Gotham gets the Smallville treatment with Jim Gordon in lead role There’s something painfully earnest about American-made TV pilots, as they shoe-horn so many of the upcoming season’s characters into a meagre 40 or so minutes that hardly anyone gets to say a word. The whole process of basically begging one of the big TV houses to give you the money to craft the few nuggets of golden (or at …
I think AC nailed it. It's really not Batman, it's not about Batman. It's a different, tangential story set in the same city. <del>Chicago</del> Gotham really works well for for a film noir style detective story, you've got a decent cop, surrounded by corruption. He's going to get dirty, but he's still a good guy, and will do it for the right reasons.
Comparing this to Smallville is definitely damning it with faint praise. At least this show isn't littered with people who can't act pretending they're still teenagers.
It's a bit early to make a judgement here. Yeah, the future Catwoman isn't a very good pickpocket yet, but that's probably because she's still a kid. I'm more interested in how they're sorting out the characters from Gotham Central that they're using -- Bullock, Montoya, and Allen were all fully-drawn characters, and I'm just hoping that they're not being used as cliched antagonists (unfortunately, after only three episodes, I'm already concerned about how they're using Montoya).
And the children of course. The moment young Master Bruce starts drawing bats in his "dark doodles" I think I may call it quits on the series. As it is I worry about how early they're trying to cram everything in instead of carefully drawing things out and giving fans clues along the way. Why give a subtle nod and a wink when a nod and a shout will do, right?
As for children being poor pickpockets, perhaps you should reread Oliver Twist. A young crim with cat-like reflexes shouldn't have to break a sweat performing her craft.
The worst part of the show for me is the Bruce Wayne plot line. It's a forgone conclusion that he's going to be Batman so I really could not care less about what he's getting up to at home - is he all moody and brooding and upset that his parents died? Well great, thanks for the foreshadowing I guess.
And I still can't decide if I like this show or not.
The Jim Gordon focus is interesting but the writers really need to flesh out the rest of the Gotham PD ASAP if they want to continue down the police procedural route. Harvey Bullock (Gordon's partner,) especially is in desperate need of rounding out so that he's not just a one dimensional jobsworth.
Fish Mooney's sole purpose in the show seems to be to provide everyone with convenient answers. I'd much rather see less of her and more actual detective work.
The whole Barbara Gordon thread just seems to be descending into 90210. I realise that comic book wives/girlfriends are usually just there to look pretty and listen to the protagonist's monologues when they get home and I appreciate that the writers have tried to make her more than that. Still, her storyline so far just feels so out of place in comparison to the rest of the show.
The main reasons I'm still watching are Falcone, the gloriously old school mob boss, and Penguin who's storyline is going from strength to strength.
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