Before Batman, There Was Gotham

FOX's Gotham TV Series Banner War is coming to Gotham…

It started in a dark alley when 2 gunshots rang out into the night and Dr. Thomas and Martha Wayne fell. But before young Bruce Wayne grew up to be The Batman, the seedy underbelly of Gotham City began its descent into darkness.

That’s where FOX’s new TV series Gotham comes in. If you were hoping for a weekly Batman show (which many people were) you might not be happy about this (and a lot of people aren’t) but the cast of characters and the stories that the showrunners are going to be able to tell from the DC Universe’s greatest city have a ton of potential to be very entertaining.

In the 2 minute extended preview trailer that FOX released Monday we are introduced to Detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and his grizzled partner Detective Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue). We can see from the start that this is a city that has problems with crime and that sets a great base for that this series can become. We also meet the young Master Bruce, wrapped in a blanket and in shock over the murder of his parents. This may be the most important moment in Bruce’s life. But for the purpose of this show, it’s just the start of the relationship between Gordon and the orphaned Wayne.

As we aren’t dealing with a grown up Bruce/Batman, we also aren’t dealing with grown up super-villains like we usually do when Gotham City is involved.

We do know that Oswald Cobblepot (The Penguin), Selina Kyle (Catwoman), Ivy Pepper (Poison Ivy) and Edward Nygma (The Riddler) are present and on track to grow into the characters that we know from the legend of The Dark Knight. And while we wait for these delinquents to become the criminals we know, Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) seemingly runs the city’s underworld from her nightclub.

Of the young criminals it’s Selina Kyle that most interests me. Also an orphan, she and Bruce are likely to meet and bond, with her street smarts and charm used to play him, earn his trust and set the stage for the rest of their lives working together/fighting each other, depending on the story you read.

Here’s why I’m ready to love this show… I love the idea of Detective Jim Gordon as a hero for the same reasons I love The Batman. He’s just a man who has an overwhelming urge to fight crime and bring justice to Gotham City. He’ll deal with the moral dilemmas that come with being a cop in a dirty town. He will have to make choices that he doesn’t want to make. He will have to do whatever it takes to protect himself and his family (fiancée Barbara Kean) from the dangers that present themselves.

After watching the trailer my co-worker Brian opined that Gotham looks more like Arrow than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And that’s a good thing. If Gotham can tell the character driven stories the way that Arrow has, this will be a successful show. We don’t need superpowers to tell heroic tales.

FOX has officially ordered the first season of Gotham and it will be part of the fall TV schedule. Get yourself ready for a new crime drama, set in a dark city filled with characters that you already know… but don’t know yet.

I’m excited. Bring on the darkness.