5 reasons Birds Of Prey was DC’s most underrated TV show

Dina Meyer, Rachel Skarsten and Ashley Scott, "Birds of Prey", at WB Television Network's 2002 Summer Party at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, Ca. Saturday, July 13, 2002. Photo by Kevin Winter/ImageDirect
Dina Meyer, Rachel Skarsten and Ashley Scott, "Birds of Prey", at WB Television Network's 2002 Summer Party at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, Ca. Saturday, July 13, 2002. Photo by Kevin Winter/ImageDirect /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
5 of 6
Next
Dina Meyer, Rachel Skarsten and Ashley Scott, “Birds of Prey”, at WB Television Network’s 2002 Summer Party at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, Ca. Saturday, July 13, 2002. Photo by Kevin Winter/ImageDirect
Dina Meyer, Rachel Skarsten and Ashley Scott, “Birds of Prey”, at WB Television Network’s 2002 Summer Party at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles, Ca. Saturday, July 13, 2002. Photo by Kevin Winter/ImageDirect /

2. The Team

Birds of a feather flock together, here — or apex predators of flight do anyway — and certainly live up to the title a lot better. The team was comprised of Oracle and Huntress at first and later incorporated runaway Dinah Lance, or Redmond (Rachel Skarsten), who learns from her new allies and inherits the Black Canary mantle. The comics had that dynamic flipped with Huntress coming in later, but the show still managed to take fewer liberties with the lineup and its formation than the film.

More from Opinion

I agree Rachel Skarsten’s Dinah is among the weakest of all the DC TV Canaries and is little more than a trainee who’s often in over her head. Yet Skarsten is perfect for the role — demonstrating why she is still hanging around the DC multiverse after all these years — and adds a much-needed Jason Todd/Tim Drake Robin dimension to the group.

Ashley Scott is the real show-stealer as Huntress, Helena Wayne. A metahuman, Helena is an @$$-kicker who doesn’t need a crossbow to get the job done. She also displays the right amount of rebellious irreverence in the face of authority, wanting little to do with the privilege her name comes with.

There was also Barbara Gordon (aka Oracle) as the team’s anchor, who we’ll get to right now.