Black Scorpion

BLACK SCORPION is an entertaining show in the same vein as the 60's BATMAN show, the GREEN HORNET, George Reeve's SUPERMAN, and the 70's WONDER WOMAN series. Ms Lintel is beautiful and the bad guys are entertainingly over the top. Adam West and Frank Gorshin are especially terrific. BLACK SCORPION is quite campy and far out. The same can be said of most old school comic book styled stuff and that's just what makes it great fun. It's easy for the pretentious to miss the point and pick on a show like this one, but like much of Roger Corman's work it is clearly made with the intention of being fun escapist entertainment. I love classic comic book styled fun and BLACK SCORPION definitely delivers.

I have really enjoyed the Black Scorpion series. I think it is hilarious the way the characters interact. The villains and vixens have all been pretty good also. I think the names are awesome for the villains. Also, Black Scorpion has a cool website.

The creators of this television show apparently intend this to be a campy throwback to the 1960s Batman. What they don't understand is that stupid doesn't equate to campy and rip-off doesn't equate to parody.

In the episode I watched, the villain was "Fire-Arm," who's arm is replaced with a machine gun. He starts by attacking the city and police force with his machine gun, shooting everyone and surviving bullets with his impenetrable armor. Then shows up Black Scorpion, in her cleavage-revealing, leg-revealing, thong black bodysuit. Instead of shooting her, Fire-Arm closes in to engage in a martial-arts battle with her. Black Scorpion later uses her magnetic car to pull Fire-Arm's machine gun out of the socket.

Scenes from the next episode revealed Black Scorpion in a cat-fight with a female villain, with lots of cleavage all-around.

There is nothing witty or insightful about this attempt at "camp." The creators probably have some knowledge of the genre- I could spot the rip-offs all over the place- the show isn't done with any commentary on or love for the genre. This supposed throwback to the 60s Batman has a touch of cursing and a lot of killing, the lack of which is part of what made Batman campy in the first place.

Maybe the creators of this show meant it to be stupid. Whether they meant it or not, it's stupid and a waste of an hour.

Wow, this is the worst. That's why it's the best. But also the worst.

Imagine if someone took Schumacher's silly goof Batman, mixed it with Burton's darker Batman, then made it the worst and sprinkled sexism over it.

"Eat my shorts!" intimidates Black Scorpion's enemy.

"That goes double for me!" adds his buddy.

Like, REALLY dumb dialog and writing. It's super cheesy and very self-aware. Which makes it the worst. But also the best. And it's actually good at wrecking and exploding cop cars.

I appreciate that Prime tends to scrape those libraries clean and bring out this weird obscure stuff that would've otherwise been lost at the bottom of a barrel in some giant digital warehouse for all eternity.

Most of it is probably garbage, but this right here is an uncut cult classic trash gem.

What some people might not realize is that "Black Scorpion: The Series" is not meant to be serious. Its just an hour of over the top action, and comic book realism. Don't look at it as a serious action program or an award winning, life-changing show. Its just a hour where you can put aside reality and political correctness and enjoy fiction at its best. Yes, The show does have several women in spandex and yes, it can be a little hokey at times but its the flaws and eccentrisities that make the show a little less "stuck-up". I for one am tired of the same shows with the same plots and the same mass produced feel to them. Roger Corman, The show's director and financial backer, wanted to make something that we haven't seen in a long time. He wanted to show that television could still be fun. How many shows do we watch only because other people watch them? Black Scorpion might not be spiritually uplifting or educational at the least, but its enjoyable. The show has had some very nice acting and it does have great fight scenes. The best reason to watch is for the Supervillains that pop up every week. It brings back that feeling of the Batman series we all watched at one point or another. This homage to Batman is made crystal clear by having Adam West(Batman) and Frank Gorshin(The Riddler) both make guest appearences as supervillains. This show is probably one that viewers will either love or hate as soon as they see an episode. But I suggest you watch an episode or two.