Batman: Every version of Gotham City ranked from worst to best

12. Birds of Prey

Birds of Prey was the first live-action Batman series since the Adam West and Burt Ward show concluded in 1968. That’s wild to think about, especially since it wasn’t really a Batman show, but the 2003 drama has gone down in history as more of a “what could have been” than anything else.

Missing out on the superhero TV renaissance that would come a decade later, Birds of Prey was set in New Gotham; a world where Batman and Catwoman had disappeared, leading to the titular trio of heroes stepping up to protect it. It’s very much in the vein of the Burton/Schumacher franchise (some of the costumes even appear in the intro scene), but it didn’t have the budget of those to bring a vibrant or memorable Gotham City to life.

Some of the establishing shots look great, but the show rarely spent any time outdoors to give us a feel of what the city was actually like.

11. Gotham Knights

The most recent of the Gotham Cities to make its presence felt on this list, Gotham Knights was a short-lived series that aired on The CW in 2023. It was the last new DC TV show produced by the network and focused on Batman’s adoptive son Turner Hayes, after he was accused of The Dark Knight’s murder. He and the children of Batman’s enemies must then team up to clear their names.

The show is a lot better than it’s given credit for, significantly improving past its pilot. It also does a pretty solid job of creating a Gotham City that actually feels like Gotham City. While the show was filmed in Toronto, Canada, Gotham Knights uses its fair share of trickery to create some unique and outlandish visuals that would only be at home in Gotham. It’s fleeting, and far-and-few-between, but given the limited budget it had, it pulled it off.

Gotham was dated, old-fashioned, and larger-than-life. You can’t really ask for more than that.