A metahuman is killing others of his kind using their own powers against them, and Huntress finds herself the next target.

Three episodes in, and all of a sudden the series has turned into Mutant X. Of all the shows to pick, why that one? I'm all for dealing with prejudice, but that series has milked the concept to death, and having another one leaping on the bandwagon is more than I can take. Now, while I promised I'd go easy on BOP in relation to its connection to DC continuity, I just can't let some of this stuff go.

They can't have it both ways. In the first episode, sister show Smallville was mentioned. Now, it can't run concurrently because Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne have to be the same age. Therefore Birds of Prey is set in the future. With me so far? Batman has been guardian of Gotham for a long time, presumably, and as they were mentioned last episode, he's already trained three Robins, including the current one in the comics. My question therefore is this: why the lack of belief in metahumans? While Batman wasn't one, he lives in a comics universe populated by them; they should be flying overhead with the frequency of planes. Yet Reece finds the concept of metahumans hard to believe, and all the ones we see here are hiding out in the shadows, which is where the Mutant X comparison fits in. And speaking of his disbelief, how come he doesn't believe in Batman? He's only meant to be an urban legend to criminals; the police know full well that he exists; they had a bloody great Batsignal on the roof, for God's sake! He worked with the police! He had friends there! Exactly how much proof does Reece need? Someone on this show needs to do more research.

Meanwhile, the main plot is weak. Like last week – and I'm really hoping this isn't a trend – there's a meta killing people. The only difference this time is it's Reece's new partner, Morton. Why is it impossible when TV writers are given a clean slate to work with, for them not to do the same damn thing every week? Firstly, a new power each week is going to get tedious, and secondly, as our heroes can't kill, you have to find a way of taking the villains out of the picture every week by some fault of their own. This week's also has the added problem of power theft, which shows up just how sucky Huntress's powers are in the first place: he can't kill her because her only abilities are to jump off high buildings and make her eyes change to catlike ones. She doesn't seem to have anything much in offensive powers so the pair just fight to a standstill. Which brings me to another point: while I'm all for interesting, fast-paced fight sequences (and there are several here), the quicker they are, the more of it is done with stunt doubles, and the more obvious they are. There are certain moments where it's clearly not Ashley Scott fighting, which is annoying.

To be honest this is an old story given a metahuman twist and it's just not worth the time. It makes a cursory examination of racism, has an iffy villain and not much of a plot. And one last thing: at the end of the episode a group of metas confronts Morton. All of them I can understand, but Oracle? Firstly she's not a meta, and secondly and most importantly, how the hell did she get to a confrontation on the roof in her wheelchair? She's not lagging behind the others, and like the rest she makes no sound when she arrives. Did they all take the lift? Does she have a hover function we don't know about? There's no need for her to be there, and her presence is hugely unlikely, so why bother?

**

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