TV Review - Gotham (So Far)

What do you know,  it's penguins that are doing it for me this Christmas. And no, I don't mean John Lewis's Monty.

I’ll start by saying that I was going to hold off until the finale of the show before discussing the adolescence of cats and bats , but due to quite an array of snobbish criticism, I feel compelled to interject at this much earlier stage of the show (currently on episode 7) with my own, equally-essential opinion. So, I’m sorry in advance for spoiling all the fun (except that I’m not).

If you don’t know, Gotham is the story behind Commissioner James Gordon's rise to prominence in Gotham City in the years prior to Batman's arrival, and is most definitely the assault course of plot craters, character inconsistencies and gross overacting that many critics say it is (if you have read any reviews already, it’s most likely that you’ll have had such critique smeared into your eyes). BUT, and herein lies my compulsion for injecting a bit of anti-venom a mere quarter way through the series, despite certain tragic errors, Gotham is still a bloody brilliant watch.

Even before daring to brave the show, most of us all have a history with Gotham’s universe whether we are fans of its bat-shaped hero or not, and most of us know the colourful villains just as we know the broken and corrupt backdrop that is Gotham City. So is it a really a terrible crime to give us what we all came for? Sure, Warner Bros and co could have devised an intense Gordon-centric biography with far subtler allusions to characters who would one day be our favourite villains, but I dare say that’s not its audience. That is to say, we didn’t switch over to Channel 5 looking for the next Breaking Bad. This is because Gotham’s audience are the self-indulging, the adrenaline-craving and the action-seeking; the less mature sides of personalities that drive us to watch the likes of Michael Bay movies or listen to so-bad-its-good 80’s anthems. It’s this audience to whom Gotham whole-heartedly delivers. Yeah, yeah, some characters act in ways that are often contrary to their established motives, and the dialogue is too often stilted and grossly unrealistic, but if you’re intent on chasing these wild horses then we have to apply the same criticism to an indomitable array of cult phenomena that, whether to our liking or not, have achieved huge success in the past.

So what’s Gotham doing right for me so far? Well, until now the city’s journey from page has been cautious and safe, not truly the gritty dystopian dive that it was in the comics. Tim Burton’s beautifully dark Gotham really only brushed the edges of its more sinister roots, and while Christopher Nolan’s trilogy took us a little closer with some darker narrative themes, his films often neglected the city setting in the wake of heavy character focus and a poetic script – which is all fine given they are all Batman movies. Gotham, on the other hand, has dived straight into the DC Comic-verse like a reckless miscreant, blindfolded, on fire and at a petrol station – and it’s fun! It’s the first time we get to see all of the horror that Gotham City is supposed to nurture, from Oswald Cobblepot’s (played by Robin Lord Taylor) horrifyingly casual killings to Victor’s (Anthony Carrigan) merciless brutality. And let’s not forget the hideous moment with the eye… (shudder). What the show has been overwhelmingly criticised for is, in fact, its biggest strength; it’s experimental (possibly to a fault) and as such is not scared of making mistakes, which make for a far more unpredictable ride than its predecessors. This kind of chaos is much more in line with what Gotham City should be.

It’s not without its gripes, of course, and the show could certainly exercise just a little more subtlety in other places. Like I get that Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) loves a riddle (wink wink), I get that Harvey (Donal Logue) is plagued by his darker years in Gotham City and I am more than happy to believe that Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) is still only a grieving little rich kid with an attitude, I don’t need reminding before and after every ad break (there about seven thousand per episode). But maybe that’s the price we pay for a show that’s bold, brash, daring and indulgently cheesy. I’m only at episode seven, but Gotham has my vote.

Current Hamster Score: 7.5 / 10 

P.s. LOVE Sean Pertwee as Alfred.