“Gotham” 1.1 – Pilot (6 out of 10) – Directed by Danny Cannon; Written by Bruno Heller; Based on characters created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Howard Chaykin, Frank Miller, Greg Rucka, et al; Starring Donal Logue, Ben McKenzie, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sean Pertwee…; Rated TV14” Airs on Fox 9/22/14.
Tonight we take our first television steps into Gotham City in a long time and it’s certainly been a long, dusty road. On the new show, “Gotham,” we’re given a look into the cess pool that Gotham City has become in the years leading up to Batman’s arrival. One of the key elements of the pilot is the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents, but Wayne himself is not a central figure here. Instead, that job is given to Ben McKenzie’s James Gordon. Gordon is not yet the Commissioner we know and love, but as the new Detective in town, partnered up with Donal Logue’s boozy and suspicious Harvey Bullock.
We’re taken through town, shaking down leads in the Wayne murders, a job Bullock takes reluctantly, and are introduced to pretty much every villain in the criminal underworld-to-be. Penguin is a low level enforcer for Fish Mooney, herself a pawn of the Falcones. Poison Ivy is a kid. Riddler is working in the police department, riddling it up. The cameo that has me scratching my head the most is the incredibly unnecessary inclusion of Catwoman.
It’s a veritable who’s who of Batman characters, but, to my mind, none of it adds up to much.
Much of the comic book origin material in this pilot has been mined in other properties. Frank Miller’s “Year One,” comes instantly to mind. So do aspects of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s “The Long Halloween.” The natural comparison you’d ask to draw is Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka’s landmark run of “Gotham Central,” but this show has a long way to go before it can reach those dizzying heights of hard boiled crime drama and examination of super-hero and super-criminal behavior through the lens of a police procedural drama.
The acting on the show is competent, the visuals well imagined, the editing slick. Sadly, the package ultimately doesn’t come together, mainly due to the writing and timeline of the setting.
This episode is very obviously table setting for what the show hopes to become. And it’s hard for me to judge the entire series based on the fact that this episode was shot as a pilot designed to entice money people to move along further with the show, which is understandable. Put simply, they tried to cram too much in.
The story is, itself, overwrought. Silly to a point. Could this be a team of writers trying to find their bearings or a portent of things to come? Only watching for a season will let us know for sure. But it seems dripping with the same sort of humorless angst we’ve been getting from the Batman universe on screen for years now.
Trying to separate myself from the source material (especially the brilliance of “Gotham Central”) this is a show that can very easily grow into something great if they focus on the character of Jim Gordon and the idea of the transforming madness of the city and the evolution of Bruce into a man and a Bat. But this solidly acted piloted gives us a poorly written script with far too many winks and nods to things we didn’t need or want to see.
My final verdict? I’m hopeful for the future. This isn’t the Batman/Police drama television show we want, but sadly it might be the one we deserve. I’ll give it a season to see if it transcends the writing.