{"id":196534,"date":"2019-10-19T06:31:03","date_gmt":"2019-10-19T06:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=196534"},"modified":"2019-10-22T07:01:40","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T07:01:40","slug":"woke-batwoman-endorsed-by-critics-shredded-by-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=196534","title":{"rendered":"Woke \u2018Batwoman\u2019 Endorsed By Critics, Shredded By Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Station Gossip \u2013 Oct 18, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The new DC Universe television series \u201cBatwoman,\u201d which was hyped by DC and The CW as an overtly social justice-oriented series, finally aired two weeks ago amid much buzz. With two episodes released, reviews of the series reveal a dramatic gap between the response of critics and viewers. While the critics overall have given the series their official endorsement, viewers loathe it to a degree of unanimity rarely seen.<\/span><\/p>\n

The new \u201cBatwoman\u201d series features a lesbian lead character who is \u201carmed with a passion for social justice and flair for speaking her mind,\u201d as\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0described it when it was first announced last year:<\/span><\/p>\n

Batwoman\u00a0<\/em>revolves around Kate Kane, who, armed with a passion for social justice and flair for speaking her mind, soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an out lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the failing city\u2019s criminal resurgence. But don\u2019t call her a hero yet: in a city desperate for a savior, Kate must overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham\u2019s symbol of hope.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIntersectional\u201d controversy quickly arose when the identity of the actress who would play Kane\/Batwoman was first announced last year. \u00a0Actress Ruby Rose, who generally presents herself as female but identifies as \u201cgender fluid,\u201d came under such severe backlash from angry left-wing critics for being \u201cnot gay enough\u201d that she felt compelled to\u00a0get off social media<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amid growing anticipation, \u201cBatwoman\u201d finally aired two weeks ago. With two episodes now released, review aggregating site\u00a0Rotten Tomatoes<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0gives the series a critics\u2019 score of 70%, meaning a strong majority of critics scored it positively. The site offers the following\u00a0\u201cCritics Consensus\u201d summary that gives a nod to the series\u2019 identity politics focus:<\/span><\/p>\n

Though it needs more time to develop its own identity to truly soar,\u00a0Batwoman<\/em>\u2018s fun and stylish first season is a step in the right direction for representation and superhero shows alike.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0While the show enjoys a healthy 70% critics score, with 40 reviewers having weighed in thus far, the audience score is a far different matter. With over 5,500 viewers having offered their opinions, \u201cBatwoman\u201d currently has a devastating 12% audience score \u2014 a 58% gap between how viewers and critics score the show.<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, out of the 40 critics, 28 give the show a \u201cfresh\u201d rating while 12 give it a \u201crotten\u201d score. Many of the critics endorsing the show tip their hand that its \u201crepresentation\u201d-focus has something to do with their positive view of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBatwoman is shaping up to be the queer, boundary breaking superhero television deserves,\u201d writes Refinery29\u2019s Ariana Romero.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe best part of the new series is that unfussy, effortless way of getting Kate\u2019s sexual orientation out of the way, and also Kate herself,\u201d says Newsday\u2019s Verne Gay, who gives it a 2.5 out of 4 stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRuby Rose is very fun in this role. She\u2019s cheeky and flirty and butchy and broody and punchy and I can\u2019t wait to see what else she brings to one of my all-time favorite fictional lesbian characters,\u201d writes Autostraddle\u2019s Heather Hogan.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGritty and fiercely feminist, the series is very much an Arrowverse show that also stands as its own thing,\u201d says TV Guide\u2019s Keisha Hatchet, who gives it a 70 out of 100.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the complaints of those relatively few critics who give it the thumbs down is the show\u2019s \u201clack of identity,\u201d its \u201cpoorly conceived supporting cast,\u201d and its habit of \u201ctrying too hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to a poorly conceived supporting cast and a serious lack of identity, the Batwoman pilot isn\u2019t all that great, especially if you\u2019re not a mega fan of the already existing Arrowverse franchise,\u201d suggests ComicBook.com\u2019s Charlie Ridgely, who gives it a 3 out of 5.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBatwoman has a lot of potential but this pilot feels too torn. When the show is not trying too hard, it works decently. But, when it forces itself to deliver messages, it falls apart,\u201d writes Jo Blo\u2019s Movie Emporium\u2019s Alex Maidy, who gives it a 6 out of 10.<\/span><\/p>\n

While 70% of the critics liked it overall, only 12% of viewers who took to Rotten Tomatoes to offer their opinion say they did. Many of the over 5,000 audience reviewers score the series 1 or 0.5 out of 5 stars.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNot good, trying way too hard,\u201d writes one audience reviewer. \u201cVery boring and preachy, could of been great but as is now its a HUGE fail,\u201d writes another.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPainfully cramped story and predictable characters \u2026 seems to fit a whole season\u2019s worth of content in the first two episodes,\u201d writes another viewer. \u201cI definitely think they turned down the wokeness seen in the trailer, but either way, that is not what makes this series fail so far.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis could have been amazing. Such a disappointment,\u201d writes another. \u201cI paid nothing to see this commercial free and I feel ripped off,\u201d says another viewer.<\/span><\/p>\n

The huge disparity in the critics and audience score echoes what happened with the similarly social justice\/feminist-themed comic book production, \u201cCaptain Marvel.\u201d In fact, the terrible \u201cwant to see\u201d score on Rotten Tomatoes ahead of the release of the film compelled the site to completely drop the score, only allowing viewers to post responses after the film\/show is released.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why the huge disparity? Are the media critics trying to sell Batwoman, along with its implicit endorsement of lesbianism? If so the public aren\u2019t buying it <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-The_Media"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=196534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196538,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196534\/revisions\/196538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=196534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=196534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=196534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}