'Birds of Prey' wings to be clipped? tv

Ok... so you're AOL Time Warner; you own DC comics, you own some music labels, you control a prime-time broadcast network. So you make a TV show to air on your network about your DC comics characters that features music from your record labels. Great idea - but it still has to be good.

The WB is likely not going to renew Birds of Prey, the quasi-Batman-themed show they currently air on Wednesday night, and in fact they may kill it after only 9 of the season's planned 13 episodes. Meanwhile, Smallville, their Superman-themed show on Tuesday nights that also uses the aforementioned synergistic formula, is able to leap tall buildings in a single bound (as it were).

Why does one work and the other fail? I'll give you three reasons:

Writing. The writing is better on Smallville, plain and simple. The Superman-as-a-teen premise does make it sort of like a superhero soap opera, but at its best, it has a Buffy-esque ability to use fantastical situations as metaphors for "real life" coming-of-age issues.

Better understanding of the material. Smallville has Jeph Loeb as a "consulting producer." This guy knows comics, having written some of the better limited series (including Superman for All Seasons and Batman: The Long Halloween) of the past several years. Jeph is also the Executive Producer of the Buffy animated series. To the best of my knowledge, Birds of Prey doesn't have that kind of resource to tap - and it shows.

Hero presence. Finally, Superman and Batman are cultural icons, which is what should make them and their mythos such an attractive target for TV show development. The WB's Superman show is about Superman; the WB's Batman show is about... Batman's illegitimate daughter? Now, granted, Ashley Scott is one of the most beautiful women on television, but that still doesn't change the fact that the WB made a Batman show without Batman in it.

I have mixed feelings about seeing Birds of Prey go off the air - on the one hand, it has so much potential; on the other hand, I watch TV shows for their entertainment value, not their potential.

Posted by Dan on November 20, 2002 at 11:00 AM | TrackBack


Comments

*shakes fist* Damn you Ashley Scott for being so beautiful!

(you're right though, she is)

I feel the same way about the show. It's almost like Charmed in the sense that I really, really want to like it, but I can't.

Posted by: Desiree on November 20, 2002 11:05 AM

I only watched the first couple "Birds of Prey" episodes and would have to agree that writing really hasn't been very good. I'm not a big fan of Smallville either (too much like Dawson's Creek with a superhero), but at least the writing is much better.

It was interesting to see in that article that Fox is still pushing their "western done in space" that is Firefly. That's a show that started off slow, but I think is actually improving as the season progresses, but still leaves a bit to be desired. I hope those six additional scripts they picked up bring some new light to Firefly, or it will probably be following the cancellation route behind BoP.

Posted by: Mike on November 20, 2002 12:11 PM

I tried to watch BoP again last night. All I can say is... good riddance.

Posted by: Mike on November 21, 2002 11:49 AM

BoP was one I kept meaning to watch but forgetting to put on the TiVo. Anything that promises hot chicks kicking butt will always get at least one viewing out of me.

In spite of what my wife thinks though, boobies alone will not hold my attention. I think Jessica Alba is possibly one of the hottest women on the planet, but Dark Angel was, to me, just too dumb. Lexx had that interesting German chick (forget her name), but was just plain weird.

Of course, now they've cancelled my favorite "smart stories and hot women" show (farscape). All I have left are the occasional jiggles from Blalock on Enterprise. Oh, the pain, the pain...

Posted by: scott on November 22, 2002 08:29 AM

Unfortunately, Desiree and I *did* remember to put it on the TiVo, and then just rarely felt like watching it; it always seemed like we were forcing ourselves to sit through it in case something cool happened. (sigh)

I know this is probably Star Trek heresy or something, but TNG was the only series I really enjoyed, although I've been told I didn't give DS9 a fair shake. I've watched a couple of (admittedly jiggle-free) episodes of Enterprise and I just can't get into it; I'm not sure why - the pre-political correctness setting seems pretty interesting in theory.

Posted by: Dan on November 25, 2002 09:23 AM


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