Gotham (TV Series)... My Thoughts So Far....

I honestly was not very excited to watch Gotham when it was first announced.  I couldn’t really get into Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D during its first season (even though I’m a huge fan of pretty much every one of their movies).  I just thought it was too low rent, not funny enough and overall felted disconnected from the universe it was apparently a part of.  Ultimately with Gotham I felt that a movie based on the popular DC character would fair no better for me.  While I still plan on watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D someday (because there was a lot about it I did actually like), Gotham seemed like even more of a long shot given the massive popularity of Nolan’s recent Batman movies.  I thought to myself “how can a Batman series without Batman work?” and “do we really need this so soon?”.  I’m happy to say after four episodes of Gotham I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the show and definitely feel as if I’m going to stick around for the entire season.

I might as well start with what I think needs improvement in the show that would make me enjoy it more.  First of all, I think the pacing of the show is wildly inconsistent and tries to blend action, comedy and more hard-boiled crime elements and isn’t entirely successful.  Sometimes the action scenes seem very forced and stuck in the show instead of it blending in with the story in way where everything feels organic.  I don’t think the action is necessarily bad, but I think it will take a bit of time before they find the right balance (and I sincerely hope they do).  Also, I’m still very iffy on a lot of the casting choices.  While I think the actors playing Gordon and his partner are great as well as the actor who plays Penguin, more often than not I find myself thinking about how inconsistent a lot of the show is for me because people like Gordon’s love interest, Fish Mooney, and especially Alfred are not casted correctly.  Perhaps its unfair to say the acting is bad, but I feel as if each actor has a different idea of what the ton of Gotham should be.  Some seem to play their roles in a more hammy, comic-book savvy way while others are more serious and down to earth.  I hope these actors can all get on the same page and really get into their roles in a way that I can believe

In terms of story, I think they’re doing a really great job with building the early city of Gotham and the various power struggles between different crime bosses.  Some of the more character centric story arcs are still pretty weak (Gordon’s love life) and the entire story with Bruce Wayne has been done too many times in too many different shows and films for it to be entirely engaging.  Yes, we get it.  Bruce Wayne grows up to be Batman.  I hope they can find a more unique and surprising way to develop Wayne’s story line (and I hope the actor who plays Alfred tones it down, he seems way off base for the character).  Also, the first episode had too many winks and nods for Batman fans, but that was mostly to rope audiences in right away because it’s been toned down in the next 3 episodes quite a bit and I can see it naturally fitting into the overall story and evolving in an interesting way.  I also have been enjoying the smaller contained stories in each episode.  I think they’ve been successful in making them fit with the larger picture

Also it should be mentioned that my absolute favorite element of this show is the look and feel of everything in the city.  They really nailed everything in this department.  The streets are grimy and openly full of crime and corruption.  The city skyline has that dark, haunted feeling that Gotham should have and the use of lighting and colors give it just enough of that “comic book” feeling that I love so much.  In my opinion, the city of Gotham is the heart and soul of this story and really always has been in any Batman movie or television show.  So my hat goes off to the set designers, cinematographers, costume artists and any other artists who are helping design the city.  Gotham definitely looks great.

At this point in time I’m definitely hooked on Gotham even though I think it has a lot of things that could be fixed and improved upon in the future.  It has a ton of potential and I’ve already had a ton of fun with the show and am looking forward to seeing where the show goes.  I just hope a Batman series without Batman can remain interesting for a long period of time.