Gotham Stumbles Out of the Gate

COUTESY PHOTO / SCREENRANT.COM

Apparently no one is tired of Batman origin stories yet.  That’s the general consensus around Gotham, the latest FOX drama set against the backdrop of the infamous Gotham city.  The catch here though is that we’re witnessing Batman’s stomping grounds before the Dark Knight even puts on his spandex for the first time.  We’ve already seen how Batman Begins, so Gotham plays more like “Commissioner Gordon Begins”, with the then detective working with other bat-universe mainstay detective Harvey Bullock on the case of the Wayne murders.  Ben McKenzie stars as the young James Gordon, and while he looks the part (aside from his suspiciously absent mustache), it’s too early to tell whether he will grow into the role.  He plays the by-the-book Gordon well, trying to hold on to his code of ethics in a city eroded by corruption.  McKenzie’s Gordon still feels a little bland, though. Maybe it’s because we’ve been spoiled by anti-heroes like Walter White and Tony Soprano, however a little edge goes a long way in making a compelling protagonist, and while that may not fit into the ethos of Commissioner Gordon, he surely had to start somewhere.  Donal Logue does a serviceable job as Bullock, the dirty cop who is paired up with Gordon.  The issue is less with his performance and more to do with the mostly clunky dialogue he’s forced to grit his teeth through.  To say his character is a poor choice to deliver exposition is a Batmobile-sized understatement.  The real surprises in Gotham come from Robin Lord-Taylor as a young Oswald Cobblepot and especially Jada Pinkett-Smith as mob boss Fish Mooney, a new addition to the Gotham mythos.  Pinkett-Smith is affectively menacing and is clearly having a ball, as is Lord-Taylor as a pre-Penguin Cobblepot.

Gotham would be a fine show if we stopped there, unfortunately the show gets a little too carried away with cameos of famous villains before they become their infamous counterparts.  Edward Nygma works in GPD Forensics, one of the prime suspects in the Wayne murders is the father of Poison Ivy, even everyone’s favorite clown prince of crime is hinted at.  Appearances like this over the course of the season might not be as distracting, but in one episode it feels like the writers are winking so far their eyes are going to fall out.

Gotham is a solid foundation for a good show as it stands now.  Even without the coat of bat-paint it’s better than every other police procedural on network television.  Hopefully it’s nowhere but up from here though, and the show doesn’t suffer from villain overload.  At the very least maybe we’ll find out how Bruce Wayne fits that giant penny into the Batcave.