At first the thought of a TV show that was based on the fictional city of Gotham sounded interesting. That is until you followed up and told me that it would be Gotham without Batman and instead followed the beginnings of one detective Jim Gordon. “No Batman? Jim Gordon? What is this trash? I ain’t watching this,” I thought. Still, I decided to reserve judgement of the new series until I watched at least to the point and I’m glad I did. While I still think that doing a TV Show of Gotham without Batman is odd, if last night’s show is any indication of the future then Gotham may turn into a decent series.
Now I won’t go and break down last night’s show and instead I recommend that you go hunt down a re-run of it before the show really starts off. Still, I do have an issue with the show and that is what I like to refer to as “Smallville Syndrome”. In a nut shell, Smallville had a knack for adding characters into the series that Clark/Superman wouldn’t encounter well until his Adult life, such as The Flash, Lex Luthor, Green Arrow, Super girl, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna Zatara and many many more. I never cared about that but then again that’s likely due to me growing up with original origin of many of the mentioned characters an seeing them tossed into the mix so early didn’t fit well to me.
Well that’s exactly what’s going on in Gotham. Characters such as Oswald Chesterfield, Catwoman (Who didn’t have a speaking part but you clearly can see the foreshadowing), Poison Ivy (The daughter of murder convict), and Edward Nigma “aka the Riddler” who is working with the police in the show. These are characterswho don’t appear in the Batman comics until much later yet they are in place now and I really don’t know how to feel. I will say that the portrayal of many of them, including Edward Nigma and Oswald Chesterfield were done really well. I’m not so sure on Sean Pertwee on his portrayal of Alfred just yet. During the show when he spoke to Jim Gordon, he had a conversation that ended with him saying “mate”.
That’s not saying British people don’t say mate (which means pal) it just sounded odd to me. I have to give it up to Jada Pinkett Smith on her return to the small screen. She was always a fantastic actor and I was pretty bummed to see her disappear; however, Gotham shows that she hasn’t lost her edge. I also think this is the first time she’s played a character like “Fish Mooney” so we’ll finally get to see a new side to Jada. For those not in the know, Fish Mooney is a new original character created for the show. 
So yes, I’m happy I tuned in and will keep my eyes clued on the screen and pray that Gotham doesn’t turn into another Comic-based TV Show that finally got interesting, especially after it’s slow and boring premise. I’m looking at you Agents of Shield. Gotham airs on FOX on Monday’s at 8pm EST.