Gotham TV

[Jace, Extat]

The precinct made me think of Burtan's Gotham.

[Jaxom 1974]

It had a bit of a gothic vibe; it's definitely not Nolan's Gotham.

Can't say I was thinking Gothic. I kept thinking Arrow.

[Corvinus85]

Can't say I was thinking Gothic. I kept thinking Arrow.

There were similarites with Arrow, too, like the GoPro shot of Gordon's face when he was running, used to much lesser effect here (and should not be used again).

[polishgenius]

Can't say I was thinking Gothic. I kept thinking Arrow.

Gothic probably isn't the right word, but I definitely got more of a theatrical vibe from this Gotham than from anything in Arrow.

It's also got more slick writing, at least to start off, and much better acting.

Thoughts:

I agree, too many nods to the future Bat-universe. Hopefully they'll tone them down. I'm also hoping for a lot less Bruce Wayne, but the relatively high-profile actor playing Alfred implies he, at least, will be a recurring role. Interesting that Montoya's partner appears to be a guy who briefly was the Spectre pre-New 52: I can't really see them introducing that character into this universe, so given the 'stay frosty' aimed in his direction I wonder if he's on his way to being Mr Freeze instead.

It's great to see Renee Montoya involved, anyhoo.

The chap playing Gordon is decent, but where I felt the episode was really strong was in his partnership with Harvey Bullock. That was excellent.

Catwoman was crap and completely pointless so far.

I was impressed with Jada Pinkett-Smith as Fish Mooney, although Fish Mooney is a stupid stupid name. I'm glad that at least one of the antagonists is someone new. And as people have said, the choice to apparently focus on Penguin in a longer arc is a good one.

John Doman is a class Falcone, though I'm not sure what was going on with his accent (there seemed to be some Irish sneaking in there).

On the time period: it's definitely a mashup; I also spotted that the cars are straight out of the '80s, but the phones certainly aren't. I like the conceit, as long as they leave it in background and don't try to flash it everywhere because that would be distracting. It adds to the slightly unreal nature of it all, which I tend to prefer in presentations of Gotham.

Overall, I liked it rather a lot, which is great because I was fearing the worst from the trailers.

[red snow]

I liked it a lot. Tying all these well known characters around the world of a teenager Bruce Wayne adds an almost mythic quality that really suits Batman. The only worry I have is whether this would be a show I'd watch without the Batman trappings. I really can't separate the two and judge it objectively. As a Batman fan it's excellent. I guess time will help me better judge the show but so far it doesn't feel like they are throwing people into the mix as mere easter eggs.

I really hope Bullock was just testing Gordon's resolve and knows he didn't kill penguin. Logue's acting in that scene had me thinking he didn't want Gordon to be crooked so I was almost disappointed that he didn't flinch at the perceived murder. I think it will work better if he knew Gordon faked the death - otherwise Bullock is going to be a pretty unsavoury character. I'd much prefer him as being one of the few good cops by merit of appearing one of the bad ones. I'll see how that develops.

My bet is the hit was Ra's al ghul wanting to take out the Waynes to further destabilise Gotham. Although I hope it's more of a mystery with some good twists and turns throughout season 1.

[MoIaF]

I thought it was a pretty good premiere, it engaged me from the start. I think it'll be really interesting to see how Batman's and Gotham's legendary antagonist became the way they are. I also liked the exploration of the friendship between Gordon and Bruce Wayne.

[BearQueen87]

I really enjoyed the pilot, especially all the "here are your future villains!" Donal Logue and Ben McKenzie play off each other really well. I'm also glad that they are really emphasizing that Gotham, the actual city, is gritty and tough.

[Raksha 2014]

I enjoyed this quite a bit more than I was expecting to. Great pilot episode with the introduction of the shadows of several iconic characters. I will be keeping a close eye on this show.

I enjoyed the first episode very much; there were no flat or down moments, no characters I found wasting space (i.e. Skye in most of last year of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD). I liked young Jim Gordon, particularly his rapport with Bruce Wayne (and Bruce's relationship with Alfred). Fish Mooney is a great antagonist, brutal and charismatic and larger than life. Penguin was interesting, as was young Poison Ivy.

The other cop team's contrast with Bullock and Gordon was intriguing - the male half of the partnership looked familiar, but I don't remember where I've seen the actor before (he was cute, too).

[AverageGuy]

If they're going for the grim feel, Gordon really should have shot the guy asking for pills in the beginning, Indiana-Jones-style-badass. Also, too many nods; I couldn't help but think of this. Then there's the end. Why is Penguin killing a random fisherman? Combined with Fish Mooney, it left me wondering if character motivation is going to be limited to "because he's/she's evil." The Barbara/Montoya relationship is similarly lazy. Montoya's gay, so of course she had a relationship with one of the other two speaking female roles. Which apparently she can't move on from, while Barbara is either faking heterosexuality or hiding her bisexuality and past relationship from Jim for the sake of milking cheap melodrama. And then there's what should be the ridiculous line, "I'm learning to conquer fear." I'd go on about how the writers are relying on the audience to fill in the gaps if I thought it would matter.

Anyway, I didn't like it. Maybe I was expecting too much. That said, I think I'll be one of the few. I think this is going to appeal to a decent-sized audience.

[Howdyphillip]

I wanted to comment on the reasons that I thought the comic in Mooney's club was the Riddler and not an early Joker...

First of all, the joke was not funny at all. It was extremely old and stale. I would have thought that they would have come up with a better line for the Joker. The Riddler is a character that tells bad jokes and then makes the hero solve riddles.

Secondly, he was wearing a green suit. All he needed was the mask, and viola....

[Lord Hanna]

I wanted to comment on the reasons that I thought the comic in Mooney's club was the Riddler and not an early Joker...

First of all, the joke was not funny at all. It was extremely old and stale. I would have thought that they would have come up with a better line for the Joker. The Riddler is a character that tells bad jokes and then makes the hero solve riddles.

Secondly, he was wearing a green suit. All he needed was the mask, and viola....

They showed the Riddler in the episode (guy with the glasses) giving riddles to Jim and Harvey. They even called him nigma. So it's definitely not Riddler.

And the joke being unfunny is exactly why it COULD be Joker, he was a failing comedian before becoming a criminal, not a funny man.

[SkynJay]

If they're going for the grim feel, Gordon really should have shot the guy asking for pills in the beginning, Indiana-Jones-style-badass. Also, too many nods; I couldn't help but think of this. Then there's the end. Why is Penguin killing a random fisherman? Combined with Fish Mooney, it left me wondering if character motivation is going to be limited to "because he's/she's evil." The Barbara/Montoya relationship is similarly lazy. Montoya's gay, so of course she had a relationship with one of the other two speaking female roles. Which apparently she can't move on from, while Barbara is either faking heterosexuality or hiding her bisexuality and past relationship from Jim for the sake of milking cheap melodrama. And then there's what should be the ridiculous line, "I'm learning to conquer fear." I'd go on about how the writers are relying on the audience to fill in the gaps if I thought it would matter.

Anyway, I didn't like it. Maybe I was expecting too much. That said, I think I'll be one of the few. I think this is going to appeal to a decent-sized audience.

A bit nitpicky here, but how did you come up with a count of three speaking female roles. Fish, Barbara, Montoya, Ivy, Ivy's mom (to be fair I am not sure if she was named so I could give you that). Not a perfectly balanced cast by any means but it seems to me they have taken a male heavy background and done a better than expected job in bringing in a female cast. Even in background scenes, such as the early standoff, all the cops were most pointedly NOT male. Note: not giving the show a free pass here, it has a lot to prove, but just thought your count was off.

I am hoping the nods to the future slow down but I expected nothing less in the pilot; they must draw in the fan service early to get the audience.

Do agree that I hope Fish and Penguin have more motivation that just evil.

As for the joker thing I too saw the article that stated they would be throwing in many possible jokers in this series; I think a game of spot the easter egg will be our constant companion.

[BearQueen87]

A bit nitpicky here, but how did you come up with a count of three speaking female roles. Fish, Barbara, Montoya, Ivy, Ivy's mom (to be fair I am not sure if she was named so I could give you that).

I believe Gordon called her Alice when he went back to their apartment after her husband was shot.

[Relic]

I gave it a good half hour. Not a show for me. It feels like it's been...Artificially sped up. Like its playing on 1.10x speed.

[AverageGuy]

Fish, Barbara, Montoya, Ivy, Ivy's mom (to be fair I am not sure if she was named so I could give you that). Not a perfectly balanced cast by any means but it seems to me they have taken a male heavy background and done a better than expected job in bringing in a female cast.

Just to be clear, that was a dig at how all the coincidences of characters meeting piled up (Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne! Oh, Catwoman! You're here, too?), and to an extent at what I felt was a poor way of introducing Renee's sexuality, not at gender balance. But you're right about the numbers-- I forgot about Ivy and her mom.

[red snow]

I wanted to comment on the reasons that I thought the comic in Mooney's club was the Riddler and not an early Joker...

First of all, the joke was not funny at all. It was extremely old and stale. I would have thought that they would have come up with a better line for the Joker. The Riddler is a character that tells bad jokes and then makes the hero solve riddles.

Secondly, he was wearing a green suit. All he needed was the mask, and viola....

I wouldn't get your hopes up about the Joker - I'll put the next bit in spoilers as it's what the makers of the show have said regarding the character

the Joker is known to have several "origins" check out the scenes in DKR as an example, What the showrunners are going to play with throughout the season is to have background characters (played by different actors) who fit each of these origins. So by the time we get to the Joker we won't know which one it was (unless they stick with one of the actors) as he'll be deformed.

. I think that's a great idea and again adds to the mythic quality of the characters.

There's a link about it here - obviously containing minor spoilers. We can make a game of it every week :)

[Crazydog7]

As long as we are shooting people in the head and tossing them in the river can we just tinker with continutiy a bit and do it to the person playing Catwoman?

I know its unfair to comment on this after a grand total of one episode however what could kill this show is having to include Bruce Wayne as a child hero heroically dealing with the death of his parents every week.

We already know next week he going to try to face fear. I hope they just don't run through the 7 deadly sins this week little Bruce will deal with anger next week gluttony (feel free to skip that one its really just footage of the kid eating ice cream for 42 minutes we ran out of money)

I do have to say I knew I remembered the guy playing Carmine Falcon (who was more fightening in 4 minutes then JPS was the entire episode) John Doman is also Rawls from the Wire holy shit!!

[Pecan]

I didn't like the pilot. It was just too much story for one episode. It's the perfect example of a pilot that should have been shown to internal network people, but never shown to the public. I like the idea of the show though and I like the cast, so I'll give it a few more chances.

[Black Wolf Smith]

I liked it, didn't love it. I think that it will change too much of what I know from other sources. It did seem to have a good rhythm(?it that is the right wording) and the cast seemed to have chemistry.

[red snow]

As long as we are shooting people in the head and tossing them in the river can we just tinker with continutiy a bit and do it to the person playing Catwoman?

I know its unfair to comment on this after a grand total of one episode however what could kill this show is having to include Bruce Wayne as a child hero heroically dealing with the death of his parents every week.

We already know next week he going to try to face fear. I hope they just don't run through the 7 deadly sins this week little Bruce will deal with anger next week gluttony (feel free to skip that one its really just footage of the kid eating ice cream for 42 minutes we ran out of money)

I do have to say I knew I remembered the guy playing Carmine Falcon (who was more fightening in 4 minutes then JPS was the entire episode) John Doman is also Rawls from the Wire holy shit!!

Traditionally it's fear that Batman's not all about so I doubt we'll see a 7 deadly sins thing. I agree that the show could be hindered by wasting time on Bruce Wayne every week. Maybe they'll have him as an entirely separate storyline though where the police side isn't involved? Audiences can handle that kind of thing nowadays and while I'd rather not have it all, I'd rather not have Gordon involving the Wayne's in some police update every week.

I don't really get the catwoman hate. she hasn't done anything other than loiter yet. Hopefully she followed the killer and got to ID him. Then there'd be a point in her. If she just hangs around I'll get tired.