11 replies on “Birds of Prey – No New Episodes”

  1. ???
    Okay, I’ll ask. What separates this from Smallville, excepting the fact that most people have heard of Superman? From what I’ve seen of Smallville (admittedly little), it didn’t seem any more compelling than BoP, and it’s on its second season. Granted, it wasn’t a _great_ show, but it seemed to be getting better.

    • Re: ???
      Smallville is much better written and better acted, and seems to have a higher budget and/or production values. The writing on BoP is ultimately what sucks, though.

    • Re: ???

      Okay, I’ll ask. What separates this from Smallville, excepting the
      fact that most people have heard of Superman? From what I’ve
      seen of Smallville (admittedly little), it didn’t seem any more
      compelling than BoP, and it’s on its second season. Granted, it
      wasn’t a _great_ show, but it seemed to be getting better.

      • One sucks, the other does not.
      • One has subtle demonstrations of powers, the other has a girl
        who’s eyes transform whenever she’s about to use her super
        strengh.
      • One has interesting characters, the other has chicks with the 3
        hair colours.
      • One has a very polished look, the other looks cheap and tacky.
      • One has a well know character in his youth, the other has a
        crippled sidekick, a mutant unheard of daughter and some Jean
        Grey wannabe…

      And so forth.

      As soon as I saw those switchy eyes used to show a power that
      has nothing to do with vision done over and over again, I knew the
      show would crash and burn pretty quickly. That’s a big “we’re not
      even trying to make sense” flag.

    • Re: ???

      Okay, I’ll ask. What separates this from Smallville, excepting the fact that most people have heard of Superman? From what I’ve seen of Smallville (admittedly little), it didn’t seem any more compelling than BoP, and it’s on its second season. Granted, it wasn’t a _great_ show, but it seemed to be getting better.

      OK, this is speaking from a position of ignorance with regards to BoP since I watched only a few minutes. But what I can say is that the show appeared to have the challenge many comic book based TV and movies do do… striking a balance between viewing itself seriously and integrating the outlandishness that you expect from a comic book world. The original batman TV series worked, because it dropped the premise of being a serious show. Smallville works because it employs the subtle part of Clark Kent’s life before becoming a super hero, and makes clever use of foreshadowing in pretty much every episode, all without ever having said the name “Superman” in its two seasons. I find that remarkable for a comic book translated into another medium. The Batman, X-Men and Spiderman movies all worked becuase the budget and writing was there to make a full-scale translation, but they wouldn’t have worked as a 30 or 60 minute show. After only a few minutes of watching BoP I got the impression that I was watching a WB Batman cartoon plot being played out by live actors… it didn’t know where to start being a TV show and stop being a comic, and it was strained as a result.

  2. Of Course.
    This one had an interesting premise, and some promise, so it must be pulled.

    Ah well, so they pulled Farscape too, nothing else should survive.

    • Re: Of Course.

      This one had an interesting premise, and some promise

      That’s why I couldn’t stand watching it after the first episode — it really looked like it could go places, and then to see how it was all going to be wasted! Though I have to confess, I wrote off Smallville after the pilot, but watched another one a few weeks later and saw how well it was developing the characters and was sold on it.

      • Re: Of Course.

        That’s why I couldn’t stand watching it after the first episode — it really looked like it could go places, and then to see how it was all going to be wasted!

        The biggest problem I had with it was WB little ‘character flashes’ between commercials. Last night they had one of the birds soaked in water prowling around half-naked.

        While I’m all for the female form (being a male and all) I really despise when they do crap like that. It’s stupid, demeaning, and proves that they used the three women in the show just for their looks, and nothing more.

        If I wanted that, I’d watch VIP and the permanently surprised Pamela Anderson.

    • Re: ??

      And yet Andromeda keeps chugging along….

      Yeah…what’s up with that? I mean, andromeda is cheap and
      dumb, boring and unoriginal…and it just keeps going and going.
      Sigh…tv execs take too much drugs.

      • Re: ??

        And yet Andromeda keeps chugging along….

        Yeah…what’s up with that?

        Andromeda is syndicated, not on a network. That buys it a lot more grace in terms of the ratings required to be profitable. It also means that there is no single network with the say as to whether or not it should be pulled. (eg. “Birds Of Prey” may do fine for stations that air it outside the WB area, but if it fails on the WB, it gets pulled.) Another reason is that syndicated shows have no set timeslot, so each individual broadcaster can find a time slot that works in that local. “Birds of Prey” is set to be against “The Twilight Zone” and others in most markets.

    • Re: ??

      And yet Andromeda keeps chugging along….

      Yes it does.

      It could be the fact that Majel Barret and Kevin Sorbo have more star power, and thus influence, to keep the show alive until the end of the third season.

      This show comes on at a time in my area where there is little good competition. This also may be a factor in why it still is aired. BOP had the other prime time shows to contend with.

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