When the Batman prequel Gotham TV series was announced I thought it’d be somewhat similar to Smallville where you would see all these things happening before they should and I was interested in this I read it’d also have a 10 year old Bruce Wayne, that made no sense and killed the potential for me. I started to watch it and expected it not to be very good but I was surprised by how much it grabbed my attention so here is a full series overview season by season of this weird entertaining show called Gotham and how we saw the Rouges Gallery and batman cast of characters shine.
Originally thought that the show would’ve been much better without Bruce or if you had to have him at the very least a teenage/early 20’s Wayne who’d show up from time to time if they really wanted him. Bruce as only a kid is a bit silly if you have his rogues running around since they’d be old by the time he grows. But they likely couldn’t sell the show without Bruce Wayne on it so he’s in. Maybe it can work for one season it was bound to run into a problem like Smallville had where Clark Kent met all his rogues before he was Superman, but at least he wasn’t 10 and he had his powers…
Origins
I had heard that Season 1 was terrible and that it gets better but I’m going to give it a shot. I was definitely not a fan of young Catwoman or young Ivy, or at least wanting to see a lot of them which we did but you’ll see my opinions change in other seasons, they grew into those characters. I really didn’t need to see Batman’s origin again but I guess it was cool to see more of it.
Overall the first season was a blast, it was definitely more fun than the other Arrowverse shows in a way but they’re very different shows so it’s hard to judge. It sucks to see a young Ivy all the time and Selina as well but it’s ok. They had a little too much Bruce as well but I was surprised by how OK I was with it. I love Harvey Bullock, great character as well as Oswald, Maroni, Falcone and Nygma.
Rise & Wrath of the villains
Season 2 was a ride. It started being a weaker and less interesting in every aspect when compared to the previous season but it found its footing and went a different way. It did have its ups and downs and I don’t even want to think about how all these characters know each other, yet have such complex relationships before Batman is even a thing but if we ignore the effects of all these changes then it has been a very fun ride. I don’t see why so many people are so upset over this show though, yeah its changing some of the mythos but so has every other live action interpretation of Batman including the fan favorite Nolan movies so why get so upset over some small changes here and there?
Mad City; Heroes on the Rise
Season 3 was a mess. The first season was overall good and the second got a bit crazy but it was fun that I didn’t care. Here they continued with the crazy but without the fun. I just didn’t understand why they went full superpowers and villains, even great characters like Nygma and Penguin seem like a shadow of their former selves. Aging Ivy was such a dumb move since they did nothing with her in this season. Bruce who had been alright, was as annoying as he’d ever been. The court of owls became such a joke so early on and int continued and I just didn’t see how they can save the show after this season.
Selina is a character that really feels like she has aged over the years, even though I’m not sure how long she’d age since the first season. I do like that Selina also got her Catwoman powers like in the Catwoman film and Batman Returns, I guess that makes it as much canon as her non powered origins. Masked young Bruce is straight out of the silver age levels of silly though at only three seasons.
A Dark Knight
Season 4 returned to being a blast, it gets so many characters just right. Of course some not so much and other not at all.. but overall I think it has a better track record than other batman media. Not all their story arcs are winners but at least they don’t drag one long ass story arc for 22 episodes like the arrowverse shows.
I like that the status quo changes and while it became Smallville in the sense that all these things that shouldn’t happen without Batman have already happened I can live with that. In general I also realized that Gotham takes a while to warm up and gets a bit boring in the first half only for the second half to be far more interesting. The show definitely had a lot of potential for more seasons but we only got one more season after this one.
Legend of the Dark Knight
Season 5 was the final season and with only 12 episodes and being the last one I thought it’d be faster paced but it starts off very slow, generally I did like some of the things that happened but not as good as previous seasons. The No Mans Land and Dark Knight Rises vibes it had didn’t work too well but it’s alright. No way people wouldn’t know that Bruce Wayne is Batman after all this happened. I do love the world Gotham made and how it created the batman villains, it did a good job even if it had their own spin. Sure it doesn’t work as a prequel to Batman since so much has happened already but it works as its own Batman series.
The last episode is great, wasn’t meant to be a super serious episode but give us a whole season’s worth of story in one episode to get to know this new Batman and how things would be for this Batman and it works. It does a great job. Most of the characters survived through the series fairly well without losing much who they were which is saying a lot, only a few characters were treated horribly. I never mentioned much Alfred Pennyworth or Gordon despite being main characters but they did an excellent job.
The rouges gallery shined during the whole show, I think pretty much most of the villains were treated very well even if some had short runs. We got two different joker takes with Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska and they both had an amazing take on the character, even the not- Harley Quinn they had fit this world. Despite restrictions I was glad they gave the villains a nice take on a TV budget and there are so many for me to name them all, Grundy, Scarface, Professor Pyg, Doctor Hugo Strange were some of my favorites, just to name a few. Penguin and Riddler were more central to the plot so I don’t mention them much but they did an excellent job.
Overall I liked Gotham a lot, it took a way different approach than I thought it should but it worked, even young Bruce since we did see him grow. I wonder if the next Gotham PD show will be able to top it, if they take the more grounded approach it could definitely be its own thing but not if it tries to be similar to what this show did.
