Before the Bat - Gotham Season 1 review

Going into this show, I did not know what to expect, even though the premise was clear. It's a show about detective James "Jim" Gordon and his rise in the ranks of the Gotham Police department. We already know we are not gonna see the Batman or any of the villains as we know them, so how was to keep an audience, who expects Batman? In this review I will go through my pros and cons of this first season of Gotham. 

A new shows biggest challenge is finding its niche, to stand out in the ever expanding world of great television shows. We are now living in a golden age of television, a time that has given space to great comic book shows as well. The CW is killing it with both Arrow and The Flash, and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have also gained momentum with their second season, so Gotham have alot of shows to be compared to. But that might not be entirely fair; because the way I see this show, is not as much in the light of the classic comic book/super hero show - it has actually grown into crime/drama show set in the world of DC's Batman. 

The fact that the show found it's place as a crime driven drama-serie, actually helped them use the clichéd "villain of the week" method that many super hero shows unfortunately thrives on. Because as detectives, you would see many different cases, and them working in homicide in the city as crazy and sinister as Gotham, works in their favor. 

That being said, I actually found the overarching story-line to be a little messy. First of all, we have the murder of the Waynes, which is THE quintessential moment in Bruce Waynes life, that ultimately makes him dawn the Bat suite. But despite this act happening in the very first episode, and Gordon promising Bruce to solve the case, it doesn't really go anywhere. After a few episodes, it's almost a non-issue, and Bruce ultimately ends up taking on the case himself. Another storyline is Montoya and Allen from Major Crimes, and their watch of Gordon, that also just suddenly stops. We never hear from them again, and we don't get to hear about their whereabouts. This might be due to too many characters introduced to the story, or just the act of lazy writing from the showrunners, who knows - it just bugs me. Then there is the whole gangster-families fude, almost setting Gotham up as a stage for a cold war, which finally ends in an all out war between the two sides. This is executed beautifully through one single characters brilliance - Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin. 

This character MADE the show for me. We see so much character development with him through the

Oswald Cobblepot

whole season. He goes from being Fish Mooney's lackey, to becoming the major crime boss by the season finale. He is cunning, he is brutal and he is a smooth talker. We don't have to guess what he is doing behind the scenes, we see every little detail, and he does it with such a clumsy grace, that we can't help but rude for him, even though we always know he is a bad person. Every time he is not in an episode, the episode suffers for it. 

Another great aspect in regards to the characters in the show the relationship between Gordon and Harvey. They start out budding heads, with Harvey being a deadbeat cop deep in the pockets of the criminals of Gotham, but through his cases with Jim, we see change in them both. Harvey comes so far to even regain a conscience, and ends up becoming a better policemen, while Harvey's tough exterior and experience on the streets of Gotham helps Gordon acquiring that edge he needs to face anybody. It's a fact that a good cop-show (which you could define Gotham as) is only as good as the dynamic between the main character and his partner, and through the course of this season, I have been convinced of these two. 

Some other honorable mentions would be Edward Nygma (before he becomes the Riddler) and Bruce Wayne. Nygma at first seemed a little too much on the nose, with him constantly asking riddles, but throughout the season he gets more and more screentime, and we begin to delve into him more as a character. He is at his best when he goes through such an efford to win the heart of Miss Kringle, but to no avail. And even though most of us know, what he will become in the end, we can't help but rude for him, even when he ended up killing her abusive boyfriend...and then chopping his bodyparts up, desolving them in acid and use his skull as decoration on his desk. 

Bruce is also a noteworthy character. To me, child actors rarely compares to the adults on a set, but here we actually see a believable peformance. We believe that this boy is struck with grief, and we see his enormous sense of justice and morale shine through his actions, even though they might be covored in a boyish naiveté. I do not however buy his "relationship" with Selina Kyle, it seems just a bit too forced in my opinion. Though it is through her, that he discovers the sick underbelly of Gotham, and sees the city as it really is, so in that front it works. 

Fish Mooney

There are also a few things with this show that really bug me. Most notorious is the Barbara characters. Don't get me wrong, Erin Richards is doing a splendid job, but the character is just so god damn unlikable. Everytime she is on screen, it's like nails on a chalkboard. She is unfaithful to Jim, she's an addict, she is a terrible role-model for Selina and Ivy (when they decide to crash in her apartment), and she is just constantly whining. I did not buy into her sudden deteriorated mental state after her run-in with "The Ogre", that made her attack Leslie with a knife. Good ridence I say! 

Another character I feel let me down was Fish Mooney. While she was oozing charisma and superiority, she didn't really accomplish much. Her entire plan to take down Falcone were met with failure time and time again, and in the end she fell to her death without accomplishing any of her goals. So as much as I liked the character, she didn't leave a permanent mark on the shows story as a whole, so that's why she just came a bit short for me. 

The show has also been very good at teasing possible Joker-persons, meaning the person who would end up becoming the Joker. We have had about 2-3 red herrings in this season, which have exploded the fanbase into multiple speculations and theories. To me, a show that is cabable at producing a lot of talk and theory-crafting, has in my opinion hit the nail. 

The shows biggest offender has to be the writers need to push the "rogues gallery" on us. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it really falls flat - many setups, but very few pay-offs. An example of a good use of the characters that would become a villain would be The Scarecrow. We get to see him as a young man, and his father creating the fear toxin, only to inject it into his son, clearly setting the stage for him to become the Scarecrow. On the other hand, we have a character like Harvey Dent, who we know will end up as Two-Face, but his sudden and unprovoked bursts of anger really seems forced, just to notch the audience, and saying "yes he is indeed going to become Two-Face, you guessed right". If they would only stick to his constant need to flip a coin, like Nolan did with his Dark Knight Trilogy, it would have been better. Less is more, and subtle nods to the comic fans are always appreciated. 

Finally I want to say that the show also manages to integrate some interesting, and more unknown Batman villains. Even though the execution varies in quality, I can always appreciate the show being less predictable. 

In many ways Gotham is a flawed show, but through the season it has shown it's potential. I fear however, that they might push Bruce ascend towards Batman too soon, which would be a shame, as this is Gordon's story. But on the other hand, you can only tease so much of the villains without actually showing them, and we can't have them become their iconic characters without Batman. That said, I am looking forward to season 2, if not for more of that Penguin greatness! 

Popcorntroller Out!