Gotham has been a highly anticipated series, not necessarily in terms of need & want. More so towards "Will it work?" and after viewing the first episode I do think indeed that the show will generally function, entertain and enrich DC fans with a new revision of the origins of these favored characters. While some of these revisions are awkward and wonky, we've only seen the pilot. Pilots as they go are intended to give a nearly complete overview.
Let's take a look at the pilot episode and breakdown the characters we witnessed, let's see if we can make some sense of what DC/WB/CW intends to do with them.
Bruce Wayne: David Mazouz is too damn perfect, But I also believe that DC/WB/CW may have missed an opportunity…This kid is also perfect to play Tim Drake or Damien Wayne in any other outing.
This young man easily captured the essence of what we have understood to be Bruce Wayne. I've stated before (many times) Batman is an easy character to portray. Bruce Wayne is complicated. Bruce Wayne as a child dealing with the loss of his parents even more so!
Jim Gordon: I’m not so sure about this guy just yet, part of him is extremely likable, the other is pushing to hard. I do see a lot of
Batman: Year One Intended in the character, but something about him is off…perhaps it's the hair…I need to watch him some more.
For those that want to debate, yes he is supposedly fresh from the military, explaining the hair. I'm not concerned about that at all, he just doesn't feel like Jim Gordon. Not yet.
Alfred Pennyworth: Spit, spot, on the mark! Alfred is a beloved character and portraying this role is no easy set of shoes to fill. I'm also curious if this character is going to be taken down the same road we saw Beware the Batman take with an SAS version of Alfred jumping into action.
While I doubt that, his first moments on screen had an exceptionally strict and assertive tone, with the situation being what it was. It felt like he was a hard ass serviceman at one point or another.
Harvey Bullock: Donal Logue is great as Harvey but throughout the episode I got irritated in his presence. I kept thinking of him as a vampire he played from the film
Blade. A character that was quite obnoxious.
Though I’m supposed to dislike this character as a general bad guy there are glimpses that DC/WB/CW may try and humanize him for the character to grow on us. That aspect is a cumbersome journey at best. Just let us hate the guy. Allow the hate for this character to well up inside of us as it should be intended.
Fish Mooney: She's an original character and I’m not too into her just yet. She seems obnoxious and Jada Pinkett’s botox is not a pretty sight to stare at on an 85” UHD screen…God help me my eyes are burning.
I am interested to see if she will be a placeholder villain or if she will indeed be formidable.
I think to some degree, at least for now, she's aiding in expository and foreshadowing plot points. But more on that later.
Selina Kyle: (Apparently) In this iteration is witness to the death of the Waynes. Trying to create a larger connection between the two characters. This is awkward but interesting…
I'm not completely sure how I feel about this aspect, but the actress is adorable in this role. Even if she's not really supposed to be adorable...That or i'm turning into a dirty old fogey (Gusto make room on the dirty fogey couch, i'm coming over!)
Oswald Cobblepot: Aptly played by Robin Lord Taylor, although he felt far more homicidal than what we’d expect, he was somewhat Joker-like. I also like how the series seemingly discarded him at the end of the episode giving way for a partial origin story.
I'm curious to see if he will have a more destructive role in the future of the series and if we'll get to see him slowly takeover the underworld.
Ivy Pepper: Awkwardly thrown in, but in none-the-less. I expect she was intended to be an “ooh, that’s Ivy!” moment. However, for me, that moment was met by a blase thought as I continued counting off how many villains are going to be entwined so early in their lives during this series.
Ivy's father is now dead and she was seen caring for plants…clever? I’m not in agreement, it’s not so subtle.
I will add that the casting seems like a believable younger version of Uma Thurmans rendition of the character.
Edward Nygma: He threw out a lot of random questions and a minor riddle…again not so clever nor was it subtle. But I liked the look of the actor and I’m curious how much more we’ll see of him.
Likely we'll see him in each episode as he is working with the GCPD. I'm certain we'll see Bullock, among other cops, mistreating Nygma as we witnessed in this episode or merely how often the GCPD will be dismissing him. Treating Nygma as unimportant, feeding his loathing.
Carmine Falcone: He was right on the money. I liked the presence but right away felt the villain pile-in as an avalanche of actors continued to pour into the episode.
He did feel like the top of the food chain at this point and i'm guessing he'll likely be a hub for the bulk of the villains that will be directly or indirectly introduced in the series.
Renee Montoya: I love that Gotham is going boldly into this character, even if it’s heavily altered in her origins. She was Batwoman’s (Katherine Rebecca Kanes in the comics)
lover which is hinted in the pilot about this particular aspect of her past, using Barbara Keane's character in Gotham instead of Kate Kane.
She takes over for The Question after his death in the comics and I’m very curious to see where this character takes us. Don’t confuse her for Ramirez from The Dark Knight, she is not the same character. I'm sure she'll likely remain a cop for the bulk of her tenure, but I can dream.
Crispus Allen: This is another character that may seemingly be amazing in his potential in the show. Or simply just a placeholder for a possible future awesome hero portrayal. Crispus is Montoya’s partner in Gotham similarly in the comics. On the illustrated page he is killed by a corrupt cop, Jim Corrigan, and in death takes on the mantle of The Spectre. I’d love to see this transpire somewhere in the series, even if it is somewhere down the road years from now. I’d be happy to see The Spectre come to life in some form. That would simply be amazing. So hopefully I didn’t just spoil this for anyone that didn’t realize who Crispus was and that he will likely die down the road in this series...Sorry.
Most folks have been curious if there was an appearance by the Joker or if it has been hinted. I had a theory I talked about a few months ago and it turns out I wasn’t completely off my rocker when I 'joked' that he’d likely be an eloquent thief donning the mantle of the Red Hood or possibly some random young comedian performing in whatever club was being run by Cobblepots gang. While I can't boast if my theory was accurate, I can argue that I'm likely close. Of course, we haven’t a clue if this is a random throwaway scene to feed the frenzy of fans that might wonder (like myself). However, I am not entirely certain DC would be this subtle with everything else they did being so blatant and direct.
But it is relatively possible (in a universe somewhere) that the comedian on the stage that made Fish Mooney laugh may be a very young pre-psychosis, pre-criminal Joker. But of course anything is possible and I'd imagine they would have thrown him at us more directly.
For now the show has my attention, likely many of your attentions as well. I’m interested in the character soup that they’ve thrown at us in the pilot. I get it, it was a pilot and likely the only thing the studio would have seen had they not greenlit the series. I expect the next set of episodes will tone down into biopic character films of each individual character.
My biggest gripe, outside the soupy nature of the pilot is how Arrow, as an example, made extremely subtle gestures toward their DC Universe characters which had additional aliases or identities. Here, in Gotham, it’s in your face. Likely because we are looking at some of the most well known villains in the Batman ecosystem, it just 'felt' forced and relatively altered. I’m not too sure I like Selina Kyle retconned into Batman’s history this way. That is a pivotal moment in Batman’s psyche and it seems to be tainted in a way with that presence.
I will say that I prefer that particular direct connection to my originally left-field thought about Bruce and Oswald. A thought I spoke about in a recent Wizard World Comic-Con in Richmond, VA. during a Marvel vs DC Panel I sat in as a guest. I was concerned a very young Cobblepot would be retconned as a friend of Bruce at this age. A parallel to what DC/WB/CW did with Clark and Lex in Smallville.
I can deal with Kyle witnessing the death of the Waynes, I’m just wondering what Kyle is going to do with this knowledge and why add such a major change to one of the most well known and defining, anguishing moments, in Batman's origin.
I’m sure there are many reviews out there of Gotham and will likely be flooding CBM for every episode. I'll be taking very different approaches to every episode of all currently available CBTV Series. Make sure to give Rormachine’s, Gotham Ror Review a look if you haven’t yet. I’ll be doing breakdown pieces like this for the rest of the season for each episode.
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by @EmanuelFCamacho
Up next, The Breakdown of Agents of SHIELD