Batwoman: Season 2 Premiere Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Batwoman's Season 2 premiere! If you need a refresher on where we left off, check out our full review for Season 1. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Batwoman was already going to face an uphill battle heading into Season 2, solely from the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic. The fact that the series also has to adapt to the sudden departure of star Ruby Rose surely isn't making things any easier for the cast and crew. But the good news is the series has a new lead in Javicia Leslie and will continue powering forward without Rose's Kate Kane. There's no getting around that sudden change in plans, but the Season 2 premiere handles the shakeup about as well as can be expected. As previously reported, the writers have made the decision to vanish Kate and frame Season 2 around that mystery rather than simply kill off the character. Maybe that means we'll see Rose return in a more limited capacity down the road. But Kate's sudden disappearance via a suspicious plane crash does feel like the best way of handling a bad situation. Given that Season 1 never even reached its proper conclusion, there's no getting around the fact that Kate was in the middle of a longer character arc when Rose dropped out. At least this approach attempts to build a a new long-term storyline out of that departure. And as much as Kate's disappearance mirrors that of her cousin Bruce, at least this particular mystery has a greater sense of urgency. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=batwoman-what-happened-to-kate-kane-photos&captions=true"] So the big question coming into Season 2 - is Leslie's Ryan Wilder a worthy heir to the Batwoman mantle? It's definitely too early to draw much of a conclusion, but she seems promising enough. Leslie has the right energy for Arrowverse, at least. We get a decent amount of range out of her performance in this debut appearance. We see Ryan as the comical newbie heroine learning the literal ropes of the job in the midst of beating up criminals. We also see shades of a much darker character, as Ryan clearly has a lifetime of rage and resentment fueling her actions. There's a more dynamic quality to the character that could well pay off in Season 2. That said, we can only judge so much based on one episode. As it is, the premiere is a little too preoccupied with Kate's disappearance and the collective response of shock and grief from the supporting cast, and not enough with actually establishing Ryan and her back-story. At the moment, Ryan comes across more like a new supporting character than the driving force of the series. Over time, it may be necessary to phase out some of the returning cast to make more room for Ryan and her world. Are characters like Sophie, Mary and Jacob still necessary in the long run? The premiere also has a bad habit of inundating viewers with information about Ryan's past rather than allowing the character to develop organically. Her origin story, as it were, is needlessly complicated for a character who has seemingly lucked into inheriting the Batsuit. She has the traditional superhero motivation of wanting to avenge a dead parent. She's also a walking indictment of the prison industrial complex who's happy to rattle off statistics whenever anyone prods into her personal life. And to top it off, she also has a personal grudge against Alice. Maybe all of this will coalesce into an effective whole, but it does seem as though the writers are trying too hard to give Ryan a tragic back-story. Why not simply focus on the notion that Ryan is a person who was chewed up and spit out by Gotham's failed system and leave it at that? Why can't we have more superheroes who yearn to fight evil for the sake of it and not because they're mourning a loved one? The most heartening takeaway from the premiere is that Kate's disappearance may work in Alice's favor. The fact that Kate vanished before she could complete her Season 1 arc plays directly into Alice's story now. She never got closure with her sister. We find out her endgame for Kate and see her grapple with the frustration over being robbed of the chance to carry it out. Not to mention the genuine grief coming from whatever shred of Beth Kane still remains. She may well be the series' most compelling character now as she morphs from Batwoman's main antagonist into... whatever she's destined to be now. This episode also wisely avoids going too far in trying to humanize Alice. Her casual murder of innocent bystanders shows she's not going to magically become a hero overnight. Whatever role Alice plays in Ryan Wilder's story, it won't merely be as the reformed villain. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/09/new-batwoman-actress-has-been-cast"] As promising as Alice's story looks at the moment, it is a shame to see the whole Tommy Elliot as Bruce Wayne plot twist wrapped up in the span of a single episode. This definitely comes across as an unfortunate side-effect of the pivot to the new lead. There was a lot of potential for Faux-Bruce to play a recurring role in the series and slowly worm his way into the lives of Team Batwoman. But alas. It's also unfortunate considering Warren Christie's performance is much stronger when he's specifically playing Tommy Elliot, deranged Arkham escapee, as opposed to an approximation of Bruce Wayne, handsome billionaire playboy. This episode does little to generate any excitement for the prospect of Christie returning to play the actual Bruce Wayne, yet now the Arrowverse has effectively pigeon-holed itself into this casting choice. All the more reason for the series to focus on building up the new Batwoman rather than dwell on Kate Kane's extended family.

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