I’ve gotten used to seeing what Lisa Respers France from CNN has to say on matters of entertainment as of yesterday and have no trouble laughing off the idea that #MeToo has much to do with the new up and coming Batwoman series starring Ruby Rose. Honestly, should it? Hasn’t anyone gotten tired yet of the political lean-to’s that are being propped up against one bit of entertainment after another, or being used to shelter people or guard against various subject matter that some folks might not like? Let’s leave at this, Batwoman looks, so far, as though it’s going to be absolutely amazing, and the whole lesbian angle is just one more part of the story and isn’t, or shouldn’t be, an issue for anyone that watches since it’s just another part of the character.
Obviously though it’s going to become an issue within the story since in one scene it’s noted that Kate is being called out for her behavior, which may or may not upset some folks but will be realistic all the same. But then again there are going to be plenty of moments in which the reality of life is brought forth in the show whether through action or word usage since the line “I’m not about to let a man take credit for a woman’s work.” could actually upset someone it feel like. It’s inane to think that it’s possible but it might actually rile someone up simply because the struggle between men and women throughout the years has still been ongoing and it’s been seen every bit as much in our entertainment as it has in our newscasts. The fact that people want to imbue our TV shows and movies with it is kind of amusing really since in some ways it’s mean to elicit a good laugh and open a person’s eyes at the same time. But moving on.
It would appear that Batman has disappeared from the scene at this point and Kate’s father and his security force are trying to pick up the slack. But as most people already know you can’t really replace the Batman with a bunch of hired security and expect the criminals to be just as intimidated. That could be why Kate feels it her responsibility to seek out her cousin Bruce’s bat cave and make a few modifications of her own so that she can take up the fight where Bruce left off. Althea Legaspi of Rolling Stone seems to agree that this is going to be something special to see and quite honestly it would be folly to try and disagree with her.
What seems great about this superhero already as described by Liz Shannon Miller of IndieWire is that she wasn’t looking to become a hero at first. Having been discharged from the military she simply wanted to help her father and had to go through a series of revelations in her life to finally decide what she wanted to do. Kate Kane wasn’t the vigilante type until she had no other choice, and even when she dons the suit she’s going to have to find a way to deal with and in some ways abolish the inner demons that she already tussles with in order to be the best person she can. In way this is great, no matter how callous that sounds, since it makes her a deeper and more realistic individual in the story, rather than someone that’s out for justice and is going to be the new hero on the block now that Batman is out of the picture. Giving her the kind of problems to deal with that so many people struggle to endure makes her easier for people to relate to, and making her find the bat cave rather than rely on some outrageous personal fortune to finance her war on crime is also a big up since it means that her resources might actually be finite unless she can somehow tap into Bruce’s wealth and fund her vigilante lifestyle.
There are a couple of things that could derail this show and one of them happens to be the adherence to the thought that she’s what people have been waiting for since the #MeToo movement. People don’t want to hear this, but when it comes to entertainment it’s time to let go of that noise and let people enjoy what they will without the political aspect coming into play so often. Otherwise it becomes a giant struggle for dominance when it comes to which superhero means more to the people, which is quite honestly a bunch of nonsense. The other thing that could possibly derail this show is fixating too much on certain aspects of the main character. Yes she’s a lesbian, yes she’s taking over a man’s role, but so what? Let her be the superhero she signed up to be, and enjoy it.
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