Birds Of Prey DVD Review
Written by Ian Cullen on July 14, 2008 – 9:17 am -
By Ian M. Cullen
Synopsis: Who will stand up to villains now that a heartbroken Dark Knight has mysteriously vanished? Never fear, New Gothamites, a trio of champions is ready to take wing – and Helena, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, is among them. She calls herself Huntress and crime is her prey. Teenaged Dinah is the youngest of the group, learning as she goes and gifted in clairvoyance. And overseeing the awesome threesome’s high – tech nerve centre is Batgirl. Left wheelchair – bound by The Joker, she has reinvented herself as Oracle: They are the Birds Of Prey. Fighting together. Living together. And soaring into adventure together in 13 breathtaking episodes.
Series Overview: To many fans the release of Birds Of Prey onto DVD is long overdue – however after a wait all 13 episodes of the show made it onto DVD earlier this month, but was it worth the wait?
To me as only a casual fan of the series I am only vaguely aware of the comic book origins of which the TV series was loosely based on – but to give a little background information the Birds Of Prey comic strip first came to light in 1977 and was a spin off series from the popular Batman comics. In the comic series the original Birds Of Prey were Batman and Catwoman’s daughter The Huntress, Former Batgirl Barbara Gordon who calls herself The Oracle and is now wheelchair bound – and The Black Canary.
The comic series much like the TV series had the three women combining their skills to fight crime.
The TV series was loosely based on the comics and more or less disregarded the Black Canary and chose to introduce a new character called Dinah Lance who is the Daughter of The Black Canary. The series was set in an alternative universe to the DC comics and did take a fair few liberties with the property while adapting it to Television – much like was done with Smallville.
The Black Canary does however turn up in episode five Sins Of The Mother in which she turns up in New Gotham City on the run from a crime lord – and looking to reconnect with her daughter Dinah who she left with foster parents when she was a kid. This particular episode was heavy drama with Dinah feeling conflicted about her mother turning up – though the two women do slowly form of bond.
Huntress though is the main attraction of this series and is played to perfection by the lovely Ashley Scott . Obviously with your three leads being women there is a pretty big emphasis on the romance element – but most of those story-lines deal with the problems of trying to have relationships while leading a double life.
The main villain of the series is Harley Quinn played with much aplomb by Mia Sara. I was really impressed with the casting overall for this show. I thought choosing Dina Meyer for Batgirl and Oracle was damn good casting – and Rachel Skarsten manages to portray teen angst along with the inner struggle of learning to use her new powers really well – but the prize of chewing up the most scenery in this series would have to go to Mia Sara who flips between understanding psychoanalyst to deranged nut job in the blink of an eye. Pretty much every crime in New Gotham is organised by Harley Quinn who learned all her tricks from her former lover the Joker.
Extras: This set to me was disappointing in the way of extras. There was no documentary looking at the comic book origins of the series – no interviews with the cast and crew – nor were there any audio commentary tracks on the episodes.
All you get in the way of extras is the animated series Gotham Girls which I’m sorry to say isn’t really up to much and you also get the unaired pilot episode as well.
So as far as extras go I wasn’t that impressed to be honest.
Overall: This series blends drama and action really well and some of the comic book type villains which the birds take on in this series were really fun and well done as well.
It’s a shame Warner Bros wound up having to cancell this show – because in a lot of ways – and in a very short time it surpassed much of what was going on in smallville.
For more information of the DVD set of Birds Of Prey point your browsers to www.birdsofpreydvd.com
- Series Score 4/5
- Extras Score 2/5
- Overall Score 6/10
Related posts:
- Batman: The Joker’s Last Laugh
- Ian’s Roving Editorial: Where Have The Great Birds Gone?
- The Essential Batman Encyclopedia
- Stargate SG – 1: Ark Of Truth DVD Review
- Batman and Indiana Jones Competition!
Tags: Batman, Birds Of Prey, Catwoman, Huntress, Warner Bros
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