Remember this moment from Batman Begins?
Remember how cool it was seeing a young James Gordon meeting a young Bruce Wayne for the first time? Yeah, they’re making a TV show about that. It’s called Gotham, and it will feature James Gordon (Ben McKenzie), his boss (Zabryna Guevera) and fiance (Erin Richards), Harvey Bullock (Donald Logue), Alfred (Sean Pertwee), Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), the Penguin’s boss (Jada Pinkett Smith), and very young versions of Selina “Catwoman” Kyle (Camren Bicondova) and Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz). It WAS a developmental project Fox won the rights to by granting a series commitment, basically meaning they agreed to pay roughly $10 million to Warner Bros.-TV if they passed on the pilot. Well, Fox either really liked the pilot or are too embarrassed to pay out that $10 million because they just made Gotham an actual TV show set to premiere later this year, agreeing to a minimum of 13 episodes.
So, everyone seemed 100% positive Fox was going to pick this show up and now they have. Good for them.
Good for us, though? Eh. It’s The Wire/The Shield but with James Gordon and the Gotham City PD. Wait – it’s Smallville but with Bruce Wayne. No, it’s both. The answer has differed depending on who you asked, with those close to the show describing it as an origin story for “James Gordon and the villains that made Gotham famous” but Fox’s President Kevin Reilly comparing it more to Smallville. Ultimately, it will be the twin narrative of Gordon’s ascension from rookie detective to police commissioner, and Wayne from brooding little kid to brooding young man composing heavy metal songs to illustrate his pain (that is, of course, if LEGO Movie is any indication).
What’s their long-term plan for integrating Bruce Wayne into the story so that every time we cut back to him from whatever Gordon is up to doesn’t feel wholly unnecessary? Gordon investigating the murder of Wayne’s parents would only seem to be a short-term solution unless A) the murder of his parents turns out to be connected to a conspiracy they can stretch across at least a full season, B) Gordon joins Alfred as a surrogate father figure for Bruce. This might end up feeling like the TV show version of X-Men: First Class, which began as two separate projects (X-Men prequel, Magneto prequel) which merged into one. That yielded mixed results there; what will it do for Gotham here?
Let’s watch the trailer (which premiered on Fox tonight during the 2-hour kick-off of the new 24) to find out:
First of all, I didn’t know Poison Ivy was going to be a part of this, too, at least not so soon. Ultimately, the trailer kind of feels like two different TV shows competing to co-exist, and for obvious reasons I’m kind of more interested in seeing Bruce Wayne than Ben McKenzie doing his Southland Tales thing as Gordon or Donald Logue giving speeches comparing police work to war. Then again, full disclosure, I’ve never been someone to watch cop shows. However, they just made at least half of one featuring Batman characters, and I am 100% going to watch this. Even if I hate the pilot I’ll keep watching it because, you know, Batman. Let’s hope the show brings the goods to keep us hanging on once blind loyalty to all things Batman wears off.
What about you? What do you think of the trailer? A bit higher on Gothan than me? Actually, even more negative? Let us know in the comments.
Source: ScreenRant.com
