How did I miss that this starred Donal Logue of Terriers and Ben McKenzie of Southland? Sign me up!
Also, it’s on Hulu for those who are coming at it late, like me.
I LOL’d when Balloon Man took out Lt. Cranston while wearing a black slouch hat and a red scarf over his face. (Perhaps the Lieutenant’s first name was Lamont?) Both awesome and entirely appropriate to see a Shadow reference in a Batman prequel show.
Watched both this and the first Flash back-to-back, and while it’s too soon to do much in the way of comparison, Gotham definitely has superior photography. Its third episode was shot better than the Flash’s pilot (and TV shows generally never look better than in their pilots.)
The Terriers theme is my default phone ringtone.
Such an embarrassment of tv superhero comics stuff riches. The Flash is not bad too, and SHIELD keeps chugging along, and Arrow’s to come next. Best telly season ever!
The balloon guy was a cool concept - is that from a comic storyline? seems like an effective and offbeat MO
Each episode feels more hammy than the last. Everyone overacts, there are tons of dumb lines, and Bruce Wayne is going to be donning the cape before his bar mitzvah at this rate. I guess my problem is that the vibe and tone of Nolans films are permanently burned into my brain, and I don’t think the show needs to jam in so much to match the pacing of a teenage boy masturbating except that it happens to be on a network with a history of canceling good stuff the instant the ratings blink.
I want this to be darker somehow, more stylized in its look and feel. Right now it feels like a lot of mediocrity with a lot of potential.
Seconded. Everything is so damn on the nose it hurts.
I think if it went too dark, it would be in familiar territory, I like the territory it’s exploring - being a cross between dark and semi-goofy, with a hint of the self-aware levity of the Adam West Batman shows, just enough to leaven the grimdark and give this Gotham a hint of that Gotham. That’s kind of fresh. Essentially, there’s a period sort of vibe about it, it maintains something of the feel of a megacity in the US in the 1930s/1940s (a lot of dark wood panelling); and it also has some of the lighter elements of comics, which after all originated in that context. It’s quite a studied mise en scène.
I’ve always thought they should try and make superheroes in a period setting - a bit like they did with Rocketeer or Cap, actually, more of them should be treated that way. I mean, you could treat pretty much all the superheroes as period entities, by filming them in the exact period they were conceived - late 30s, early to mid 40s. Add a hint of Gernsback futurism to shift the world sideways in time somewhat, more into a parallel universe, and there you have it.
Barbara Gordon!
Isn’t she just …
… Which is of course exactly what Batman: The Animated Series did (its retro/alternate reality nature memorably established in the first seconds of the opening episode, when one of Gotham’s police airships stumbles across Man-Bat.)
No kidding. Erin Richards, be still my heart.
The little side plot with her and Montoya hiding a prior same-sex relationship is a nice nod to the Half a Life storyline from Gotham Central…one of my favorites.
Well, this “superhero tv season” is proceeding nicely. Penguin’s deliciously, deviantly villainous, relationships are getting knotty, hard-bitten cops are doing hard-bitten things, etc., all good, clean fun.
My life at the moment is defined by the high points of watching Gotham, The Flash, SHIELD and Arrow in succession every week. It warms this old geek’s heart.
I am enjoying this enough to keep watching, needs less Bruce Wayne and more Harvey Bullock.
I hope they make it so each season focuses more on 1 main villain. For example this season is pretty well on track to be about The Rise of Cobblepot.
I like it ok but I cannot stand jada smith… I literally cringe at the badness. I would think that over-acting in a super-hero series would not be a bad thing, but it’s bad alright.
Yeah, she’s the weakest link for sure. The police boss lady is pretty good (trying to remember where I’ve seen her before).
Agreed. “Look, honey, I’m being all mean on TV. I’m good at it, right?”
Tangentially related, those “seduce me” scenes were terribad. You aren’t HBO. Don’t try HBO things.
Meanwhile I think the dude playing Cobblepot is really, really good.
I think her OTT-ness kind of works in the context of the show though, in terms of the balancing act I feel it’s doing (so far pretty well) between grimdark 40s/90s Gotham and whacky 60s Batman Gotham, between seriousness (horrific burning of a guy in an oil drum, child abduction, etc.) and cheerful black humour (murder by balloon hoisting, or that scene in the first episode when the guy’s being beaten up in the back alley for stealing from Fish).
I’ll agree the naked attempts to “sex up” the show are just painful. And do we need weekly reminders that Barbara is bisexual?