Birds Of Prey

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Created for television by Laeta Kalogridis

Based on the characters created by Bob Kane and William ‘Bill’ Finger, and the comic book written by Charles ‘Chuck’ Dixon, Gail Simone and others

Starring Ashley Scott, Dina Meyer, Rachel Skarsten, Shemar Moore, Ian Abercrombie, Mia Sara, Robert Patrick Benedict and Shawn Christian


‘Birds Of Prey’ was a short-lived television series broadcast on the WB network (the original home of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’) between October 2002 and February 2003. It was developed for the network by Laeta Kalogridis, who turned up again four years later as an executive producer on the equally ill-fated revival of ‘Bionic Woman’. It was made by the same production team as ‘Smallville’ and ‘One Tree Hill’.

The show attracted viewing figures averaging more than 7.5 million, the network’s largest audience in the 18-34 demographic, or so it says on Wikipedia, but it was cancelled after thirteen episodes. Given that the viewing figures appear to have been above average for the network, it would seem strange that the show was cancelled after such a short run, but I have read that some ‘Batman’ comic book aficionados, who might have been expected to welcome the show, were aggrieved that it deviated from accepted “canon”. However, this tendency towards hostile reaction does seem to be a part and parcel of all comic-book superhero adaptations and probably was not an over-riding factor in the show’s early demise.

Ashley Scott, who had been one of the regular cast of the second season of John Cameron’s television series ‘Dark Angel’, was cast in the role of Helena Kyle, also known as Huntress, the metahuman daughter of Batman and Catwoman. A metahuman is a human possessed of superpowers.

She first learns of her true identity when her mother is murdered on the orders of the Joker. She is taken in by Barbara Gordon, also known as Oracle and previously Batgirl, who is now paralysed and confined to a wheelchair following a revenge shooting by the Joker. This character is played by genre fans favourite, Dina Meyer. Huntress and Oracle are a team, fighting the forces of darkness in New Gotham, several years after it has been abandoned by Batman.

Sixteen year old Dinah Redmond, played by Rachel Skarsten, is metahuman, like Huntress. She is drawn to New Gotham by precognitive dreams and is taken in by Barbara Gordon, so that she can continue her education, at the high school where Gordon teaches, and also learn to hone her telepathic powers.

Their main nemesis is Harley Quinn aka Dr Harleen Quinzel (played by Mia Sara), an accomplice of the Joker, who first appeared in Batman mythology in 1992 in ‘Batman: The Animated Series’.

The show was loosely based on the ‘Birds Of Prey’ comic book, which began in 1996, although it did not adhere strictly to the story told in that comic series and also incorporated elements of, amongst others, ‘The Killing Joke’, a 1988 comic book written by Alan Moore. I have virtually no interest in comic books and even less knowledge about them. This series was never broadcast on terrestrial television in Britain and would undoubtedly have passed me by altogether had it not been for the presence of Dina Meyer, who I like very much. She is the reason I first had an interest in watching it.

The show built up a small but faithful following, with at least one fan website continuing to be active for a couple of years after the last episode was broadcast. A DVD, containing the thirteen episodes, as well as the original unaired pilot, was released in 2008.

What makes ‘Birds Of Prey’ so hilariously bad (which is not to say it is not watchable and, indeed, enjoyable) is that, putting to one side its source material, it simply seems to be a hotchpotch of blatantly ripped-off elements from every other genre television show of the period.

The obvious place to start is ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, which one imagines WB wanted to find a replacement for, having allowed that show to move to UPN following the conclusion of the fifth season in May 2001. ‘Birds of Prey’ certainly takes some ideas and themes from it. For example. the character Dinah Redmond, a high school teenager, has the same clumsy wide-eyed geeky exuberance as Buffy’s younger sister Dawn. However, it is far too generic to be compared too closely to what might arguably be the most influential and innovative American television series of the last twelve years or so.

‘Buffy’ is the show that probably kick-started the renewed trend towards genre shows (acknowledging, also, the enormous influence of ‘The X Files’). ‘Buffy’ quite evidently was the catalyst that pathed the way for ‘Charmed’, ‘Dark Angel’, ‘Birds of Prey’, ‘Alias’ and others. However, it stands out as being very distinct from these other shows, and its own spin-off, ‘Angel’, for that matter, because of the influences it drew on.

Joss Whedon might be a fan (and a writer) of superhero comic books, but his trademark show was, in many ways, most influenced by the likes of ‘Beverly Hills 90210’, ‘Party of Five’ and, in particular, ‘My So-Called Life’. Also, the influence of the writer and subsequent executive producer Marti Noxon, who joined the show in the second season, should not be underestimated. Her own much maligned show ‘Point Pleasant’, like ‘Buffy’ before it, is another example of a genre show drawing its influences from soap opera and drama as much as, and often more so than, fantasy. Shows like ‘Birds of Prey’ and ‘Dark Angel’ did not do this and, for my tastes, this is to their detriment.

‘Birds Of Prey’ often plays like a hybrid of ‘Dark Angel’ and ‘Charmed’. Concentrating on the John Cameron show, it would be possible to replace Huntress and Oracle with Max Guevera and Logan Cale (the two main characters in ‘Dark Angel’) without the necessity of any other great changes. One of the main problems about ‘Dark Angel’ for me is the lack of heart and the absence of a sense of humour, which is not the same thing as employing comic moments within the show. ‘Birds of Prey’ also suffers from this.

‘Birds of Prey’ casts its net of influences much wider than just ‘Dark Angel’ and ‘Charmed’, a widely lambasted show that nonetheless built up a loyal and amenable fanbase and ran for eight seasons before coming to an end in May 2006. As examples, the basement bar No Man’s Land, a safe haven for metahumans, and its proprieter Gibson Kafka (Robert Patrick Benedict), is, effectively, a copy of the bar Caritas and character Lorne in ‘Angel’ (although, in fact, Gibson is probably more closely modelled on Xander Harris in ‘Buffy’). Equally, Detective Jesse Reese (Shemar Moore) in ‘Birds of Prey’ equates to Detective Kate Lockley, a recurring character featured in the first two seasons of ‘Angel’.

What ‘Birds Of Prey’ does is take elements from all of these various shows and throw them indiscriminately into the mix without ever quite managing to create an identity of its own. The storylines are determinedly simpleminded and it is possible to guess within the first few minutes exactly what is going to happen. The dialogue is often clunky and sometimes so risible as to make this viewer flinch with embarrassment.

On the plus side, the characters are not dislikeable and the cast is excellent. There is also some fun to be had from spotting exactly where various elements have been ripped-off from. For instance, the actor Christopher Wiehl appears in the episode ‘Reunion’, playing what is virtually an identical character, just older, to the one he portrayed in the first season ‘Buffy’ episode ‘Never Kill A Boy On The First Date’.

Speaking objectively, the show is verging on being truly bloody awful, but I quickly found myself enjoying it. I designed to watch one episode per evening and it was not long before I began to look forward to watching each one – and occasionally slipped in a second episode in the same evening. I don’t know if they would stand up to repeat viewing, but I imagine I will watch it again at some point. Potential viewers will already know from the synopsis whether or not this is a show that might piqué their interest.

Ashley Scott subsequently had a lead role in the television series ‘Jericho’, which ran for two seasons (the second one severely truncated) between September 2006 and March 2008. I have never seen it, but the premise sounds intriguing.



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