When Gotham was announced, I was very skeptical. I thought the show would centre primarily on Gordon and be a run of the mill show that just happens to have character names from the Batman universe. I was however, pleasantly surprised. It began to mold itself into an alternate reality, which to me was a much better path. It made more sense for Batman to be the reaction to the rise of villains than the other way around.
There seemed to be an underwritten rule for the show, no Batman and no Joker. With Bruce still a boy this made sense, however they did begin to tease the audience with potential jokers. This was fun for a while, but appetizers never quench real hunger. Enter Jerome, the boy from the circus, played by Cameron Monaghan in the most delightful mix of Ledger, Nicholson and Hamill. And I suppose he wasn’t intended to evolve in a proto-joker but with such a stellar performance, it slowly became inevitable.
An argument can be made that Joker should always have his past shrouded in mystery, and they wouldn’t be wrong. But they would be wrong if they said for every single rendition. See much like Hollywood; characters need diversity to keep them interesting. I for one don’t want to see someone phone in a Heath Ledger imitation. I want to see something fresh. Fresh doesn’t always mean grilled teeth and tattoos.
But Gotham wasn’t done yet, and last week’s episode pull one more trick over us. They pulled the old Kansas shuffle on us. So while we were looking right, they went left. This left us with a more traditional looking Joker (proto?). Now with the new episode looming it seems Gotham finally got its groove back. Not to mention they not so obvious hint that the ol Ra’s may be still alive and kicking.
Gotham is finally shaping up to show it set out to be, even with its far from traditional origins it has managed to capture the true nature of these much loved characters and explore them in a serialized style.