Hi everyone I'm Jack Red, this particular topic I could never do justice in a video or a series of them. I know a few months ago I did a few comparisons between Batman 1966 show & Gotham. I think it is officially time I talk about Gotham in greater detail. This show is truly unique in & of itself in many ways.
I should mention since I got so much to cover here. This will be a long blog entry, please take as many breaks needed. Don't be Batman to quickly read through it. The last thing I need is for you to suddenly become The Joker or Two Face respectively lol.
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Gotham is a prequel show about how the city was like before Batman. Thus Bruce isn't as a major focus as in most Batman adaptations. This time we get to see more of the police & criminals in action. You actually get more of an idea how everything plays out. This show is by itself a strong tribute to the long standing Batman comics since late 1930s.
Yes there are other great Batman shows like Batman 1966, Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond. None of those shows cover a lot of these ideas found in Gotham. Yes some character's origins got altered to a degree but still works. The concept of bringing characters back to life is still a new idea among comic book shows.
Gotham feels almost as real as it could get. Each episode truly makes you feel like you are right there in the action. All of these strange possibilities that mirrors some of many from the comic books. Technically yes Jim Gordon is the main character of the show. They never went much into details about his early career.
One of the closest attempts actually became a movie called Batman: Year One. Which I recommend to watch for anything early Batman story wise. As stated before this show does focus on multiple angles of several characters depending on what's going on in the city. Right now, Gotham is closed off to the outside world filled with chaos.
Two particular villains are a part of something bigger than themselves in different ways. A original character named Fish Mooney was The Penguin's mentor. Her ultimate goal for him was to surpass her to take over Gotham. Jerome was one of the revived villains that eventually dies again. I never liked his original death by Theo Galavan.
I always felt that was a terrible death with no real purpose at all. Thankfully his second death actually led to the creation of The Joker. Oh right DC isn't going to allow his brother Jeremiah to officially be called that. They also won't allow him green hair although his brother Jerome late in his second life had it.
I know it was kinda stupid but at the same time they wanted him to stand out more. We ended up getting two very different takes of the character on one show. Which is rare even among Batman shows. The closest I could remember is Batman Beyond because the show regularly had The Jokerz Gang.
There so happens to be another Jokerz Gang in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker movie led by the character himself. Batman Beyond's tribute to the character was a street gang. Jerome was Gotham's which I felt was a much better way about doing it. Sure he did lack some major traits of the character had.
Yet Jerome knew no one could match the level of chaos his brother could dish out. Jeremiah does have most of the traits you would expect. If you think about it, you could combine them together to accurately recreate The Joker. This is similar to Arrowverse having two characters based on one of his enemies, Weather Wizard.
Virtually having half the total control of weather between the brothers. I also like they did this way for great reasons. Usually in most things Batman, The Joker is already the character with little to no backstory given. In this particular case, Jerome forced his brother to become him as an act of revenge against the police.
The Joker mythology itself is always a mystery in & of itself. Even to this day, not counting The Killing Joke comic series. Not once did DC ever confirm the true identity of The Joker because not even Batman could do that. I should mention more of the hero characters first before covering more villains.
Bruce Wayne is very young in this series. Of course he still has a lot to learn by this point in life. The road of becoming the dark knight is a difficult one. For the most part, David Mazouz does a great job playing the character. I would say possibly one of the best young Bruce Wayne actors. You do believe in his reasons for doing many things especially relating to what happened to his parents.
His butler Alfred portrayed by Sean Pertwee is a talented actor. I guess anyone that plays Alfred & The Joker are very good at it. I can't name a single actor for both characters that even came close of disappointing me. He does what he can to support Bruce & attempt keeping him safe from danger. Essentially Bruce's step father & best friend.
Jim Gordon is done a lot more than justice in every sense of the word. Easily one of the best portrayals of the character in my opinion. He does what he can to protect the city & those he cares about. Sometimes he had to do things he isn't proud of. At the same time he is working very hard to make up for it.
Cat is basically the neutral character just like in the comics. The actress Camren Bicondova does a great job portraying her. Keep in mind, she isn't fully Catwoman in this show either. Sadly due to what Jeremiah did to her, it might not happen. She is Bruce's main love interest that sometimes an ally or enemy depending on things.
Poison Ivy had several actresses portraying the character. She was a little girl until she was touched by a man that took away some of her life force causing her to rapidly age to a young woman. After some experimenting she temporary dies to become the humanoid plant creature we know from the comics.
I felt this particular portrayal was better than most show's takes. Of course I am likely to say that about several characters especially some of the villains. She was one of two characters to not be revived by Hugo Strange. Speaking of which, Hugo played a hand in the assassination of Bruce's parents.
He is the one responsible for reviving characters by altering their DNA & giving them false memories. Although some of them maintain a good mixture of the two like Mr. Freeze & Firefly. Yes Carmine Falcone & Salvotore Maroni are in this show too. I also like many villains are giving their own origins on this show.
Mr. Freeze is thankfully not only a great portrayal but also the most faithfully to the character or the only live action version to not suck. I would rather suck on dry ice than to watch those Mr. Freeze portrayals. He works very hard to attempt saving his wife sadly she dies. Mr. Freeze decides to commit suicide by firing his own freeze gun on himself.
Unfortunately for him, Hugo Strange brought back to life with a new freeze condition similar to the comics. For the most part, he works for The Penguin. More recently, he decides to take a turf in Gotham. Firefly has a more disturbing story to tell. She was working for a few guys that treated her horribly.
She really wanted to use flame throwers that led to her snapping killing them. Leading to her death of getting gunned down. She too gets revived by Strange to become Firefly more like the character. She also just took a turf in Gotham city. I have to be honest this is one of my favorite portrayals of the character.
The Mad Hatter is usually a character I could care less about. Surprisingly I love this version of him in Gotham. I don't think if it is the actor or the stuff he does or a mix of both. Most of his episodes are warp in many ways since he is widely known for manipulating people by hypnotizing them. You would be surprise what he makes a lot of them do like this guy blew himself up in front of Bruce & Gordon.
The Scarecrow is more of New 52 timeline inspiration since his father got him exposed to the fear toxin. After seeing a scarecrow, the fear of it getting him cause Jonathan's insanity. More recently he was working with Jerome to bring chaos to Gotham. The most recent episode, Crane takes a territory. Although his original costume I wasn't a big fan of, his other costumes are amazing especially his newest one.
The Riddler started at the police station to help with identifying people after horrible crimes & testing chemicals. After accidentally killing a corrupt police officer, he starts going insane became The Riddler. In most adaptations, he never goes insane but does horrible things to people. I kinda like this idea because The Riddler becomes obsessed with besting Batman.
But what if Batman wasn't around yet how would he become The Riddler? Edward was fully himself around people until he became The Riddler. This side of him is willing to do whatever it takes. Both personalities really don't like each other. I felt the main reason behind this was because they never wanted Harvey Dent to become Two Face on their show.
Instead we ended up The Riddler of all people getting that concept. Which I felt was brilliant on their part for many reasons. We all knew he was crazy, it is about time to fully embrace the madness. This portrayal of the character is easily one of my favorites. This includes Frank Gorshin on Batman 1966, Jim Carrey on Batman Forever sue me and John Glover on Batman: The Animated Series.
Ra's al Ghul is done incredibly well on this show. In fact it is better than some versions on Arrowverse shows. Yes I went there live with it folks. He too dies twice on the show but unlike most of them. Ra's al Ghul does have a way & reason to keep coming back. Just like the comics, he wants Bruce to become his successor.
The Penguin is usually a character I'm not much for. Although I do like Burgess Meredith on Batman 1966, Danny DeVito on Batman Returns and Nolan North on Arkham series portrayals. I felt this show's take of the character is very interesting. Not only we see him getting showed the ropes by Fish Mooney.
We all see how he eventually rises to take over a good amount of Gotham city. At one point he became the mayor until The Riddler did a cruel trick to him. Let's just say this guy does some amazingly horrible things to people. The family his father married into, his wife's kids got turned into dinner for their mother.
Right before The Penguin kills her too. More recently he helped turn Butch to become human again. Then he kills him on the spot for revenge. His lover, Tabitha killed his mother a while back. It wasn't personal towards him since he did respect him. The Penguin had some control over the police officers several times.
This guy is really willing to do whatever it takes to get what he done. No matter how unpleasant the methods are. Oswald was close to his mother for a good amount of his life. He didn't know his real father for long. One interesting fact Paul Reubens who played his father also did DeVito's father in Batman Returns.
Gotham is taking a very interesting story with many twists & turns. Of course not every Batman/DC fans would enjoy it for many reasons. I strongly felt Gotham brings a lot more than what most believes. For example, Butch Gilzean gets his hand cut off by The Riddler. Later on, he gets shot in the head killing him.
Some hospital workers were too lazy to go about things decides to throw his corpse into a swamp. Which so happens to have the same chemicals Strange used to bring people back from the dead. In his case, he was a walking corpse with super strength. A good while he had a different personality similar to many of them in the comics.
Tabitha tortures him to bring back his original personality. This by itself references with every death Solomon Grundy experiences. He always comes back differently in some way. Usually Butch will help Fish Mooney or The Penguin in doing horrible things. I found a lot of respect for him being loyal in his own way.
Possibly one of the biggest surprises was Victor Zsasz. In most adaptations he is just a psychopath that scars himself with every kill. In this portrayal, he is more of a professional hitman. He doesn't care how dangerous as long he gets to kill someone. More recently, he was secretly working for Sofia Falcone.
Up to this point I been speaking very highly of this show. Of course there are a few major dislikes I have. For starters I really don't like Barbara Kean at all. According to one of the writers it was because of her, we couldn't get Harley Quinn. Although Ecco is the closest they got to the character. She is a proxy that's willing to do anything for Jeremiah.
More recently she wore a costume similar to her. Back to Barbara, she went from being a spoiled rich girl that wasn't happy with life. After a crazy guy revealed her true self in a sense. She became insane for a while. Right around when she was recovering, she quickly got into crime. She been working several illegal businesses including selling firearms.
She got killed out of the clear blue. Ra's al Ghul of all people brought her back to life. For a short while she had the demon's hand. Sadly she didn't know how to use it or plan anything huge enough. Ra's al Ghul does take his gift back by force. I always felt this character was mostly just there. I know some people would disagree with me.
I also really didn't know how they went about Bruce getting revenge for the ones truly responsible for the deaths of his parents. I thought before I actually seen it happen that he would somehow bring them to justice. Maybe gave us a good showdown with everyone else that could've been entertaining. Instead what we ended up getting is the Court of Owls' leader was a follower of Ra's al Ghul.
Just by a command from his leader, he got all of them killed. Keep in mind Bruce was under a substance not fully aware what's going on around him. Are you kidding me, you sent so much time into Bruce trying to take these people down for this? I felt this was a terrible idea about resolving the issue at hand.
They were keeping Bruce away with a temporary clone called 514A taking his place in Gotham. His life span is very short but immune to pain. This is as close to having Batzarro on the show as possible. Oh wait most people doesn't even know who that is. Please allow me to explain, many of you are aware of Bizarro in Superman's stories.
In Bizarro's universe, Batzarro does many major traits opposite of Batman. For example, Batman keeps to himself while Batzarro will talk out loud about it. Batman keeps his gadgets in his utility belt secured while he puts his utility belt up-side down open with his gadgets falling out. I do respect this show doing a doppelganger much better than I thought.
Professor Pyg is entertaining to watch for many reasons. He was killing people including police officers. They made finding out his true identity interesting. He was responsible for some of the sickest moments on the show. Sadly it turns out he was the big distraction from everyone else whose working for Sofia.
Believe it or not, the one Batman villain no one wanted to attempt doing a live action portrayal of is in this show. Basil Karlo aka Clayface is likely down sized in what he can do. However he can still alter his face & voice just like the comics. He does require help to alter his face since he was another Strange's experiments.
I felt when he did Oswald's father that he was right on point. He was off as Jim Gordon since he didn't know enough about him before Gordon got kidnapped. Clayface is one of my personal favorite Batman villains. He so happens to be one of his regular enemies to actually have powers. In the comics, he can completely alter his body into any shape he wants.
Gotham has so much going for it despite getting cut to thirteen episodes in it's fifth & final season. A good amount of the show is meant for Bruce to become Batman by the end of it. Another good amount of it is suppose to help give an idea why most people felt this city is a lost cause. At the same time people like Bruce & Gordon will be the very hope this city needs.
Guarantee this is a very dark actually darker than most shows Batman appears in. Gotham does play tribute to many classic comic book moments especially The Killing Joke. Let's be frank the animated movie based on that story is garbage. I love how each major portion of the story was cleverly used on the show.
This is possibly one of the greatest Batman shows in history. Mostly due to it's success the show Krypton is currently on TV with a similar angle. Except that's suppose to explain more what led to the destruction of their planet as well as getting to know Superman's parents more. I felt Gotham does a lot more than what most realizes.
I honestly can't say enough positive things about this show. Not only it is one of the finest DC shows I had the pressure of watching. Gotham is one of my personal favorite shows on Fox or on any channel for that matter. I highly recommend this to many Batman fans for plenty of reasons. This by itself comes off better than even some of the finest Batman movies I'm not kidding.
