I’ll be honest. I was a big Batman fan when I was a kid. I loved the comics from that time. Arkham Asylum, The Killing Joke, The Cult… I also loved the Michael Keaton version of the Batman movies. But I am older now, and times have changed. I enjoyed the first Christopher Nolan Batman, but I didn’t like the second (I thought Heath ledger played an awful Joker). I didn’t see the third.
When I first heard of Gotham, I wanted to see it, but it wasn’t a priority. I ended up not watching it. However, I recently saw it on Netflix, and decided to give it a try.
The show has a very nice look, and the casting seemed to be done very well. The story revolves around a rookie detective named James Gordon (who later becomes Commissioner Gordon).
The show opens on a young Catwoman who, at this point, is nothing more then a homeless orphan, and talented pickpocket. After stealing some milk, and a wallet, she hides down an alley only to witness the murder of the Wayne family.
Jim Gordon and his partner, Harvey Bullock, are brought in to solve the crime. Bullock wants nothing to do with the case when he realizes it is the Wayne family (a prominent and wealthy family). However, young Jim Gordon wants to solve the crime.
What seems like a simple robbery gone bad begins to look much different when the evidence starts to show up. Bruce Wayne, the Wayne’s child and only survivor, said the attacker had on shiny shoes. Ballistics says the bullet removed from Mr Wayne’s was an expensive type of ammunition, and none of the street thugs have heard any chatter of who the assailant might have been. This leads Gordon to think the killer may have been a hired assassin who wanted the crime to look like senseless street violence.
At this point in the investigation, Bullock suggests they try to get some information from talking to Fish Mooney. Fish is a high-ranking member of the local organized crime syndicate. This begins to show Jim Gordon just how corrupt Gotham truly is. While at Fish’s place, we are introduced to Oswald Cobblepot (who later becomes the Batman villain The Penguin).
A crack in the case comes when a local thug is spotted trying to sell Mrs. Wayne’s pearl necklace. Bullock and Gordon go to talk to the suspect who tries to run. In the chase, the suspect attacks Gordon, and is shot and killed by Bullock. Case Closed?
Oswald snitches to the special crimes unit that the suspect was framed, and he fingers Bullock and Gordon as the framers. One of the cops Oswald snitched to happens to be Gordon’s girlfriends ex lesbian lover, and she goes to rub it in that Gordon may be crooked. Of course, Gordon’s girlfriend Barbara tells him, and Gordon becomes obsessed with finding the real killer.
GOTHAM: L-R: John Doman as Carmine Falcone, Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle, Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot and Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma star as the villains of GOTHAM.
Gordon confront Fish Mooney, and she ties him, so she can have him killed. Bullock shows up to save him, but Mooney has him tied up to be killed also.
At this point, crime kingpin of Gotham Carmine Falcone shows up and saves Gordon and Bullock claiming that Mooney overstepped by wanting to kill cops. After all, you can have organized crime without law and order.
Falcone explains to Gordon that he was once friends with Gordon’s father when he was a Gotham police officer. He hopes Gordon will continue the family friendliness.
The episode ends with Bullock and Gordon drive out to the docks where Bullock explains that Falcone wants Gordon to kill Oswald Cobblepot for snitching, and throw him in the river. If he doesn’t, Bullock will kill Gordon, and Falcone will send people to kill Gordon’s girlfriend Barbara. Gordon walks Cobblepot to the end of the pier, tells him to never return to Gotham, and shoots of a shot while he pushes Cobblepot into the water. Gordon then goes to confess to the Young Bruce Wayne, and gives him the choice of exposing the corruption inside the Gotham Police, or letting Gordon try to fix it from the inside. Bruce gives Gordon the chance to fix things
The pilot episode of Gotham does an excellent job of showing how seedy and crime ridden Gotham truly is. The look of the show is great, and the mood is stellar. So far it is introducing the back story of characters we all know in a n intelligent way, and I am looking forward to watching more of the series.