In recent years, TV seems to be taking over in terms of quality of productions and tonight here in the UK, we get to see the much talked about Gotham premiere, which is an origins TV series centered around Gotham City in the days before Batman and follows a young James ‘Jim’ Gordon as his vow to clean up a city owned by mafia boss Falcone.
I was lucky enough to be stateside during the shows US Premiere, so thought I would give a quick review.
Although the shows main character is James Gordon, it’s not just Jimbo we are learning about, as the show also follows a young Bruce Wayne (AKA Batman) as he struggles to deal with the death of his parent and the realisation it’s just him and his trusted butler Alfred (who now has a cockney accent).
Within the show you also get to see origins stories for other famous characters such as Catwoman, Penguin, The Riddler, and the Penguin.
Opening on a landscape of Gotham, the show begins with a young Selina Kyle (Catwoman) climbing through the city until she spots a couple cutting through an alley way with their son. The couple in question are the Waynes’.
I don’t want to go too much into detail about what happens as you probably know if you are a Batman fan but the show then introduces us to James Gordon (Played by Ben Mckenzie) who is investigating the murder. It is here where James and a young Bruce Wayne meet, with James promising to bring the murderers to justice.
From then on we see Gordon and his partner spiral into the city meeting all well-known and new associates, alongside his partner Harvey Bullock, who you can’t tell if he is good with a little bit of bad, or bad with a little bit of good.
One character that stole the show for me was Oswald Cobblepot (aka the Penguin) played by Robin Lord Taylor, who portrays the charcater amazingly well. In the show we find Oswald working his way up the ranks acting as lackey for Fish Mooney, played by Jada Pinkett Smith.
What becomes evident is Gotham is even worse than we have seen in the movies, so its upto James Gordon to clean the streets up, but he is going to need help… and a few years to do it. Suffice to say there is enough content there to make at least 10 seasons.
From what we have seen, Gotham is a great show and we have only scratched the surface with where the story and characters can go. With real ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ Easter eggs, it’s a show that you can watch more than once and still feel like it’s the first time.
I hate to admit it but I think DC has just whipped Marvel’s backside in the race for superior TV shows.
Characters I can’t wait to see more of are The Joker and Edward E Nigma aka The Riddler.
Gotham airs tonight in the UK on Channel 5
Here’s the trailer to get you ready: