bruce Wayne/ Batman, and her father Jacob Kane (who heads the PMC organization contracted with Gotham's safety).
When it comes down to her relationship with Bruce, they set up something that could have been a fantastic dynamic that provided an internal struggle for Kate in assuming the mantle of the Bat. Kate hates Batman in this show initially because of Batman's failure to save her mother and sister. She had always been angry that Batman was more invested in capturing the villain than taking the time to save her family (which is by far one of the most un-Batman things I could even think of, as Bruce Wayne would have stopped everything to save children specifically). However, on the other hand, in Bruce Wayne, she sees someone who always was there for her throughout her upbringing after the tragic loss of her mother and sister. This provides a potentially powerful inner conflict of character as Kate is determining where her place in all this should be. However, it's all resolved by easily the worst character of the pilot dumping 20 lines of exposition that amounted to "he was really sorry," to which Kate was immediately cured of her lifelong resentment and just put it all behind her. Nevermind the fact that that was a conflict that should have been allowed to be handled over multiple episodes and any use of it from here on in would feel hollow, no what's even worse than this is how she handles her father. Throughout the episode, Kate is seemingly trying to join her father's PMC group and become a "crow." However, it's brought to her attention (by a person that could hardly be called a reliable source as dressing up in period clothing, powdering your face, and going by Alice are hardly signs of any semblance of sanity) that her dad didn't want her around because she was a painful reminder of what her father lost. This understandably makes her mad and she confronts her father about it. By the episode's end, however, her father brings the confrontation to full circle by apologizing, that all he wanted was to protect the last vestige of his family from a similar fate. Despite the genuineness of this revelation Kate scoffs at her father and rejects his job offer, and goes onto another horrific narrative about how nobody wants her. Wait, so she'll forgive Batman that she's harbored an age-long resentment for because the caretaker of the Batcave says that he's sorry, but she won't see things from her father's point of view despite him being genuine in opening up and apologizing for trying to hold her back out of his own fear? That's just bad writing, and if it were the worst of it that would be one thing, but I haven't even gotten to the worst piece of bad writing that is present in the show.
It is a common tool when telling a narrative in an episodic form to reveal information to the audience only. It adds a layer of suspense that we know a piece of information that is not privy to the cast, and as such we get a feeling of tension as the protagonists investigate and begin to come to a conclusion towards this same information. As such I have no problem with the concept of revealing the identity of the series' antagonist of Alice to be none other than the believed to be the dead sister of Kate Kane: Beth Kane. For one, fans of her comics would likely have already known this as she was one of the first villains introduced for the character as a member of her own personal Rogues gallery, and secondly, as I already mentioned, this would fall into that previously mentioned literary trope. However, Batwoman completely messes this up by having this reveal done by the protagonist herself! This means there is no mystery for Batwoman to solve, all the tension that could have been built up for this reveal is wasted. This is either the ballsiest decision I've ever seen from a writing standpoint, or it's blatant ineptitude by the scribes. Given the track record of everything else throughout the episode, I am willing to bet the latter.
The biggest shame about Batwoman though is the media's attack of its criticism. Shill media sites are attacking the audience scores on aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and calling the very valid criticisms of these fans "review bombing" or "a result of toxic fandom" rather than looking at the real problem: that the product sucks. The industry has become so focused on pushing their personal politics down people's throats that they have forsaken quality writing and storytelling, then when they are told that the product is bad, they get mad and suddenly we are the bad guys for just pointing out the obvious. Batwoman is a bad show, and while it's supporters may claim that the sky is the limit for its potential, that's not that impressive of a statement when the starting point is rock bottom.
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