Batwoman Season 1 (2019–2020) 🦇

Batman left Gotham and apparently took the writing room with him

🎬 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

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Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

So today we’re talking about Batwoman Season 1, which aired from 2019 to 2020 on The CW, and good lord.

This is one of those shows where you sit there watching it and you’re not just asking, “Is this bad?”

No.

You’re asking:

“What were you guys even thinking?”

This season follows Kate Kane, played by Ruby Rose, Bruce Wayne’s cousin, who returns to Gotham after Batman has disappeared. And already, that premise sounds interesting on paper. Batman is gone. Gotham is struggling. A new member of the Bat-family steps up. Cool. That could work.

But the problem is this show never escapes Batman’s shadow.

In fact, it keeps reminding you Batman exists. Bruce Wayne exists. The Batcave exists. The suit exists. The villains exist. Gotham exists. Everything cool already existed before this show started, and Batwoman Season 1 spends so much time living off Batman leftovers that it never fully becomes its own thing.

It’s like being invited to dinner and realizing the main course left three years ago, so now everyone is just eating crumbs off Batman’s plate.

Kate Kane becomes Batwoman after discovering Bruce’s secret. She modifies the batsuit, takes over the mantle in her own way, and tries to protect Gotham while dealing with family drama, military-style private security drama, romantic drama, villain drama, and CW drama because of course this is The CW and nobody can just talk like a normal human being.

And then there’s Alice.

Alice, played by Rachel Skarsten, is honestly one of the only parts of the season that has actual energy. She’s chaotic, theatrical, creepy, and tied directly into Kate’s past. I won’t spoil everything here, but she is the emotional core of the season’s villain storyline, and she is easily more interesting than a lot of the hero material.

But even with Alice, this season is rough.

The dialogue is bad. The pacing is messy. Kate Kane is not that compelling as written. The show keeps trying so hard to convince you she’s awesome instead of just letting her be awesome. The action is hit or miss. The drama is exhausting. And because Batman is missing, the show constantly has to explain why Batman isn’t dealing with any of this.

That is one of the biggest problems with Gotham-based shows that don’t actually have Batman in them.

You keep asking:

“Where the hell is Batman?”

And the show’s answer is basically:

“Don’t worry about it. Look at this red wig.”


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Character Rundown

Kate Kane / Batwoman, played by Ruby Rose, is the lead of Season 1. She is Bruce Wayne’s cousin, a former military academy student, and someone who returns to Gotham with a lot of emotional baggage. In concept, Kate should work. She’s tough, stubborn, haunted by family trauma, and connected to the Bat legacy. The problem is the writing keeps making her feel less like a fully built character and more like the show is constantly trying to sell her to us. Ruby Rose is not the strongest lead here either. Sometimes she works in the suit and has the look, but a lot of the emotional scenes feel flat. And when your lead character is already fighting uphill against Batman’s giant shadow, flat emotional delivery does not help.

Alice / Beth Kane, played by Rachel Skarsten, is the main villain and easily the best part of Season 1. She has this creepy Alice in Wonderland theme, she’s unhinged, dramatic, and personal to Kate in a way that gives the season actual stakes. Rachel Skarsten is clearly having the most fun out of almost anyone in the cast. She brings weirdness, pain, humor, and menace. Honestly, half the time the show wakes up when Alice walks into the room.

Jacob Kane, played by Dougray Scott, is Kate’s father and the leader of the Crows, a private security force protecting Gotham. He has a complicated relationship with Kate, and he’s tied heavily into the family drama around Alice. Jacob should feel like this hardened military father figure, and sometimes he does, but the Crows as a whole are one of those CW ideas where you’re like, okay, so Gotham has private military security now and Batman is gone and everything is somehow worse. Great. Lovely. Very normal city.

Sophie Moore, played by Meagan Tandy, is Kate’s ex and a member of the Crows. Her relationship with Kate is one of the main emotional threads of the season. There’s potential there, but the writing leans into so much CW relationship drama that it gets tiring. Secrets, tension, longing looks, people not saying what they mean, and you’re just sitting there like, can one person in this city communicate without turning it into a dramatic hallway conversation?

Mary Hamilton, played by Nicole Kang, is Kate’s stepsister, and honestly, she is one of the more likable characters. She runs an underground clinic and brings more warmth and personality than a lot of the main cast. Mary feels like someone who could have been annoying, but she actually becomes one of the better parts because she has empathy and a real purpose outside the Bat drama.

Luke Fox, played by Camrus Johnson, is Lucius Fox’s son and basically the tech support / Batcave guy. He helps Kate with the suit, gadgets, and Wayne Tower resources. Luke has potential because of his connection to Lucius and Batman’s world, but early on he sometimes feels like the show’s way of saying, “Here is your Bat-exposition machine.” Still, Camrus Johnson is solid, and Luke becomes more important later.

Catherine Hamilton-Kane, played by Elizabeth Anweis, is Mary’s mother and Jacob’s wife. She is tied into some of the season’s bigger family secrets, and she definitely adds to the soap opera side of the show.

Mouse, played by Sam Littlefield, is Alice’s right-hand man and one of her closest allies. He has a creepy presence and fits the weird, theatrical villain energy around Alice. His ability to mimic faces through masks and performance adds to the show’s identity theme, which could have been stronger if the writing around everything else was cleaner.

Tommy Elliot, played by Gabriel Mann, appears as one of Bruce Wayne’s childhood friends and eventual villain figure. He’s important because he brings in more direct Batman mythology, but again, that’s part of the issue. Every time the show leans on Bruce’s world, it reminds you that Batman would be way more interesting to watch.

Julia Pennyworth, played by Christina Wolfe, appears later and is connected to Alfred Pennyworth. Again, another Batman connection. The show keeps pulling out Batman-adjacent characters like it’s digging through Bruce’s storage closet.


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Pacing / Episode Flow

Season 1 has a rough flow.

Part of that is because it has to introduce Kate, explain Batman’s disappearance, set up Gotham without Batman, build the Batwoman identity, introduce the Crows, develop the Alice mystery, handle Kate’s romantic drama, connect everything to Bruce Wayne, and also function as part of the Arrowverse.

That is a lot.

And the show doesn’t juggle it smoothly.

The Alice storyline is the strongest part because it gives the season a personal villain arc. But everything around it can feel uneven. Some episodes feel like they’re trying to be gritty Batman-lite. Some feel like pure CW melodrama. Some feel like they’re just there to remind you this is connected to a bigger universe.

The season also has the misfortune of constantly existing under the question:

“Why isn’t Batman here?”

And the more Gotham gets worse, the more ridiculous that absence feels. I know the show explains Bruce disappeared, but still. When you set your show in Gotham and mention Batman constantly, you are inviting that comparison every single episode.

That is not a small problem. That is the giant bat-shaped elephant in the room.


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Pros

Rachel Skarsten as Alice is easily the best part of the season. She gives the show energy, and her performance is the one thing that actually feels memorable. Alice is creepy, tragic, theatrical, and personal to Kate. If the season works anywhere, it’s usually because Alice is involved.

Mary Hamilton is also one of the better characters. Nicole Kang brings warmth and charm, and Mary’s underground clinic gives her something useful to do.

The Gotham atmosphere sometimes works. The show does try to lean into the darker look of Gotham, Wayne Tower, the Batcave, and the shadow of Batman. Sometimes visually, it has enough Bat-flavor to keep you interested.

The premise itself is not bad. A missing Batman and someone else stepping into Gotham’s protector role could be interesting. There is a good idea buried in here somewhere.

The Alice/Kate connection gives the season emotional potential. That relationship is easily the strongest dramatic material in Season 1.


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Cons

Kate Kane is not a strong enough lead as written. Ruby Rose has the look, but the performance and writing don’t carry the show the way they need to. The character often feels stiff, and the show keeps telling you she’s great instead of making you feel it naturally.

The dialogue is rough. This is CW writing at its most obvious. Characters say things that feel less like normal human dialogue and more like someone wrote a dramatic Tumblr caption and shoved it into a superhero scene.

The show leans too hard on Batman without having Batman. That is probably the biggest problem. Bruce Wayne is gone, but his shadow is everywhere. The Batcave, the suit, Wayne Tower, Gotham, the villains, the legacy. It makes the show feel like a Batman spinoff that desperately wants Batman but can’t use him.

The Crows are not that interesting. For a major security force in Gotham, they often feel like a clunky plot device. They’re there to create conflict, but not always in a way that feels natural.

The romantic drama gets tiring. Kate and Sophie’s relationship has emotional weight in concept, but the way the show handles it can feel repetitive and very CW.

The pacing is messy. Some episodes drag. Some storylines feel overstuffed. Some important moments don’t land because the show is juggling too much.

And honestly, the whole show has this energy of:

“What if we made a Batman show, removed Batman, then kept reminding everyone Batman would make this better?”

That’s a problem.


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Final Thoughts

Batwoman Season 1 is not just bad because it’s connected to Batman.

It’s bad because it never proves why it deserves to stand next to Batman.

That’s the issue.

A Batwoman show could work. Kate Kane can work as a character. Gotham without Batman can work as a premise. A villain like Alice can absolutely work. There are pieces here that could have made a decent show.

But this season fumbles so much of it.

It feels like the show wants the credibility of Batman’s world without doing enough to build its own identity. It keeps borrowing the toys from Bruce Wayne’s closet while trying to tell us Kate is her own hero, and that is a hard sell when the show itself keeps pointing at Batman every five seconds.

Alice is good. Mary is good. Some Gotham visuals are solid. There are a few decent ideas.

But overall?

This is rough.

This is CW superhero writing at its most “what the hell were y’all thinking?”


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Rating

0 / 10

Yeah, I’m going there.

This season is a mess. A few good performances and ideas do not save it. Alice deserved a better show. Gotham deserved better. The Bat-family deserved better.

And Batman?

Batman saw this coming and left town.


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⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Alright, now we’re getting into everything. The Alice twist, the family drama, the Bruce Wayne connections, the behind-the-scenes mess, and why this whole season falls apart.


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Spoilers

The season starts with Gotham already living in the aftermath of Batman’s disappearance. Bruce Wayne is gone, Batman is gone, and the city is being protected by the Crows, a private security force led by Jacob Kane. That setup is supposed to make Gotham feel vulnerable, like the city lost its protector and now everyone is trying to fill the void.

Kate Kane returns to Gotham after Sophie Moore is kidnapped by Alice and her Wonderland Gang. Kate and Sophie have history. They were in a military academy together, had a relationship, and Kate was expelled after refusing to lie about who she was. Sophie stayed and denied the relationship to protect her own future. That backstory is supposed to give Kate emotional baggage and tie her directly to Sophie and the Crows.

Kate goes looking for Sophie and eventually discovers the Batcave under Wayne Tower. She realizes Bruce Wayne was Batman. This is where she starts using Bruce’s equipment and eventually becomes Batwoman.

And here is already one of the show’s biggest problems.

Kate becoming Batwoman feels less like a fully earned transformation and more like she stumbled into Batman’s garage and started borrowing the car.

Yes, she has training. Yes, she has motivation. Yes, she wants to save Sophie and protect Gotham. But because the show’s entire superhero identity is built on Bruce’s abandoned stuff, it keeps feeling like she is operating in someone else’s shadow.

The early suit also gets mistaken for Batman, which leads Kate to redesign it with the red wig and Batwoman look. The idea is that she wants Gotham to know a woman is under the cowl. On paper, fine. But the way the show handles it is very CW. It wants this big identity statement, but the dialogue around it often feels clunky.

Then we get Alice.

Alice is introduced as this Wonderland-themed villain terrorizing Gotham. She is theatrical, violent, weird, and obsessed with Kate’s family. The big twist is that Alice is actually Beth Kane, Kate’s twin sister, who everyone thought died years ago in a car crash.

This is easily the best idea in the season.

The backstory is tragic. Kate and Beth were in a car with their mother when it crashed off a bridge. Kate survived, but Beth and their mother were believed dead. Jacob blamed himself and built his whole life around security and control after losing them. But Beth actually survived and was kidnapped, abused, and twisted into Alice.

That is strong material. That’s personal. That gives Kate a villain who isn’t just some random Gotham criminal. Alice is her sister. She is the living proof that Kate’s family trauma never ended.

Rachel Skarsten carries this material hard. Alice could have been ridiculous, and sometimes she is, but she also has pain under the madness. She wants revenge. She wants family. She wants Kate to choose her. She hates Jacob because she believes he gave up on her. That all makes sense emotionally.

The problem is the show around Alice is not nearly as strong.

Jacob refuses to believe Alice is Beth for a while, which creates family tension. Kate wants to save Beth because she still sees her sister underneath the villain. Mary gets dragged into all of this because she’s Kate’s stepsister and Catherine’s daughter. Catherine eventually becomes tied to the secret because she helped fake evidence that Beth was dead, making Jacob stop searching.

That is a big reveal. Catherine had skull fragments created or falsified to convince Jacob that Beth was dead. She did it because she thought continuing the search was destroying the family, but obviously that is horrible because Beth was alive the whole time.

This leads to Alice poisoning Catherine and Mary at an event. Mary survives, but Catherine dies. That is one of the bigger consequences of the season, and it gives Mary more emotional weight because she loses her mother due to the Kane family’s buried secrets.

Alice’s relationship with Mouse is also important. Mouse was another victim of the same twisted world that shaped Alice, and he can impersonate people using masks. He is loyal to Alice, but he also represents the part of her life that belongs to her trauma instead of her old family. Alice is constantly torn between wanting Kate and clinging to the identity she built after Beth “died.”

The season also brings in Tommy Elliot, who hates Bruce Wayne and wants revenge. He tries to attack Wayne Tower and later becomes involved in the Hush setup. Tommy is one of those characters who should be exciting if you’re a Batman fan, but again, it keeps reminding you that this show is dancing around Batman instead of actually having him.

Julia Pennyworth shows up too, because apparently we need another direct connection to Batman’s world. She is Alfred’s daughter and has history with Kate. Again, cool in theory, but it adds to the feeling that the show keeps leaning on Batman-adjacent names to feel important.

Then there’s Sophie.

The Sophie/Kate drama runs through the season. Sophie is married to Tyler, but she clearly still has unresolved feelings for Kate. This could have been a grounded emotional conflict, but it gets dragged through so much CW tension that it becomes tiring. Sophie is also part of the Crows, which puts her on the opposite side of Batwoman at times. The issue is that the show treats this relationship like it’s supposed to be one of the emotional engines, but it often feels more exhausting than compelling.

Luke Fox serves as Kate’s support in the Batcave. He helps with the suit, tech, and Wayne resources. He is basically the Alfred/Lucius role mashed together, and he works fine, but the show doesn’t give him enough early depth outside of being the guy behind the computer.

Mary, meanwhile, is secretly running an underground clinic, which is actually one of the better character details. She is helping people outside the system, and that makes her feel more heroic in a practical way than some of the actual superhero material. Mary is one of the few characters who feels naturally likable.

The season’s biggest issue is that it has pieces that should work, but the execution is clunky.

The Alice/Beth reveal works. The tragedy of Beth being abandoned works. Kate wanting to save her sister works. Jacob’s guilt works. Mary losing Catherine works. The idea of Gotham without Batman works.

But then the show keeps burying that under stiff dialogue, uneven acting, clunky politics, forced empowerment speeches, and constant reminders that Batman exists but is not here.

And that is the death trap of this show.

It wants to be its own thing, but it keeps using Batman’s absence as its identity.

Even the finale leans into this. Alice and Hush use Bruce Wayne’s face as part of the setup for the next season, with Tommy Elliot surgically altered to look like Bruce. That should be a huge Batman-level twist, but again, it just makes you think, okay, so now we’re literally using Bruce Wayne’s face without Bruce Wayne. Wonderful. We have reached maximum Batman leftovers.

Now, we also have to talk about the behind-the-scenes mess with Ruby Rose.

Ruby Rose left the show after Season 1. At the time, it was presented publicly as her leaving the role, and later there were a lot of messy accusations and counter-accusations. Ruby Rose alleged unsafe working conditions, injuries, and problems behind the scenes. Warner Bros. Television pushed back and said they chose not to pick up her option for Season 2 after complaints about workplace behavior. So basically, it became a public mess where both sides were saying very different things.

I’m not going to pretend I know exactly what happened behind closed doors, because I don’t. But what I can say is that the behind-the-scenes drama absolutely became part of the show’s identity. Losing your main actress after one season is a huge problem. And instead of recasting Kate Kane right away, the show decided to create a whole new Batwoman for Season 2.

That alone tells you how chaotic this whole thing became.

Season 1 already had problems. Then the lead actress leaves, the production drama becomes public, and the show has to rebuild itself around a different character.

That is not a good sign.

And honestly, Season 1 ends up feeling like a weird failed experiment. It tries to launch Kate Kane as the Arrowverse’s Batwoman, but the character doesn’t fully land, the writing is rough, and the show becomes more interesting for its behind-the-scenes collapse than for its actual story.

That’s brutal.

Because Batwoman should not be this hard to make interesting. Gotham is interesting. The Bat-family is interesting. Alice is interesting. Kate Kane can be interesting. The ingredients are there.

But this season feels like someone had all the ingredients for a great Batman-adjacent meal and somehow served cold soup in a bat-shaped bowl.

So yeah.

Season 1 is bad.

Alice is good. Mary is good. A few ideas work.

But the season as a whole?

No.

This is one of those shows where I keep asking:

“What were you thinking?”

And unfortunately, the show never gives me a good answer.