Girls Rule/Season 1

The first season of the American animated television series Girls Rule, based on DC Comics comic book series "Gotham City Sirens" created by Chris Mckay, aired on HBO Max and Cartoon Network, produced by Sam Register. It follows Harley Quinn who, after parting ways with the Joker, teams up with Catwoman and Poison Ivy as they try to thwart an evil conspiracy in Gotham City. The season was produced by Warner Animation Group in association with Animal Logic and Cartoon Network Studios.

The first season of the series stars Jenny Slate, Zoë Kravitz, Riki Lindhome, Rosario Dawson, Will Arnett, Nolan North and Conan O'Brien. Girls Rule was confirmed as a series order by Warner Bros. in November 2019. Production began in November 2020 in Australia, delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was completed in January 2022. It was made additional scenes in June 2022, as five additional short episodes. The series takes place after the events of the movie Lego Dimensions (2022), in which Harley Quinn helps defeat the Joker after learning of the potential destruction of the multiverse. The season has a suspenseful, mystery-crime tone and is set apart from a scrapped analog series concept called Mysteries in Gotham.

The first season premiered on HBO Max and Cartoon Network simultaneously on October 17, 2022 with its first two episodes and ran for twelve episodes until April 7, 2023. The season has received positive reviews, with praise for the voice acting, the musical score, the animation and its intergenerational plot. Had attracted a large viewership. On May 4, 2023 the series was renewed for a second season.

Development
In July 2019, Chris Mckay, director of Lego Batman (2017), stated that he was developing with Warner Bros. a "potential spin-off series that would build heavily on material in DC Comics" in association with The Lego Group. The series would be centered around the character Harley Quinn as a comedy drama, set in the LEGO Extended Universe. As of November 2018, Jenny Slate was in talks to star in the lead role, returning from previous appearances. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter she mentioned that it was time for the character to get his own movie, calling him "quite a charismatic character in movies that has yet to be fully exploited beyond small cameos." Slate was hired to reprise his role on the series, with Sam Register serving as executive producer in August 2019. Warner Bros. officially announced in November 2019 a new series titled Girls Rule, with Slate co-starring with Zoë Kravitz and Riki Lindhome as Catwoman and Poison Ivy. The series is based on the 2009-11 comic book story "Gotham City Sirens" by Paul Dini, with Register describing it as a "liennal animated series" that would tie-in with films in the franchise; The premise of the series further described it as a series of crossover events. Mckay mentioned that the series was originally known as Mysteries in Gotham, as the plot was to be an anthology series based on the Elseworlds comics. In May 2019, Shane Acker joined as showrunner, directing 3 episodes of the first season. On November 11, 2019, it was announced that the series had been greenlit, with a prokected release date of 2021 on the new Warner Bros. HBO Max streaming service. The series will consist of seven episodes of 11 minutes. Additional scenes were made in June 2022, as additional short episodes produced for Easter 2023.

Writing
Writing work began in October 2019. Dan Lin said the series would seek to match the range of emotionality between the characters to the Gotham City Sirens comic book story. He described Girls Rules as an emotional and friendship showcase, driving themes such as effective responsibility and familiarity, exploring elements of betrayal, paranoia and mystery, things the comic series did "which was great with the twists and turns it took". The creatives also drew inspiration from "friend travel" novels, along with contemporary television series like Sherlock (2010-2017). Mckay said that the series would serve as a continuation of the Lego Batman story and would follow directly from the in-development film Lego Dimensions (2023), which he found to be a "fun idea". He also said that the series would uncover some of the things that have not been shown in other appearances of the character Harley Quinn, such as Margot Robbie's version. Zoë Kravitz described the series as "a very grounded earthy drama" that "dealt with real human issues unnoticed and dealt with trust".

Casting
Slate was expected to reprise her role as Harley Quinn in the series with the reveal of her development in early 2019 and as production began Slate's casting was confirmed and Kravizt and Lindhome were announced as her co-stars. The search for additional voice cast for the project was opened in January 2020. David Hayter was cast as Bloneblaster, the season-opening "main villain" role, in March 2020, and the following month, Rosario Dawson was cast in her role as Barbara Gordon alongside Will Arnett as Batman from their roles in the franchise movies and Jason Liebrecht In May 2021, Will Friedle joined the cast as a newly created character, rather than one from the comics, albeit loosely based on Dr. Maxwell Burtoln from the comics who had the potential to appear in films from the franchises. Fred Stoller is set to voice Batman's underling character Harold Allnut. In February 2022, director Mckay revealed that Conan O'Brien would appear in his role as Lego Batman from The Riddler, along with the announcement of Kate Micucci and Billy Dee Williams in undisclosed roles in May 2022. In September 2020, Héctor Elizondo, who played Commissioner James Gordon on Lego Batman stated that he was not involved in the series, after "rampant speculation" suggested that he was, given the character's prominence in DC Comics-related history.

Production
The project is a joint-venture production between Warner Animation Group and Animal Logic, who had provided the animation for the films in the franchise. Production had begun on November 2020 in Australia, under the working title Night Knightmares, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the series back from its initial date of 2021. Production was previously expected to begin in mid-March 2020, at the same time as Lego Dimensions. The animation used was custom made to be recognizable just like a theatrical film of the franchise. To improve on-screen detail and depth of field, the film's production took advantage of the latest update to its Glimpse trace renderer. Production concluded on February 1, 2022. A series of additional short episodes ran from June 2022 as part of the first season. The seven main season episodes reportedly had a production budget of nearly $65 million, while the marketing budget according to Deadline Hollywood exceeded $78 million, comparable to the budget of a blockbuster theatrical animated film. Post-production took place from May 2022, with David Burrows serve as editor. Burrows previously served as an editor on Lego Batman and worked closely with Mckay.

Music
In February 2022, Kris Bowers was revealed to be composing for the series, and was working on the score at that time.

Broadcast
The first season of Girls Rule launched on October 17, 2022 with its first two episodes on the HBO Max streaming service and Cartoon Network simultaneously. It was previously expected to release within early 2021. The first seven episodes of the first season of Girls Rule aired in a regular weekly slot in October and November 2022. The subsequent remaining five episodes aired as a three-night special event titled Sister Zero during Easter 2023.

Episodes

 * Main article: List of Girls Rule episodes

Reception

Critical response
On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season holds an approval rating of 81%, based on 863 reviews, with an average rating of 6.85. The website's critical consensus said, "Covering an era of tenuous peace with ferocious – albeit abbreviated – focus, Girls Rule is an impressive prequel that exemplifies the court intrigue that distinguished its predecessor." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the first season received a score of 53 out of 100 based on 43 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Viewership
The first two episodes, which premiered simultaneously, had 3.6 and 3.4 million viewers in the United States on their first night of availability, including cable viewers on Cartoon Network and broadcasts on HBO Max. The total viewing figure for the first episode increased to over 5.6 million viewers after two days, and nearly 15 million within two months. The series premiere was popular on social media, with the show's premiere being the number one trending topic on Twitter and Google Trends overnight on October 17. It also became the biggest series premiere on Cartoon Network since 2018. The third and fourth episodes averaged 4.1 million viewers on their first night, an increase of 14% over the previous week. The fifth episode had 4.8 million viewers on its first night, an increase of 15%, and was "the #1 active" on HBO Max for the week of October 31, 2022.

By November 4, the first five episodes averaged nearly 10 million viewers across cable and broadcast viewers; by December 27, the top six averaged 12.4 million. The sixth episode had 5.1 million viewers on its first night, while the seventh and final episode had 5.5 million viewers on its first night, including 1.021 million for its live broadcast on Cartoon Network, an overall increase 51% since the premiere. It became the fifth most-watched series to premiere simultaneously on HBO Max, behind The Last of Us, House of the Dragon and Euphoria.