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After 76 years, DC Comics’ most famous character, Batman, has amassed a wealth of well-known mythology and surrounding story. There’s Gotham City, the gloomy and perpetually decaying urban sprawl holding many dark secrets. There’s the Joker, the Riddler, the Penguin, and a virtual army of colorfully psychotic villains that plague it continually. There’s the stalwart police commissioner, Jim Gordon, doing what he can to hold back to the tide of madness and corruption alongside the dark knight. In the right hands, there could be a complex, engrossing story of how this insane city of caped crusaders, cops, and criminal lunatics came to be. Gotham is not that story.
The series does have all the right elements. An idealistic young detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) comes to Gotham and is paired with the older, more cynical Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue). Their first case is the murder of the Waynes, survived by their 12-year-old son Bruce (David Mazouz). In the course of the investigation, Gordon and Bullock run afoul of not only Gotham’s gangsters—especially underboss Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett-Smith)—but also early versions of future supervillains, including Selina Kyle/Catwoman (Camren Bicondova) and Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), among others.
And some of these elements are really, really good. McKenzie and Logue both do fine jobs with their mismatched partnership, and their steadiness helps ground the action, allowing the villains to go as far over the top as they want. Gotham’s version of the Penguin definitely stands out, as Taylor emanates creepy energy and finally makes one of Batman’s less intimidating enemies seem genuinely threatening.
The show also clearly knows how to present Gotham City itself, giving it a timeless quality that allows for modern technology and retro design. It’s not as stylized as Tim Burton’s Batman films yet considerably more so than Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. If Gotham truly succeeds in anything, it’s in conveying the texture of a place that would give rise to such an outsize figure as Batman.
But, holy smokes, does it ever fall apart in the storytelling. Gotham careens all over the place in this first season, abandoning any sense of internal consistency while trying to pack in as many minor characters and future villain teases as possible. Double-crosses come and go quickly, and character motivations shift to fit whichever subplot happens to be prominent at the time. This is most evident in the subplots involving the young Bruce Wayne, whether he’s investigating his parents’ murder or flirting with Selina (who just happened to witness the crime).
Everything comes together in such a chaotic manner that it’s hard to stay invested in what’s happening. If things were running smoothly, little nods to future events could be great Easter eggs, but too often here they’re just glaring reminders that someday (on a different show probably) these people are going to give the dark knight a run for his money.
Gotham is not a lost cause, but it’s going to take a special effort to turn this into the kind of series it aspires to be. The parts that work show a lot of potential, but they need to be assembled in a much more cohesive and thematically consistent fashion. Unfortunately, it’s still too soon for Batman to swoop in and save the day.
DVD Review:
Gotham: The Complete First Season spreads 22 episodes (along with deleted scenes) over six discs. Most of the special features included in the set are pulled from promotional materials, but, taken all together, they offer a good view of what the showrunners intended the show to be. The best of the bunch covers the design of Gotham City itself, showcasing how technically sound the series really is. Whether or not the show ultimately works, it’s worth checking out how these creators interpreted some classic material.
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