In September startet the new TV series “Gotham” which tells the story of James Gordon and the young Bruce Wayne in the years before Batman´s arrival. We looked at the first three episodes and are intrigued.
After seeing the first episode of “The Flash” the fear among comics fans was big that they would also screw about “Gotham”. In “The Flash” they use a lot of stereotypes from typical Hollywood productions, like: there has to be a love story, in the first 30 minutes you already have to tell the whole backstory of the hero, or the main character is some sort of hipster. In “Gotham” they fortunately went a different way.
The idea of the series is that it created its own universe. There are no crossovers like in “The Flash” where they also take characters of other comic books like The Arrow. It does not need to be mixed up by some other guy in tights. Gotham City stays Gotham City. The design of Gotham is also the first compliment you can give to the series. It has this darkness that you can find in “Batman Begins” or “The Dark Knight” and which got a little lost in the “The Dark Knight Rises”. You see dirtyness, dark fog and black allies what gives the series the right atmosphere. And it also tells you a lot about the content of the story.
In the years before Batman´s arrival they show you all the corruption and poverty that the citizens have to live in. In this chaos James Gordon who just started in the police force is the main character who struggles with doing the right thing and staying alive at the same time. But not only you see the early Jim Gordon, also you get to know the beginnings of Gotham´s villains. They show us the young pinguin and the (not so young) Carmine Falcone, both who are embodied by great actors. The series generally shows a good mixture between established actors like John Doman and new faces like Robin Lord Taylor. The young actors who play Catwoman and Batman are also respectable. Because in the comics they only showed partially the history of all the characters in the Batman universe, the series found a new interesting aspect to be part of the Batman merchandise.
One facet that they could approve in the series is the music. Maybe hiring Hans Zimmer would do the trick. But all in all “Gotham” could develop into a great interpretation of the comics. So if you are a real comic fan who enjoys the darkness and deepness of Batman you will defintely enjoy the series. If you are more interested in pretty hipster superheroes in tights you will probably be disappointed.
We continue watching it and are excited for the moment when Gordon finally grows his mustache.
