Gotham (2014)

[Dasquian Belargic]

What started out as a series about a young James Gordon and the Gotham City Police Department has now become something else.

http://www.newsarama.com/20029-gotham-will-center-on-bruce-wayne-afterall-include-bat-villains.html


The show will track Bruce [Wayne] from a child (around 12 years old) until he puts on a cape (in the finale)," Reilly said. He calls the show an "operatic soap," and his descriptions fall more in line with a previous DC Comics TV show named after one of their fictional cities: Smallville.

Alongside the Bruce Wayne highlight, Reilly name-dropped Catwoman, The Riddler, and The Penguin as all planning to appear on the show, but in young forms as we "see how they get to become what they are as Gotham is teetering on the edge."

:whaa

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Smallville, Batman edition.

I do not have high hopes.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I really don't understand how it will work, focusing on Bruce and the rogues gallery pre-Batman, or with the age range they're apparently going for.

I could see how Batman: Year One would make for a decent story, with Bruce and Jim Gordon as the focus, but Bruce is in his mid-20s by the time he comes back to Gotham (after something like a decade abroad, training in just about everything) - but if Bruce is going to stay in Gotham the whole time after his parents death...?

DC recently did a slight revamp of the Batman origin story with the Zero Year arc, but even that put Bruce out of Gotham for a big chunk of time before he returned to put on the cape and cowl.

>_<

[Lazuli]

I'm guessing it's basically going to be X-Men: Evolution for Batman... a revamp of the story that works a lot of the origins/etc so they can fit in a high school framework.The Batman already played pretty fast and lose with a Batman origin situation: it's not like Batman cartoons are all that adherent to comic book plots, so I wouldn't expect this to even remotely resemble any of those plots.

I'm just glad it's animated. DC went way too trigger-happy handing out TV rights to rival networks... one less contradictory live action continuity to worry about.

[Dasquian Belargic]

It's apparently a live action TV series, not a cartoon: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/01/13/foxs-gotham-is-a-batman-origin-story-and-will-have-a-christopher-nolan-esque-tone

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Yes, not many animated hour long dramas going on in the USA tv network land.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Ben McKenzie has been cast as James Gordon: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/tv/gotham-ben-mckenzie-james-gordon/

[Dasquian Belargic]

Filming has started: http://www.themarysue.com/gotham-penguin-james-gordon-aoshield-deathlok/

[Captain Untouchable]

We have a trailer.

0d1zpt6k5OI

I never thought I would say this about anything even vaguely related to comic books and superheroes... but meh.

I can't help feeling that "generic, rugged, badass white action movie cop guy" is missing the point of Jim Gordon a bit?

Also, they must be phenomenally confident about how long this show will run for. It'll need to last what, ten years for Bruce to ever become Batman? Longer? It's brave embarking on an origin story for people like Gordon and the Riddler when the pay-off of them becoming who the audience expects depends on your show not being cancelled for a very very long time. :uhoh

[Dasquian Belargic]

^ I'm with you. I should be gobbling that trailer up, but it's doing nothing for me. I really don't know how they can make, let alone keep, this compelling.

If only they'd gone with something closer to the timeline of the Batman: Year One story arc...

[Captain Untouchable]

I think that's probably part of it for me too - disappointment it's not more like Year One or Gotham Central.

Part of me wonders if Nygma is in this to prevent him being in Arrow. Riddler spent quite a while in the Green Arrow supporting cast so it'd make sense for Arrow to feature him... but if Fox has the rights to adapt him for TV now I presume they can't.

This whole DC/WB selling rights to other networks/studios is really odd. :cyduck

[CMJ]

The pilot was excellent IMHO. I saw it at work a week or so ago, and was pretty damn impressed. During pilot season I see a ton of crappy pilots, and this one was probably my favorite of this year and one of the better ones of the last five or so (or roughly since I started helping out our testing during pilot season).

[Droo]

The first episode of this show was excellent. I am surprised and very impressed. This has the makings of something great.