Why So Blu?

Batwoman: The Complete Second Season (Blu-ray Review)

Batwoman just wrapped up its second season as it heads into a third one coming very soon. The second season was largely noted as Ruby Rose dropped a bombshell that she wouldn’t be returning. Not the first time a big star has left a show. But, in today’s superhero climate, how would that be handled. My thoughts on that make up the bulk of my review, but its important. The second season gets some extras in the form of a gag reel, deleted scenes and two featurettes for the Blu-ray release. It will be available on September 21st, which you can order yourself a copy by using the glorious paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review.

.

.

Season

At the end of the first season, Crows Commander Kane (Dougray Scott) has declared war on Batwoman, forcing everyone around them to choose sides. Season two kicks off with a major game-changer that alters Gotham City and The Bat Team forever. A new hero emerges from the shadows. Relatable, messy, loyal, and a little goofy, Ryan Wilder (Leslie) couldn’t be more different than the woman who wore the Batsuit before her, billionaire Kate Kane. Living in her van, Ryan has been made to feel trapped and powerless by the system her whole life and believes the Batsuit is the key to breaking out of it. But what she’ll come to discover is that it’s not the suit that makes Ryan Wilder powerful, it’s the woman inside of it who finds her destiny in changing Gotham City for good.

You can’t discuss the second season of Batwoman without the one big change behind the scenes of the show. It had a drastic effect on how the second season would play out. This is not the direction with which they planned on concluding the pandemic shortened first season, nor how they would head into their sophomore year. Series lead Ruby Rose decided to leave the program after one year, something she had every right to do and while a big deal, shouldn’t have affected production as much as it wound up doing.

Today’s pop culture and “nerd culture” has too much an obsessive in the wrong kinds of continuity. While Ruby Rose was the figurehead for Kate Kane/Batwoman, its important to note that Ruby Rose PLAYED Kate Kane/Batwoman. She wasn’t the actual person. It was a part, she can be recast. Different people can play different parts. Roseanne famously had two Beckys. Don Cheadle was not Rhodey in Iron Man. Val Kilmer and George Clooney played the same Bruce Wayne/Batman made famous by Michael Keaton. Its okay to do. You carry on as you would with the character and learn some of the strengths of the new actor and tweak to fit them. You make a fourth wall joke to the audience at some point maybe and you move on. This should have happened with Kate Kate.

However, the obsessives now have to keep things visually exactly the same or have some ridiculous explanation for things. There are even people who go nuts about thinking every James Bond actor is a different 007. These are things that are superfluous and not even the slightest big important to anything. Nothing in life is storybook, nothing is clean. But, they decided to create a new character to be Batwoman, while keeping the same supporting cast and writing off Kate Kane to a mysterious disappearance/potential death. Which, is no crime. But it rather makes the second season another first season and tirelessly works its way to figure out and force this new character into the narrative and to become its prominent figure. And much of the first 2/3 of Batwoman’s second season dedicates itself to this.

Spoiler coming right here. They pull a double whammy in the final episodes of the season and not only bring back Kate Kane, but they bring in another actor to play her. Not only that, they go over a silly plastic surgery piece of story and detail to explain why its not the exact same actor playing the part. Its quite sloppy, and just continues to drull on to finish the season. Many of the exciting things in the season, villains like Black Mask, Luke Fox’s big change and some of the rather well done social commentary things are lost among the rather sloppy fixes and second piloting narrative of season 2.

Batwoman‘s second season was a bit what I’d feared with all the changes behind the scenes and the direction they chose to go. Though, I did think it poised itself nicely to be a much better show in its third season. It appears it is going to take Supergirl‘s mantle of being the DC show that takes a lot of social commentary head on with its narrative and showcased flashes of that within this second season. Though, at the end of the day it spent a lot of time integrating a character and then sloppily bringing back a character to figure out how to get that person a decent send off. And at best, we are past it now.

Episodes

Whatever Happened to Kate Kane?

Prior Criminal History

Bat Girl Magic!

Fair Skin, Blue Eyes

Gore on Canvas

Do Not Resuscitate

It’s Best You Stop Digging

Survived Much Worse

Rule #1

Time Off for Good Behavior

Arrive Alive

Initiate Self Destruct

I’ll Give You a Clue

…And Justice For All

Armed and Dangerous

Rebirth

Kane, Kate

Power

Video

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: Batwoman is a program that offers plenty in the field of televised action entertainment. In addition to all the gloriously rendered kicking, punching and explosions, the show offers a wide variety of machinery and interesting ambient locales. Effects are heightened but they weave in perfectly with the tracks scoring and vocals. This balanced mix provides for a very theatrical and engaging 5.1 track.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: Big engines, rev’ing a motorcycle, kicks and punches, gunshots, glass shattering, crashes, explosions and more really pump the boom of the subwoofer. The score also delivers a nice prrr to it in the baseline.

Surround Sound Presentation: From the rear comes mainly ambiance, but some battle scenes and environments provide some interesting action sounds and other kinds of noises to give a good sense of place. The front speakers wonderful connect the action, following it around and accurately depicting pitch and volume.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is crisp, clear and at an ideal volume that places it ideally in the mix for every environment. No matter how big the action or quiet the segment, actors sound a part of it and are always plenty audible.

Extras

Batwoman: The Complete Second Season is a 3-Disc set that comes with an episode guide print on the reverse side of the cover insert and a digital copy of every episode in the season.

Disc 1

Deleted Scenes (HD, 3:48)

Disc 2

Deleted Scenes (HD, 1:45)

Disc 3

Villains Analyzed (HD, 15:45) – The cast and crew of the show discusses Gotham City’s rich history of villains, the ones used on the show, and the psychology and character analysis of them.

Never Alone: Heroes and Allies (HD, 20:48) – The showrunners of the respective CW DC television shows discuss their casts and characters, sidekicks and what they project, how they play out and how they fit with the history of DC Comics.

Gag Reel (HD, 7:49)

Deleted Scenes (HD, 4:19)

Summary

Batwoman’s second season is a big step backward on purpose but does leave me with hope in improvement for its next step forward in season 3. The video and audio presentation is up to snuff with its first season and the other shows from the CW Arrowverse. And it has a decent extra all to itself with one that I’m sure is shared across some other releases. Collectors for these shows know the drill with the Blu-rays, others may just be happy with checking it out on HBO MAX.

This is a paid Amazon Associates link