Batwoman

Everything in the “Batwoman” premiere occurs at a breakneck pace. This is great for quickly filling in a new character’s backstory but not for developing a superhero. ... With “Gotham” wrapping up earlier this year, the TV landscape was in desperate need of stories to tell from the Batman universe. It’s a world that should consistently be explored. “Batwoman” appears ready to do just that.

It comes close, but it doesn’t quite get there. Still, there’s potential, particularly when Batwoman stops trying to be a Gotham story, an Arrowverse show, and a familiar origin yarn, and starts focusing on what makes it different.

Gritty and fiercely feminist, the series is very much an Arrowverse show that also stands as its own thing.

The facts of who Kate is immediately make her Batwoman origin story different and intriguing. Rose, a once controversial choice for the role, does her best to reveal the flickers of pain underneath Kate’s steadfast stoicism. ... There are a few plot twists, none very surprising, but satisfying nonetheless. The pilot is otherwise jam-packed with plot, standard Gotham mythology, and some unfortunately flat acting that hopefully will all become more multi-faceted in future episodes.

The best part of the new series is that unfussy, effortless way of getting Kate's sexual orientation out of the way, and also Kate herself. She's a bantamweight crusader with lightning moves as opposed to devastating ones. ... What's less-best is the usual reliance on the sort of story that Gotham has undergone countless times before. There are no surprises left here, not even a decent dopey headline in the still-dopey, ever-credulous Gotham newspapers (which still don't have websites).