The Feature

G O

Colin Slark
Team Member

have watched the first two episodes of Fox’s new Batman-

prequel show Gotham, and boy howdy, I will give it
this much: it looks very pretty. The art and set design is
spectacular, really helping the audience believe that they
watching a real life Gotham City. Some of the acting is pretty
good too, especially Donal Logue playing detective Harvey
Bullock. Unfortunately, any suspension of disbelief the visual
elements aid with are torn down by shameful and ham-
handed writing, and a lot of other actors do nothing but gnaw
scenery in an unappealing fashion.

The big draw to the show is that you get to see the
genesis of many of the Batman characters you know
and love. However, what could have been a neat look
into the motivations behind a regular person into
becoming a costumed psychopath is ruined, because
the writers frequently forget that a good degree of
subtlety is required for foreshadowing to be effective.

One character blurts out to another “Has anyone ever told
you that you look like a penguin when you walk?” A little
girl prefers to be called “Cat.” The character who becomes

Selina Kyle | Fox

oH AM ?

Poison Ivy is straight up named “Ivy” What should be a

sly wink to the audience is instead the equivalent of giant
neon question marks pointing out to the audience that
“This guy is going to be the Riddler! Look, he likes riddles!”
This show obviously thinks that its viewers are unable to
connect any dots. Maybe if you are not savvy about the
Batman universe it would be fine, but as someone who has
read many Batman books, | found it painful to experience.

This leads to another problem. A lot of these future
Batman antagonists are children, or just normal people.
Iam sure we'll get some character development on this
front, but what do you do until then? If the A-listers

are decades away from being A-listers, you have to
dredge deeper to find Batman-related villains that can

Fish Mooney | Fox

fight the protagonists. I really hope we get such stars
as Crazy Quilt or Clock King appearing on the show.

Maybe you are thinking that the people making the show
were shoehorned into putting these obvious cameos

by characters in. If you were thinking that they would
fare better if they were allowed to flex their creative
muscles and write original content, you would be wrong,
as they made an original gangster character named

Fish Mooney. Fish Mooney! They named the supposedly
baddest gangster in a crime filled cesspit Fish Mooney.

I think a Batman TV show can be done right. The animated
Batman series from the 90s was excellent. Gotham though,
is a confusing mess that desperately wishes that it could
use Batman instead of young Bruce Wayne. It is a show
that does not think well of its audience and is undeserving
of your time and attention. If you want to watch a comic
book show, watch the excellent Agents of SHIELD instead.

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Oswald Cobblepot | Fox