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Gotham

GNC

King-Sized Canary
Joined
Aug 25, 2001
Messages
33,634
Anyone been watching this? Started in the US a couple of weeks ago, and in the UK on Channel 5 last night.

Remember that web cartoon strip Garfield Without Garfield? Well this is Batman without Batman. The Dark Knight is just a little kid so the main character seems to be Commissioner Gordon when he was a just promoted cop.

Lots of characters come and go to have you thinking ah, there's Catwoman/The Penguin/Poison Ivy/(maybe The Joker too) but it's a lot like a cop show with loose connections to comic books.

Getting a bit sick of origin tales, but I watched every episode of Smallville, so I'll give this a go, it was OK for a pilot. Plus Alfred is a swearing Sean Pertwee!
 
In a similar vein, there's another DC hero-type show currently in development for TNT.

Is anyone familiar with these characters?

link

:confused:
 
I've been following _Gotham_ since its premiere. The emphasis is on scene and character development so far, with primary foci on Gordon and Cobblepot.

It's got the dark and implicitly perverse atmospherics of the Dark Knight era, populated with characters whose sole complexity lies in their fears and machinations. On balance, the production values are above average (for current American TV).

At this stage it's hard to tell how much reflects ramp-up requirements and how much reflects how the show will be after it's up and running.

I'm still cautiously optimistic that it will remain interesting. Time will tell ...
 
It's a little bit Batman: Year One, and a little bit Gotham Central.

It's an interesting take on the story. I'm not totally happy with the characterisation of Bullock. I prefer to think of him as a good man who's given up, and is just going with the flow, while in this he seems to be more corrupt.

I could quibble with the background of Oswald, too, but it's a really interesting take on the character.

Also, I approve of any interpretation that has Renee Montoya in it.
 
I kinda liked it. I figure the first few episodes will be scene/character setting type installments, so I'm not quite ready to pass any final judgments on it yet. Not being a comic book fan, I've just got the films to compare to so, yeah, clearly The Dark Knight is a big influence.

Though I did expect the young BW to be a bit older, obviously, the boy wonder is still a twinkle in his Daddy's eyes.
 
I enjoyed it, but I was struck by a comment on another forum to the effect that the plot is going to be tricky. Either Gordon succeeds in cleaning up Gotham in which case there's no need for Batman, or he fails constantly which becomes quite depressing viewing and is difficult to sustain over X seasons.
 
Good point, but a Batman's work is never done in the comics and he has his victories too, so I imagine they'll keep it going on TV in much the same way. A full season has been ordered, so it might be sticking around.
 
Perhaps they'll do it so the 'supervillains' start crawling out of the woodwork first, giving Wayne the impetus to become batman, rather than the other way around (and which when you think about it really sucks).
 
Saw the first episode. Not bad though Oswald Cobblepot was somewhat too tall and Montoya should not have even been born yet. Bullock lacked the charm he had in the comics and the 90s animated show.
Hope we see the proto Joker and proto Mad Hatter.
 
I hope to see a proto Clayface, morphing technology went out of fashion about the year 1999, let's have it make a comeback.
 
I don't know if they're going with "Metas" in this series. It does seem to be in a separate universe to Arrow and The Flash, which have started to introduce them.

I think all Gordon can hope to do, in terms of cleaning up Gotham, is sorting out the Police Department. I think it's taking inspiration from Batman: Year One in that regard. Gordon comes to Gotham, finds the Police Department rife with corruption, and slowly cleans it out. Cleaning up the streets is going to take longer.

Also, driving Falcone out of Gotham seems to be an early breakthrough in the current backstory (in the comics at present, Falcone has been brought back to Gotham to avenge himself creating an underworld power struggle). I think their endpoint, as they see it currently, is Falcone being driven out, Cobblepot finally managing to take his place as kingpin, and Bruce putting on the silly costume. Of course, depending on how the series goes, they might change things around. And I could be completely wrong in my guessing at their story arc.

Finally, I'm really losing interest in Jada Pinkett Smith. Her acting seems to be dragging the whole show down when she's on screen. I can kind of see what they're trying to do with the character, and how she fits in, but I think she's trying to play it a bit too...camp?, over the top?, scene-munching?, some other adjective or adverb for bad acting?...she's just not working.
 
It's not as if the last ever episode of Starsky and Hutch ended with Captain Dobey telling them, "Congratulations, boys, you've solved all the crime! You can retire now!" So there will always be Batman stories to tell, no matter how Gotham finishes.
 
Just watched the first episode... love how there's drums of toxic waste just randomly stacked up at the docks. :lol:

Does anyone know when this is meant to be set? It's almost a generic past before tech was all over the place?
 
Seems to be modern times, but if you look at the classic 90s cartoon it was a mix of modern and vintage, so they might be doing the same here.

I note Danny Cannon is a driving force behind this. The man who gave us the Sly Stallone Judge Dredd! He's getting a good calibre of guest star, I'll give him that. Not sure about Bruce being a self-harmer, though.
 
Was he self harming though or just testing his resolve?

I see what you mean about the mix of sort of modern and vintage, I was thinking pre-90s at least as I couldn't see any computers in anyone's office, but then penguin has a modern cellphone in episode 2.

Liking it so far. :D
 
This July interview with _Gotham_ showrunner Bruno Heller:

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/07/20/gotha ... n-prequel/

... addresses the timeframe issue as follows:

Gotham is not set in any particular time period: Okay, this has been out there a bit, but Heller had a nice quote elaborating on the show’s timeless quality: “It’s a mash-up, to use the modern phrase,” he said. “If today Batman exists, then this world is the past. But it’s everybody’s past, an 18-year-old’s past and a 54-year-old’s past. So in your memory, the past is all mashed up together. So in this Gotham, it’s a kind of timeless world. It’s yesterday, it’s today, and it’s tomorrow all at the same time, because that’s the world that dreams live in.”

I've noticed that most of the cars visible on Gotham's streets seem to date from the very late 1970's up through the early 1990's. However, Cobblepot hitched a ride in an SUV that appeared to be no more than a decade old.
 
Really liked the subtle 4th wall breaking moment in episode 4, just when you're thinking what an effective little sociopath Oswald is. :D
 
Apparently instead of making up baddies for one episode they're planning more of the comic's villains to appear in this, including, just announced, The Scarecrow. And The Scarecrow's dad. Though Cillian Murphy was great in the role in Batman Begins, so they have a lot to live up to.

Also lined up are Mr Freeze (so maybe it'll go a bit sci-fi) and Dr Hugo Strange (unless he's already in it? The UK are behind the rest of the world in this case).
 
Emergency Awesome's channel on yoochube is really good for updates on stuff like that.

I'm not affiliated with it or anything, it's just one of the few yoochube channels where I watch stuff to do with shows.
 
Thanks, but sadly I can't find anywhere that'll tell me when Skeletor is going to be in it.
 
Still really enjoying this, although Harvey Dent was a little overdone for my taste.

Fish Mooney is the only character I don't like much, mostly she's bland and giving the character more kinks than a corrugated iron roof to try and spice her up doesn't help.
 
Last one I saw on Channel 5 had the Penguin's mum in it! Is she supposed to be a goodie or a baddie?
 
Considering Carol Kane is about a hundred years old*, she should really have been the Penguin's gran!

*Carol Kane is not a hundred years old.
 
I liked seeing Black Mask in this a couple of weeks ago, though he was a bit Patrick Bateman, but I suppose the main interest lies with Harvey Dent this week. I thought he and Bruce were about the same age, though?
 
Well that was a good start to the second half of Season 1, and some cracking misdirection in there.

I'll admit that one of the premises is a pet hate of mine when it comes to stories set in mental hospitals, but they managed to lull me into a false sense of security and then pulled it off without making it the main reveal. So good on the writers.

Also, was anyone else hoping for a while the protagonist was going to be Maxie Zeus?
 
They must have Maxie Zeus at some point, surely, one of the great egomaniacs in Batman comics. Anyone know when this is back on Channel 5? I could resort to other methods, but I'm not keen on watching whole episodes on my computer.
 
This is still shaping up ok, even if the Scarecrow story was rather unsubtle, and I'm still not stuck on Fish Mooney.

Red Hood next week, I'm really hoping they don't fark that one up. Not convinced though we should be having a certain character in so early... or maybe they'll manage a work around... dunno.
 
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