Batman 75 Year in Review: Gotham

Batman’s 75th Anniversary draws to a close, so we here at Caped Crusades intend to fill these twilight days talking about the year that was. A lot of big Batman moments happened this year, so let’s review them as many as we can before our year-end countdown.

One of the biggest Batman events of the year was the premiere of FOX’s Batman-less prequel Gotham. It was ambitious, received mixed reviews, and had a difficult time maintaining early ratings, but it’s a perfect example of just how big Batman is today.

Here’s our review of both the premiere of Gotham at Comic-Con, but also our midseason round-table as the show hit hiatus.

"The tone and mood of the series is like nothing we’ve ever really seen in a Batman film or series. While I was hoping for a realistic grittiness like the Nolan era films or TV shows like The Wire/NYPD Blue, it was more like BBC’s Luther, though that shouldn’t be considered a negative. It was colorful and stylized, but still dark and somber. The players are laid out one by one, each a piece of a larger puzzle. Though the characters back stories often seemed to deviate from their comic roots, they all seemed interwoven, altered to create the tapestry of Gotham itself. For instance, there may be a bigger mystery behind the murder of the Waynes that takes us down a new and winding path. This made Gotham seem like a living, breathing entity of interdependent parts. Crime and Justice often appeared to mimic each other in a symbiotic and delicate ecosystem.Acting wise, no one chews up the scenery like one would fear from a genre show. In fact, some of the high points come from the actors settling in to their roles. Donal Logue wears Harvey Bullock like a second skin and as Ben McKenzie begins to ramp up is badass rebellion against the system, he slowly builds the Jim Gordon we know and love, brick by brick. Selina Kyle seems to exist more as a plot device to set up Gotham’s modern day Dickensian atmosphere, and Edward Nygma is tertiary at best, but these may ultimately play out over the course of the series.Though the show lacks a certain edginess due to it being on network TV instead of a more…flexible venue, it shows a lot of promise. It isn’t perfect by any means, but it feels ambitious and has a big engine driving the train. I will be curious to see how it unfolds."

Now, you can check out how the show evolved half-way through with our comprehensive round-table right here.