4 out of 5

Developed by: Bruno Heller

covers season 1

Out of the box, ‘Gotham’ had problems.  As conceived by Bruno Heller, the first few episodes suggested an overly stylized sense of camp – unreal, poppy colors, cheek-chewing dialogue, garish villains, and, as a winking afterthought, shoe-horned endless comic book references just so we’re patting our built-in fanbase on the back, making the show seem like a grim & gritty update of near-Adam West Bats cheekiness.  There was also the questionable timeline of mashing a young Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle into a world with several of their future adversaries / partners already showing up as adults…  And so the backlash began pretty immediately, and everyone was dismissing ‘Gotham’ – the story of Batman’s city before way before Batman would come to be – as ridiculous.  But, y’know, We The People will watch anything, and certainly there were enough viewers enjoying the show or interested to watch the crash and burn or hate-watching or – like me – curious of the potential for the series to become like the comic Gotham Central, which had a similar Gotham Police focus, albeit in a modern timeline, but with Batman as a side character.  This was a fan-favorite series (until it got wrapped up in DC crossover stupidness), and had a ton of potential for a police procedural type show.  Also: Fox had already committed to 16 episodes.  So there was that.

And that helped, and it’s why sometimes shows need that breathing room to find themselves.  Once all of the key characters had checked in – Gordon (Ben McKenzie), Bullock (Donal Logue), Penguin (Robin Taylor), Bruce (David Mazouz) and Selina (Camren Bicondova) – Gotham settled down a bit, and found the right balance of story, characterization and camp.  It now rightfully feels like a comic book – big and bold, soapy and pulpy – but properly re-imagined for a television format.  The gregariousness was toned down just so; pieces were put in place to lean the focus on killers and crime and not… I dunno, proving that this was all tied to Batman.  So in essence, it finally did become Gotham Central, or actually better than Gotham Central in a lot of ways, since that book was frequently hijacked by superheroes, against the original premise.  The timeline mish-mash might still be frustrating, except that the actors are phenomenal in their roles.  McKenzie and Logue are perfectly cast, and all the various crimelords are scene-chewing slimeballs, as they should be.  But the highlights are Mazouz and Bicondova, who bring so much depth to kid roles – roles that, handled by other actors, would probably be obnoxious – that when subplots involving the duo are simmering, you’re excited whenever the show returns to them.

So I guess I sort of understand the haters, because there was no good way to satisfy them: the show isn’t Batman, and blah blah blah comic history is a bitch.  But apparently enough of us hung in there to merit a season 2, and I can only hope the creators maintain what they’ve done, as it’s sincerely resulted in something that feels unique, and don’t start changing things just to satisfy the internet hordes.