'Batwoman's Audience Reviews Are Getting Trolled by Straight Men

The show has an eight percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 3.4 on IMDb.

Now that audiences nationwide have gotten a chance to see the pilot of the CW’s Batwoman, we’re getting the first reactions to the show, and suffice it to say, something’s definitely not right in Gotham. Despite having vocal fans on social media, the show is currently sitting at a 3.2 rating on IMDb and an abysmal eight percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, as Forbes was first to report.

It could be that audiences just really, really didn’t like the show, but even if they weren’t a fan of Ruby Rose’s debut as Kate Kane, the numbers are very suspicious. For comparison, the final, much-hated season of Game of Throneshas a 32 percent, four times better than Batwoman. Netflix’s recent Lost ripoff The I-Land, which one critic called “the worst show I’ve ever seen,” has a 33 percent audience score. And overall, audiences tend to be far kinder than critics, which is how The Politiciancan wind up with a 58 percent critics score but an 86 percent from viewers.

It doesn’t take the world’s greatest detective to see that something is up.

Now I’ve seen the pilot, and while the show is far from perfect, it’s not Troll 2 or Jack and Jill bad (both of which have a similar IMDb score). While the show engages in occasional moments of cheese (such as a groan-inducing newspaper headline that reads “We Batlieve”), Batwoman is no worse than any classic comic books and significantly less tonally garish than the beloved Adam West Batman series. It’s pretty on par with other superhero shows like Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow, both of which have significantly better audience ratings.

The action scenes and stunts are solid, the world that they’re building is interesting, and Rose — a queer Australian model turned actress — does a great job of portraying the lesbian superhero’s confidence and swagger. The show is also historic: It’s the first time a lesbian superhero has her own show on television.

A similar review bombing campaign by men happened following the debut last year’sCaptain Marvel, the first solo movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to star a female lead. Rotten Tomatoes made moves to prevent it from happening to other movies, eliminating prerelease audience reviews and removing the “not interested” button.

Still, the same thing seems to be happening to Batwoman. Based on the names and profile pictures of reviewers, the vast majority of critics giving the show one-star or half-star ratings appear to be men. Typical audience reviews include: “You can tell a narrative is being pushed rather than a decent story,” “another show with so much potential ruined by wokeness,” and “too much agenda politics not enough Batman.”

Out has reached to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb for comment and hasn’t yet heard back, but it’s very clear what’s going on: Straight men who consider themselves “anti-SJW” are doing everything they can to stand in the way of progress. 

Instead of listening to fragile men complain about a queer superhero, why don’t you read what an actual lesbian TV critic has to say about Batwoman?

RELATED | Watch the First Teaser for Ruby Rose’s Batwoman Spinoff

'Batwoman's Audience Reviews Are Getting Trolled by Straight Men