All of the sudden, fanboys have one less thing to complain about. For the last six years, there’s been a lot of cursing Warner Brothers from the elite group of fans that were lucky enough to be paying attention to the WB just before it got completely pointless to see a little jewel of a show called Birds of Prey. We’ve been complaining because not only was it yet another worth-while series that was cancelled after only a half-season, but because WB refused to release it on DVD. I never understood this mentality. Back then, WB acted like it was the worst mistake they ever made, presumably because BoP’s ratings didn’t touch Smallville. But if you’re going to cut your losses in a world with DVD box sets, why not release it and make a few bucks off of your lousy investment?

Birds of Prey was a show set in New Gotham, loosely based on the comic book of the same name. The Huntress is actually based on the pre-Crisis Earth 2 version, Helena Wayne (called Helena Kyle in this series), the product of a relationship between Batman and Catwoman. She works with former-Batgirl Barbara Gordon (spitting-image from the comic played by Dina Meyer) who is now the computer genius called Oracle, after the Joker paralyzed her legs with a gunshot. They’re joined in the pilot by Dinah Lance, the future second Black Canary. The show came out of another premise conceived prior to Smallville for a young Bruce Wayne series. It would have happened, except Warner was already developing plans for Batman Begins and they didn’t want Bruce Wayne’s pre-Batman career to be portrayed twice, simultaneously. Kryptonsite somehow got ahold of the pilot script for that series, and you can read it here (and it’s very, very good). So instead, Miller and Gogh went with Superman and thus Smallville was born. But with Smallville’s hugely successful first season, they came up with Birds of Prey, pitched it, and got it made. Unfortunately, it wasn’t received by fans as quickly and it was cancelled after thirteen episodes. Though it’s one of my favorite shows of all time, it did have one inherent flaw that may have helped to kill it– it was Gotham City without Batman. And the only way to do that would have been to either kill him (which is never a good idea– see the blog I wrote way back in November) or have him get scared off by the Joker wounding Batgirl and killing Catwoman. They did the latter, and though Batman is portrayed as legendary and epic in the pilot as I’ve ever seen him, I think it made a lot of fans angry. Batman just wouldn’t do that. But it’s neccessary for the premise to even work, so I found myself able to forgive them for it.

Apparently, Warner finally changed their minds about releasing it. On July 15th, Birds of Prey will finally join the ranks of failed series to be available on DVD, along with such post-canceled DVD successes like Firefly and Patrick Warburton’s live action The Tick. Why did the suits finally change their minds? The obvious answer is The Dark Knight. The series is being released only three days before the film, so it must be a tie-in. They probably figured it would be good hype for the movie and if they were going to make any money on it at all, now would be the time. As much as I’ve been missing this from my shelf for the last five years, I have to say, it was a brilliant move. A lot of people are bound to see it in the store who watched the pilot or maybe even several episodes but it’s been so long they’ve forgotten about it.

But I wonder if there’s another reason, as well. In 2002, there weren’t any big cancelled shows on DVD quite yet, but it was coming. Perhaps some companies are aware of the lighting that struck with Firefly, a show that, in retrospect, never should have been cancelled at all. Box set sales for that show went through the roof, and it was popular enough to make history, being the first series cancelled before a full season that became a major motion picture (Serenity). I think a lot of shows get cancelled before enough people get a chance to try them out. Back in the late 80s/early 90s, Star Trek: The Next Generation struggled to get any attention at all and didn’t really find its legs until the third season. After that, it was the biggest rage on television and had the highest ratings at the time. If a studio releases a cancelled show on DVD now, it’s popularity has a good chance of coming after the fact.

I hope the sales of Birds of Prey go well. If it becomes another phenomenon, I think it could lead to a mini-series or a TV movie. That may be weirder in this case, since the actresses are all six years older now, but I’m still crossing my fingers. Birds of Prey was what Smallville should have been, in story, in character development, in pacing, in everything. It wasn’t the same contrived story every week, wrapped up in a different package, though at the beginning, it did fall back on the freak-of-the-week formula. Happily, it jumped out of that very quickly. Helena and Jesse Reese’s relationship was infinitly more complicated than Clark and Lana’s, and he discovered her secret in just nine or ten episodes, which allowed their relationship to be explored and to grow, while it took Lana six and a half seasons to discover Clark’s, while in the meantime, their relationship went in circles. Birds of Prey created fun new characters while using others from the Batman universe in new ways, but still keeping true to the originals. And, happily, the crew had enough advance warning that the show was being cancelled to make a final episode that wraps up the season arc nicely, without being too rushed, and gives it some closure.

The only special features I know about right now are the unaired pilot (which I’ve actually seen– it’s just like the real pilot, only a much less talented actress is playing Harley Quinn; it’s barely worth your time) and the entire three season run of Gotham Girls, which is a flash animated series of mini episodes featuring characters with their original voices from the Bruce Timm Batman Animated Series. I hope they’ve also included some BoP episode commentaries.

If you never had a chance to see it, pick up a copy or rent it on Netflix. If you’re a Batman fan, it’s definitely worth your time.

 LLAP

 -Cap’n Logan