Batwoman Season 1 is infamous for being cut down a few episodes due to COVID-19 in Season 1. Not to mention shortly thereafter, the show also lost its lead Ruby Rose due to personal reasons. This led fans to question whether the show would be cancelled or overhauled with a totally new lead. The Season 2 premiere also gives us our first glimpse at what a show or movie might feel like with all these new COVID restrictions. Some of those effects have begun to show because The CW recently just cancelled it’s big episodic crossover between Batwoman and Superman & Lois.
THE GOOD:
Thankfully, the casting director found an actor of competence to don the left behind cowl. Javicia Leslie plays Ryan Wilder (A new character created for the show) who is a homeless girl in her mid to late ’20s with a past. They give us very little about Ryan which I get with a full season, but I found her overall background in karate to be inconsistent. Some moments she does not seem to be capable of fighting certain individuals that affect her greatly, but then all of a sudden can pull some Karate moves out of know where. There are 3 actors who are actually decent and that’s Luke (Camrus Johnson), Alice (Rachel Skarsten), and Kate’s dad (Dougray Scott). They give good performances at best.
THE BAD:
The writers have learned nothing after everything in Season 1. Some of what they did with Kate in Season 1 retreads a bit like how kryptonite is the only thing that can penetrate the Batsuit. Not going to say how that comes back up, but it’s obvious that Ruby’s exit left the writers with the question “How?” It is clear that the end of season 1 with Tommy Elliot becoming Bruce Wayne was supposed to be a big part of season 2 if Ruby stayed. This in turn caused the writers to wrap an entire season’s length of story into 1 episode, and then having the episode trying to introduce a new star as well. All while trying to explain the old star’s disappearance at the same time. This led the episode to be quite boring and lackluster, while also not giving any information as to what will happen going forward other than the relationship between Ryan and Alice. And surprise surprise, Alice is the main villain again. It was rumored that Scarecrow was supposed to be the big bad but that didn’t come to fruition.
In conclusion, I was hopeful the writers learned from past mistakes in season 1. I saw Javicia coming in as a fresh start, but sadly they went back to everything in season 1. I will still tune in for a few more episodes to really start to understand where the season is going and after that I hope for the better, but I’m not very optimistic. If you did not like season 1, I can’t see this episode winning you over and it just feesl like season 1.5 instead of season 2.
Grade: 4/10