“Gotham” (7 p.m. Central Mondays on Fox), by far the new fall series I was most looking forward to, gets off to a great start with its pilot episode. I see the series, executive-produced by Bruno Heller (“Rome,” “The Mentalist”) and with its pilot directed by TV veteran Danny Cannon, as a live-action version of “Batman: The Animated Series” from the 1990s, only set 10 to 20 years earlier on the timeline.
A stylistic feast
Opening with a shot of a glittering nighttime skyline, “Gotham” is a stylistic feast that smoothly mixes establishing shots (possibly real skylines, possibly computer models, probably both) with dank back-alley scenes. Inevitably, there’s one been-there, done-that moment in the pilot, when young Bruce Wayne’s parents are gunned down in a seemingly random act of theft and murder, but “Gotham” builds on that familiar trope to create a more detailed world than we usually see on screen in the “Batman” mythos.
“The Animated Series,” like a lot of cartoons, featured personalities more so than characterizations, and the same can be said of the film sagas – the Burton/Schumacher quadrilogy from the 1990s and the lauded Christopher Nolan trilogy from 2005-12. Those sagas (and the comics, too, I think) skip ahead from the murders to Bruce becoming Batman a decade later.
“Gotham” Season 1 (2014)
Mondays, Fox
Creator: Bruno Heller
Stars: Ben McKenzie, Jada Pinkett Smith, Donal Logue
“Gotham” sticks with the Wayne murder investigation and plunges viewers into the city’s web of crime, law and moral gray areas. Perhaps it fudges the established mythology a bit in having Bruce and James Gordon (here a detective, not yet a police commissioner) be familiar with the rogues’ gallery of villains years before their introductions in “The Animated Series.”
But that’s a fair trade-off for getting more detailed backstories. And while some have described “Gotham” as “Batman without Batman,” Bruce is very much in the mix, and actor David Mazouz does a fine job of portraying the future Dark Knight’s simmering anger.
Gordon’s promise to the boy that he’ll find his parents’ murderer is a driving force for the detective, who is wonderfully played by Ben McKenzie, who previously worked the police beat in “Southland.” Donal Logue is a pitch-perfect version of Gordon’s partner, Harvey Bullock — part-crooked, part-cuddly, most notably in a climactic scene where he asks Gordon to walk small-time (for now) criminal Oswald Cobblepot (soon to be The Penguin) to the end of a pier and shoot him. (Obviously, Gordon fakes shooting Oswald, and pushes him into the river.)
Pragmatism vs. idealism
Bullock might have a good heart deep down, but he’s pragmatic whereas Gordon is an idealist. Intriguingly, though, he’s not the only justice-minded person on the force, as Renee Montoya (Bullock’s partner in “The Animated Series”) actually suspects Gordon of planting evidence in this episode.
Since the comics and previous screen sagas give “Gotham” a vast array of villains to choose from, the pilot episode takes pains to show us a fair number of good people. Gordon’s girlfriend is Barbara Kean (she’ll be Barbara Gordon when they’re married, so don’t confuse her with the Barbara who was Gordon’s daughter and became Batgirl in the Schumacher films and animated series).
She is one of those good folks, as perhaps is Selina Kyle, who is the title character of next week’s episode. While this prototypical Catwoman has a lot of screen time in the pilot, we don’t know yet how Camren Bicondova will do in the role — Selina effectively slinks around rooftops and parapets, but hasn’t spoken a word yet. The cat-lover and cat-burglar should help out on the Wayne murder case (she was an eyewitness) and become an ally to Bruce.
Also in that early teen age group is the embryonic Poison Ivy (Clare Foley), who has reason to hate the GCPD since Bullock killed her father after someone in the Gotham criminal network framed him for the Wayne’s murders.
Penguin the first of the Big Bads
While “Gotham” is an entirely separate universe from the films, it seems Nolan’s trilogy did have one major effect on the TV series: With the exception of Catwoman, there’s no crossover among villains. Nolan’s films featured Ra’s al Ghul, The Scarecrow, The Joker, Two-Face and Bane, and the TV series looks to feature The Penguin, The Riddler (who is a forensics expert at the GCPD) and Poison Ivy.
The Penguin is said to be the first-season Big Bad, and while Robin Lord Taylor’s performance doesn’t call to mind Danny DeVito’s (for one thing, he’s a lot thinner), this kicked-to-the-curb lackey of crime boss Fish Mooney (a new character played by Jada Pinkett Smith) is a frightening, off-kilter serial killer. When he emerges from the water at episode’s end, he slits the throat of a fisherman without the slightest hesitation – just to take his sandwich.
One thing we haven’t gotten yet from “Gotham” is the sci-fi aspect of the Batman mythos, most famous among the rogue’s gallery in the form of Mr. Freeze, who needs a cold suit to live, but also in the mutant-like Killer Croc and Man-Bat (who was actually the villain in the first episode of “The Animated Series”). However, I wouldn’t count out a sci-fi element as the series goes on, especially since Poison Ivy (later to become a manipulator of plant life) is already in the cast.
Of course, if “Gotham” were to inspire nothing but questions of “How will they handle this or that character?,” it would be a pretty dull show. I don’t believe that will be the case, though. While Gotham’s crime/law complex is par for the course so far – and maybe even a bit tame in 2014, when the rise of the police state has reached the mainstream news – I think the show could delve into that further (although it probably doesn’t want to become too similar to “Southland,” given that they share a lead cop).
The fact that “Gotham” is an adult TV series — rather than a campy live-action series, an animated series or a film franchise — means that it can explore the dark corners of Gotham and its denizens more thoroughly than any previous incarnation. That should make it a fresh ride, rather than a rehash. Count me in.