Gotham

[captain_slinky]

For the dozen of you who have asked me what I thought of the new TV show "Gotham", here's a point-by-point spoiler-free breakdown of what I thought of it as we watched it last night:

• I've always thought of James Gordon as the star of a 70's Crime Drama, and they've done a bang-up job of setting it in a fictional-yet-realistic 2014.
  
• It is damn near IMPOSSIBLE for me to watch without shouting out spoilers - THANK GAWD that the promotional machine behind this show pushed the Penguin character, I would have EXPLODED!
  
• Yes there's a comic book that has covered the life of James Gordon before, it's called A FEW PANELS IN EVERY ISSUE OF BATMAN AND/OR DETECTIVE COMICS SINCE THE 1970'S. He's a rather well-developed supporting character! If you insist on something like an Origin Issue for this series, try the entire Frank Miller "Batman: Year One".
  
• Even without the winks and nods to fandom, it looks like a great crime drama and I'm down with that!

Comments

[hannah easterson (from livejournal.com)]

Hey! I'm always up for more cop shows. I love a good crime drama. I just hope it can avoid being too "hey hey hey! Look at what we diiiiiid" in terms of nodding to the fandom. I haven't seen enough to fully decide on it, but the first show has me certainly willing to watch more.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

The most difficult part is to separate yourself from the Batman mythos. Take it as a regular cop show about a war-hero rookie cop, his street-wise (possibly dirty) partner and a corrupt city controlled by The Mob.

It works!

[aurora77]

I like where they're going with it. I like that Selina is young and not sexualized. I like their choice as the Penguin. I love how they showed all the corruption and the pressure on the characters. It will be interesting to see how they each deal with it.

[lynna12000.livejournal.com]

I was VERY pleasantly surprised at how well the characters made the transition to television in a non-cartoon format. I think the worst that can be said of the first episode is that the writers threw a LOT of characters at us.

This reminded me strongly, of the Jim Gordon of Batman: Year One. Some of the critics complain that it isn't exactly like the comic books. Which is funny, because comic book canon can change from month to month depending on the writer.

I prefer to think of it as a (potentially) well-written Elseworlds story. And if they are going to be throwing Batman related characters at us, anyone else out there hoping we get to see a young Tommy Monaghan? ( I have very fond memories of him giving a pep talk to Superman; and then, after Supes flew off, assassinating someone).

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Yes... EVERYTHING that DC has done since Smallville hit the air is just another "Elseworlds" story - although I hear that Justice League 3000 is set in the future of the *real* DCU so I guess I have to check that out now :)

My true hope for this show, and I'm not sure how willing they are going to be to do this, is that they don't serialize it too much; focus on individual 1, 2 and 3 episode story arcs. Everyone scoffed at Agents Of Shield for that, but by golly it WORKED!