Gotham Premiere Review
Gotham premiered last night, and in true fan-girl form I was watching both my television and twitter feed eagerly, waiting to see how my favourite Bat-characters would transfer to the small screen. Let me begin by saying that I’m not in love with this show after the pilot; while it isn’t fair to judge any show from its pilot episode, my first impression isn’t one-hundred percent favourable. The story begins with the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne’s murder in front of Bruce. The iconic scene was fairly well recreated and set the entire series in motion. In that opening we meet young Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth, which gave me a bit of a thrill until I realized that they had almost no relevance to the rest of the episode.
The show follows a young Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) as he moves through the seedy underbelly of Gotham. Gordon may be young, but is still just as serious as his cinematic counterpart. He is a good cop in a corrupt city, and it’s evident that he struggles with the morality of his job. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the show also introduces Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Taylor) also known as the Penguin, who is both simpering and sadistic. Both McKenzie and Taylor work well with the material they have been given and give convincing performances. Jada Pinkett-Smith plays an original character named Fish Mooney, and she is the very essence of a Batman villain; she is a diva who is constantly surrounded by luxury and blood. The rest of the performances feel like television performances, they are self-concious and stumble over some of the sillier diologue, but Jim Gordon, Oswald Cobblepot and Fish Moony steal the show and create an intriguing Gotham.
As much as these characters fit into Gotham, there was a number of cameos (no, I will not say who) that seemed to be present for the sole purpose of fan-service. It is entirely possible that they will play instrumental roles later in the season, but they felt forced in the context of this pilot, especially since they were highly recognizable characters and each one was given a visual cue associated with who they would become. But these cameos were not the only cheesy part of the show; I had a hard time reconciling the gritty subject matter and dramatic music with the visuals. Gotham is at once aiming to emulate the noir style of Chris Nolan’s Batman films, while completely ignoring any visual style what-so-ever. I had hoped to see more depth in the shadows, more decay in the alleys, but Gotham’s world looks bright and lively.
I do want to see how Gotham develops, and I will gladly tune in next week to find out if Jim Gordon has yet figured out how to navigate the city’s mean streets, but I will also continue to hope for them to embrace the dark subject matter and really dive in and explore the depths of Gotham’s criminal underworld and the unsung heroes in the GCPD who tried to keep them in-line before Batman ever emerged. So stay tuned next week friends, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
Overall the pilot was good, but I'm holding out for better as the series progresses.
I was not overly impressed with it. Donal was off his timing for the character. The interaction between Gordon and Bullock was flat. In fact, most of the interactions between characters was flat. The characters individually were decent, they just seemed more like a dress rehearsal and not the actual show. I hope they mesh better in future episodes. Otherwise, I will be done by the half season mark like I was with Agents of SHIELD.
I think they tried to do too much with this episode, which is where we see the holes start to emerge. As Andrea pointed out, we were introduced to a number of characters for no real reason beyond fan-service. Did we need to meet Edward Nigma? Did we need to meet Poison Ivy (though a neat little way to do it, it wasn’t necessary for the story)? Also, the way they introduced Barbara Kean was… strange, to say the least. It seemed purely for the purpose of making a threat on her life later so that Gordon would be forced into a hard call at the end of the episode.
I have to say, I enjoyed Donal Logue as Bullock, and really liked the subtle suggestions regarding Montoya and where that character ends up in the DC universe. Also, John Doman as Falcone is a great casting choice.
Like all series though, it will likely take a few episodes before he characters start to develop the on screen chemistry we associate with them from the other renditions of this franchise.