Batwoman (CW) S01: B-

Two crossovers ago Greg Berlanti and company announced that a new hero would appear in said event, and would function as a backdoor pilot for another series in the Arrowverse. Said hero and series Batwoman.

When they announced Ruby Rose as the actress to portray this character I was thrilled, I can't call myself a fan of her, but I thought it was a good choice. Her first appearance was short, but what little was shown I liked it and was very excited to watch a show about her.

Last fall she had her debut and boy oh boy, was it disastrous. The pilot episode is the lowest rated in the Arrowverse so far in IMDB, but with a closer look at the reviews from the episode and "the show" you can clearly see that they are mostly christians and pro family movements that tanked the show and episode's score. I mean it was sort of bad, but not a 1 out of 10 bad, worst things are out there with much better scores like, 4, 5, 6. So homophobia played a big part on how the audiences received this show. And only to keep fighting this I would always vote in favor of the series.

Also some "comic book" "fans" claimed they changed her story and her sexuality. People you're talking about Batgirl. Get your bats in check before typing.

This is not the only show. I noticed in other shows than whenever they had an LGBT or feminist themed episode the rate on IMDB for that episode would considerably drop comparing them to previous and future episodes from the same show. So I was trying to keep my cool thinking surely the network Gods would see this and yes take that into consideration. Hoping they would make the right decision (to not cancel Batwoman).

So to the season. It was not impressive to say the least. It started slow it went down hill from there. Ruby is not a good actress, but hey maybe she still has to find her footing. I didn't like the main villain Alice / Beth Kane (played by Rachel Skarsten) nothing against Rachel, she is amazing, she gave her all during the whole season. I just didn't quite like the character. We were looking at an origin story for Batwoman, but she had been introduced to us in a big event as BATWOMAN, then they took us back to the beginning. But she starts kicking ass right from the start. Even Oliver Queen (played by Stephen Amell) wasn't that good at the beginning, and we already knew that she was going to play an important part during the Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover. Considering this there was always something about the character that didn't quite fit into the Arrowverse or even her own show.

After the big event, the series got a renewal from the CW, I was relieved because I seriously thought that it would have gone to the history books as one of the very few series that the CW cancels on its freshman year. And after the crossover not only Batwoman got renewed, it actually got better.

Now don't get me wrong, let's just say that it went from a 5 ish to a 7 ish, maybe an 8 here and there. And of course the 10 from the crossover that probably shouldn't count.

Ruby got a tiny bit better, still rooting for her, she just needs to feel comfortable. Maybe Meagan Tandy who plays Sophie, her ex girlfriend, and maybe still romantic interest, is not very patient with the lack of skills of Ruby and that's the reason of the zero chemistry they have. I mean look at Ruby's scenes with Rachel, they are not that bad, and Rachel is superb and probably a more considerate actress.

But yes, I have to take into consideration the scenes with Luke and Mary, team Batwoman (played by Camrus Johnson and Nicole Kang) there was maybe 20% chemistry there (sorry sometimes I'm a numbers type of guy). Both Camrus and Nicole were good, specially Nicole, I love her character, I love her performance, Mary can really grow into the universe and can already picture her interacting with more characters from the rest of the Arrowverse. Side note please don't kill her.

Batwoman got into a nice rhythm after the crossover, developing more Alice, throwing her nice villains of the week and storylines. She became an LGBT advocate which I love. There was a lot of chemistry between Ruby and Brianne Howey who played Reagan for a couple of episodes. I even thought: "well maybe we should keep Brianne and fire Meagan". And hell yes! there are more plans for Reagan in the future, she's not actually out of the series.

Ups and downs, maybe more downs than ups. But this series seriously struggle to find it's place in this expanding universe. Still I'm an Arrowverse fan I will be faithful to it. The season finale, even though it was cut off two episodes due to the pandemic, still made some sense and had some cliffhangers that invited me to keep watching. Hopefully you too.

And with that we move on to the sad and incredible story of Ruby Rose. This week she quitted the job.

She didn't really elaborate on her reasons. There is speculation about an injury that lead her to surgery, but she never mentioned in which project she had the accident, but yes it was probably doing a stunt for Batwoman. Some sites said that inside sources are calling it a mutual break up. That it was obvious she wasn't comfortable, that she didn't like the long hours and the hard work that comes from being the main character in a TV show, life in Vancouver (is she crazy? Vancouver is AMAZING I would drop it all and move there this instant).

But after everything you read on my review, are you really shocked? It pains me to say this. But yes, Ruby Rose was one of the reasons this show didn't work as well as the others in the universe.

It pains me because I really don't want to trash talk her. I was rooting for her. I wanted to fly to production and give her a motivational talk and maybe a hug. But in all honesty. Yes there is a lot of opportunities in the writer's room. But also yes, she lacked the charisma that it takes to lead a TV show. To have or not the talent is not always everything, you need to have charisma, and I didn't feel it. And it probably was because she's been wanting to quit from day one.

The series is still renewed for a second season. Who do you want for the title role now that is vacant? Someone told me "they should let Rachel Skarsten play it as well. You know what? It doesn't sound so crazy.