A criminal is on the loose who is able to turn his body into water, and he's determined to kill three cops who stopped a heist he was attempting for Harleen Quinzel, the last of whom is Detective Reece…

Yes, already we're off with the supervillains, and we can but hope this won't turn into a regular weekly occurrence. The Batman comics have survived without having to resort to super-powered criminals the bulk of the time; how come this series seems to want to be Smallville without the kryptonite? It doesn't help that this opening threat is extremely easy to deal with and not properly thought through. He has plenty of chances to turn into water and kill or run away, not to mention he kills the second cop much faster than he attempts to do away with Reece, and the way of beating him is obvious as it's very much the only possible conclusion. He's water, so he has to be turned to steam.

Dinah keeps running off at a moment's notice in an attempt to help, and the story sees a degree of trust building between the three crimefighters. Their dialogue once again convinces, and you get the impression that the three main actresses get on rather well.

However, there are problems. Firstly, the cityscapes are quite obviously CGI, and not especially well done, which is curious considering they looked pretty good in the pilot. Why not keep those images? Next, the episode seems to be cut together in a really weird way, especially towards the middle, where scenes end abruptly and the action switches about more than it needs to, as if someone is getting bored with a remote. Then there's the lack of much resolution or explanation at the end, Reece's inability to work out who Helena is despite having the resources of a police department and having seen her face, and some dodgy fight scenes where Ashley Scott's stunt double is clearly doing most of the work. They're quite exciting, but it's no good doing speedy fights with quick moves if it makes one of the fighters totally visible when they do it.

It's interesting to hear Babs mentioning the three Robins early on, setting the show firmly in the future, but we shall have to wait and see if any of them turn up in the show. Frankly Tim Drake would make a great boyfriend for Dinah and it would shake things up a bit. Harleen is starting to become a little more like Harley now, which is good. Her nastier traits are coming out rather well, and she's finally started talking like the comics version, referring to The Joker as 'Mistah J'. It would be nice if she got a little more involved in the action though.

There are some key selling points in evidence here, but nothing particularly that makes the show stand out. It'll need to do better than this as good-natured banter alone won't do it.

***

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