On GOTHAM
Like any Batman fan, I approached the buzz around Bruno Heller’s (ROME, THE MENTALIST) new Batman-less Batman show, GOTHAM, with trepidation. I had already seen a perfect Batman-less Batman story in Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker’s sadly-departed GOTHAM CENTRAL series in the naughties; I didn’t need more.
I would like to correct myself on something here: on Twitter last night, I said this:
Very well, #Gotham, you have justified your existence for another week. Given time, it could become quite excellent.
— Tyler Weaver (@tylerweaver) September 23, 2014
Upon further reflection, I’ve decided that I was wrong.
Here are a few loose thoughts:
• It unnecessarily complicates an origin story that was brilliant in its simplicity. The murder of the Waynes is a thing of comics legend; in the hands of Heller and company, it becomes little more than an over-wrought conspiracy involving characters that fall flat. I knew we were in trouble when the Miller-imagery of Martha Wayne’s pearls falling to the ground was revisited for the umpteenth time within the first three minutes of the pilot.
• While McKenzie and Logue would make a fascinating team on any other procedural/mystery show, the writing is so hackneyed and clichéd that the two leads (never mind the rest of the cast) never rise above a few moments of excellence before falling back into the cesspool of the muddy world thrown on the screen by Heller and company.
• It is six years too late to be interesting. A GOTHAM CENTRAL show set during the Nolan continuity that takes place between THE DARK KNIGHT and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES would have been interesting. On that same token, there was more character development, verve and vitality in the first five pages of Brubaker and Rucka’s GOTHAM CENTRAL comics series than in the entire pilot episode.
• GOTHAM has no idea of its tone: some scenes brings memories of the Schumacher Bat-films, another heralds the arrival of HOMICIDE meets BATMAN. Neither rise above homage.
• Unless balance is found, the Easter-Egginess of it all, of (not so)subtle hints here and there, of the Joker, of the Penguin, of the Riddler, of Selina Kyle, will overshadow GOTHAM and drown it in fan-pleasing callbacks for fans who will have no interest in the show after the premiere.
• I wish Heller and co. had paid more attention to the critical success of NBC’s HANNIBAL; a show that mines canonical material and molds it into a character-driven, stylish, intelligent prequel series that is absolutely fearless. It has become, in my eyes, the primary canon of the Hannibal Lecter mythology; GOTHAM doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in Hell.
Will I make a return visit next week? Maybe. But my arms are even more tightly crossed. Should you? Go read GOTHAM CENTRAL instead.
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