Anthony Stokes on why Gotham is kind of pointless…
I’ve noticed in the geek community there’s often bias towards certain projects. Fanboys will complain about a remake as being pointless. When you get down to it all movies are pointless. It’s entertainment – nobody is going to die if they don’t see Avengers: Age of Ultron. But you can argue that some stories have more meaning and worth than others and I agree. That said, if anything can be labeled pointless it’s FOX’s new TV show Gotham, which has taken several steps to remove a lot emotional impact and storytelling potential…
Bruce Wayne is too young
Immediately Gotham throws itself into Batman’s mythology eyes closed and face first as it opens with Bruce’s parents being murdered. The problem is that Bruce Wayne is too young to make that much of an impact on Gotham. Right now the show has written itself into a corner in a few ways. Bruce s too young to be anything close to the Batman we know from the comics. And if they hint too much it’ll clue Gordon to who Batman is later. Having a time jump to where Bruce is in High School would’ve made more sense, allowing him to have an actual impact on the story.
Catwoman and Ivy are too young
This is also a big fail for a few reasons that are similar to Bruce’s but one big defining reason. Catwoman, or Selina rather, is seen all throughout the pilot sporadically. I believe she’ll become a love interest for Bruce which in spite of their age could be interesting. She could work well as a character even though she’s young. Ivy on the other hand looks about five or six. Something happened in the pilot that could give her an interesting character arc, but due to her age I doubt it.
My main problem with this is from a storytelling perspective is that Ivy and Catwoman need to have some kind of sex appeal. And I’m not saying that because they’re females – Talia Al Ghul doesn’t need sex appeal because she uses intimidation and resources. Ivy and to some extent Catwoman on the other hand use seduction as a weapon. Catwoman is a femme fatal ewhich means her sexuality is a major part of her character by definition. So having them so young loses part of what makes them work as characters. It’s like having a scrawny Bane. When you get down to it Bane is mostly about strategic warfare, but being physically imposing is also important. It’s yet to be seen if the characters can work in spite of this, and I very well could be wrong as there’s a Catwoman centric episode this week.
We don’t get to know Bruce Wayne’s parents
One of our writers suggested having the finale of the first season of Gotham end with Bruce’s parents being murdered. This way we get to know the Wayne family as a unit and we have some point of reference for Bruce as a character before the shooting. This would have added something new to what we’ve already seen done a million times. And if you couldn’t do that, at least give us some personal attachment so that when they die we feel something. They could fix this by doing flashbacks, but this was a major misstep.
Gordon has no arc
I’ve never cared about Commissioner Gordon. Hes an okay character, but his moral incorruptibility is extremely boring. That’s what makes him so compelling in The Dark Knight. He’s given hard moral dilemmas that make him question himself. This show should’ve taken a hint from Training Day and had Gordon as a naive impressionable cop. What makes Jake a good character in Training Day is that he sees corruption and questions it but understands parts of it are necessary, although there comes a point towards the end of the movie where he puts his foot down and decides to do things by the book. Gordon starts off the show as the boring straight-laced Gordon I can take or leave. Except even more so. Having the episode end with him doing something understandably dirty and having proof held up against him which leads him down a rabbit hope of morally confused choices would’ve been better. Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy pull it off beautifully. Why do I care about this character when he’s already so static in the first episode? This is the major failing of Gotham from what I’ve seen so far.
Gotham has potential in that it wasn’t god awful and has a decent collection of actors. Nothing was truly good about the first episode and I’m not going to give it a pass because it was a pilot. Some shows start off weak and get better and some just stay mediocre. But the writers need to really step their game up to rise above the genericness they’ve created so far.
How do you feel about Gotham? Let us know your thoughts…
Anthony Stokes is a blogger and independent filmmaker.
Originally published September 29, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
