Batwoman airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW in North America which episodes available to stream the following day on The CW app. The series is yet to announce a premiere date in the UK.
Synopsis
Back in Gotham, battling Alice (Rachel Skarsten) and the Wonderland Gang from the shadows, Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) continues to be haunted by the events surrounding her sister’s death 15 years earlier. While the city holds on to hope that Batman has returned, Jacob Kane (Dougray Scott) and the Crows up the stakes trying to take down the villainous crew. Kate continues to look to Bruce Wayne’s legacy for guidance as Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) inadvertently gets pulled into Batwoman’s vigilante heroics. Sophie (Meagan Tandy) and Kate are forced to team up, while Mary (Nicole Kang) finds herself in Alice’s crosshairs. Elizabeth Anweis also stars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8JTkiPWoWgReview
Coming out of its pilot episode (reviewed here) Batwoman needed to step up. I may have been unfairly critical given that it was the first episode but the pilot didn’t succeed a fully selling me on the premise of the show.
Whilst the Batwoman/Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) character came over as enigmatic in the Elseworlds crossover, the pilot felt cold and sterile.
What worked in that pilot episode was the Gotham aesthetic. I was genuinely intrigued by the class system at play and the episode featured some truly inspired set design, lightning and cinematography for an Arrowverse show.
So I was pleased to see that “The Rabbit Hole” doubled down on many of those aspects. I now understand that the show is continuing to film certain scenes in Chicago to keep the Gotham look and feel.
Continuing to do this is a brilliant idea. It sets Batwoman apart from the other CW shows and doesn’t leave the audiences pointing out when the Star Labs building appears in other shows (I’m looking at your Arrow!).
Though I would most certainly not call Batwoman “goth” there are some excellent darkly lit scenes in this episode. Think Morticia Addams level creepy lighting. It’s quite inspired and, again, sets the show apart from the rest of the universe.
But where the series continues to let itself down is in making family drama a necessity. The family drama – aside from the Kate/Alice/Jacob relationship – feels unnecessary and decidedly soapy. It works in other Arrowverse shows but here it feels at odd with the overall dark tone.
“The Rabbit Hole” does make the family drama easier to accept. There’s a specific scene where Mary Nicole Kang) is ambushed by a member of the Wonderland Gang at her free clinic, it’s pervasively horror and Kang acts the hell out of the scene brilliantly.
On the flip side though, Batwoman leans in to a serious Arrowverse trope in revealing that Jacob’s second wife, Catherine (Elizabeth Anweis) has some sinister intentions. Season 1 Moria Queen anyone?
It feels like the show isn’t quite sure what it wants to be. On the one hand there’s a dark, Batman inspired show desperately trying to break out and these are the moments when Batwoman truly shines. But on the other hand there seems to be some concern that veering too far from the Arrowverse template will alienate part of the audience.
The need to make the show feel like the rest of the universe might be ultimately what kills it.
The dynamic between Kate and Alice/Beth (Rachel Skarsten) sits at the very centre of this episode. Ruby Rose is able to inject some warmth in to her performance and makes Kate a dramatically more likeable character than last week. Skarsten too injects some more emotion in to her performance.
Last week I complemented her attempt to craft a nuanced, maniacal character. This week she is able to ramp that up further and the scene in which she taunts the current owners of the old Kane household is a highlight of the episode.
The writing feels more tight knit in “The Rabbit Hole”. There’s a flow to the episode which was missing last week and certainly points to Batwoman beginning to carve out a path for its debut season.
There’s still miles to go but we seem to be on the right path.
Verdict
“The Rabbit Hole” improves upon the series pilot by doubling down on its dark aesthetic. Unfortunately it also doubles down on soapy family drama.
6/10
Batwoman stars Ruby Rose as Kate Kane/Batwoman. The series co-stars Dougray Scott, Elizabeth Anweis, Meagan Tandy, Camrus Johnson, Nicole Kang and Rachel Skarsten.
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