Gotham Knights television series

[BK613]

I like that the road to becoming vigilantes is a slow burn.

The nit that seems to pop in my brain every week is just how easy the blonde genius comes and goes.
I mean if Harvey knows that she is a direct line to the Bat Brat and company, why isn't there a 24/7 tail on her?

 

[Christopher]

A pretty entertaining one this week, though the "surprise" reveal of the art thief's identity was obvious to me the moment the character was introduced, simply by the Law of Conservation of Guest Stars. (Also because the masked figure was pretty clearly female, so everyone calling the thief "he" was an obvious misdirect, and a rather outdated one -- they could've at least gone with "they.")

I liked it that Carrie's positive reinforcement was depicted as a more productive interrogation tactic than the torture Duela wanted. Okay, so Eunice turned out be tricking them, but one could argue that it still showed Duela's methods to be ineffectual, because all her aggression provoked was retaliation, not cooperation. (Oh, and I saw the secret compartment in the music box coming a mile away. There's always a secret compartment in the music box.)

I was timing the warehouse break-in scene to see if it really was 60 seconds, and the ironic thing is that they said "40 seconds" when they were down below 20, but it actually did take about a minute for the guards to show up even though the dialogue claimed it was less.

It's weird that I find this show entertaining when I have so little interest in the premise or the focus on the Court of Owls. It shouldn't work for me, but somehow it does. I guess the characters are the main appeal, even if the lead actor/character is kind of dull.

 

[The Realist]

^ Yeah, the characters and the appealing young cast are what's keeping me watching.

 

[Christopher]

A pretty effective one this week, advancing the Court narrative significantly, and also doing some interesting character work. It was surprising to see Duela so urgent about rushing in to save Turner at the end, when she's always been the voice of self-interest before. It's a nice bit of growth.

I'm glad they didn't drag out the reveal that Lincoln was the head Owl, since it was pretty obvious who was behind the mask just from his hair, beard, and voice. Also just from the law of conservation of characters -- odds were it would be someone we'd met already.

It's weird -- there were a few closeups on the Court masks showing that they were made of a soft, flexible material, but the sound editor added in clinks as if they were made of ceramic. Either the sound editor goofed, or the director goofed by giving away that the masks weren't rigid.

Is this the first time Turner's killed someone (assuming we're following Highlander rules vis a vis immortality and decapitation)? If so, they really should address the impact of that on him, instead of just treating the taking of a human life as an easy and casual thing to do, like way too much fiction does.

It was annoying that the script treated "electrum" as an obscure word that the characters had never heard of. Not only is it the Latin name for amber -- the source of the word "electricity" because of amber's ability to hold a static charge -- but it's the name of an alloy of gold and silver. Harper should've needed to wade through abundant search hits for those two things before finding anything to do with the meteorite elixir stuff.

Anyway, it's interesting that this show has found an alternative way for Harvey Dent to have two faces...

 

[Set Harth]

It was annoying that the script treated "electrum" as an obscure word that the characters had never heard of.

Clearly they don't play D&D

 

[Greg Cox]

For what it's worth, the semi-magical properties of "electrum," as it opposed to its actual real-world properties, is built into the Court of Owls lore from the comics. That this "electrum" arrived on Earth via a meteor is new, I think, and is perhaps intended to distinguish it from the real-world versions.

I suppose they could've changed its name or thrown in some dialogue distinguishing this outer-space "electrum" from the conventional variety, but I guess they just chose to defer to the term used in the comics -- and ignore the existence of any other context.

(I have vague memories of trying to finesse this when writing my COURT OF OWLS book some years back.)

 

[Christopher]

For what it's worth, the semi-magical properties of "electrum," as it opposed to its actual real-world properties, is built into the Court of Owls lore from the comics.

I figured as much. Aside from the lead character being a completely new invention, I don't think I've ever seen a live-action comics-based show that was this faithful to the lore from the contemporary comics continuity (with the exception of Watchmen, which was an actual in-continuity sequel to the comic).

I suppose they could've changed its name or thrown in some dialogue distinguishing this outer-space "electrum" from the conventional variety, but I guess they just chose to defer to the term used in the comics -- and ignore the existence of any other context.

Yeah, but it's annoying when it's such a commonplace term. At least they should've given Harper a throwaway line about having to filter out the more common search hits for the word.

Although it's a perennial contrivance in scenes where people do web searches. Whenever they search for the name of a person or company, they rarely have to search through multiple instances with the same name, but are just sent right to the one they were looking for. (And they always spell the name right even if it has multiple possible spellings.)

 

[Aragorn]

There's a report that this show could actually get renewed because it's the cheapest DC series the CW has ever made.

 

[Christopher]

There's a report that this show could actually get renewed because it's the cheapest DC series the CW has ever made.

I can see that. No superpowers, no fancy costumes, more modest action sequences than Arrow had, no big names in the main cast (that I know of) except Misha Collins.

 

[Christopher]

They're back, and it was an okay episode, with more puzzle-solving and the team wrestling with an ethical dilemma. Still, I had an issue with the climax. Why did they act like the Court had won the standoff when Robin agreed to use the electrum to heal Turner? I mean, Duela was still standing right there with her "bomber jacket" (I loved that pun). She still had all the leverage, since she could've blown the Court up if they hadn't surrendered. So that was an implausible resolution. And it drives home my growing annoyance with serial-arc storytelling, which requires the heroes to lose over and over again until they finally pull out a win at the end of the season.

Lincoln tried to get Turner to believe Batman killed his parents and adopted him out of guilt, but I think it's more likely that he failed to save Turner's parents, probably from the Court, and adopted him out of guilt for that. That's basically why he adopted Dick Grayson, because he was there to witness his parents' murder and failed to prevent it. Although another very strong possibility is that Batman knew the Court wanted Turner to join them for some reason, and adopted him to protect him from the Court.

 

[Greg Cox]

Lincoln tried to get Turner to believe Batman killed his parents and adopted him out of guilt, but I think it's more likely that he failed to save Turner's parents, probably from the Court, and adopted him out of guilt for that. That's basically why he adopted Dick Grayson, because he was there to witness his parents' murder and failed to prevent it. Although another very strong possibility is that Batman knew the Court wanted Turner to join them for some reason, and adopted him to protect him from the Court.

I'm thinking that possibly Turner's parents weren't the innocent, blameless victims Turner thinks they were. Possibly they were involved with some shady stuff, probably involving the Court, that got them killed. And Bruce, understandably, wanted to spare Turner the painful truth that his beloved parents were mixed up with the Court of Owls.

And, along the same lines, possibly the reason he never "solved" the mystery of their murder was that this would mean exposing the truth about their criminal activities, AND to keep Turner from getting himself killed by seeking vengeance against the Court.

 

[Christopher]

I'm thinking that possibly Turner's parents weren't the innocent, blameless victims Turner thinks they were. Possibly they were involved with some shady stuff, probably involving the Court, that got them killed. And Bruce, understandably, wanted to spare Turner the painful truth that his beloved parents were mixed up with the Court of Owls.

And, along the same lines, possibly the reason he never "solved" the mystery of their murder was that this would mean exposing the truth about their criminal activities, AND to keep Turner from getting himself killed by seeking vengeance against the Court.

Plausible.

I guess the fact that Turner only lost his parents a decade ago and was old enough to know them before they died works against my pet theory that "Turner Hayes" will end up being a fake name and that his real name is Dick Grayson or Tim Drake or something. It's just so weird to me that this show is drawing so closely on the modern comics continuity in so many respects, yet invented its lead character out of whole cloth.

 

[Christopher]

Pretty intense episode this week, with a lot of big stuff happening. Harvey confronts his alternate personality in their "meet in the middle" dream space, which naturally is Harvey's office because it's a low-budget show. I want to call his evil (well, ruthless and amoral) half "Big Bad Harv" like in Batman: The Animated Series, although this show gives a more plausible explanation for his origin, arising as a defense mechanism against childhood abuse (which has been used in some Two-Face origin comics since the '90s, I think). I bet we'll find out that Big Bad Harv ended up in control at the end -- maybe by "killing" BBH in the dream state, Harvey basically became him, or integrated with him.

And so many other revelations. Brody finds out the truth about his dad, except it turns out his dad is working for his even eviler mom, who kills Brody, except he gets better. And Carrie's stern mom is not going to react well to finding out that a 58-year-old male billionaire groomed her teenage daughter to dress up in costume with him and gave her a pet nickname. It sounds a lot less innocent than it was. (Although, yeah, child endangerment is not very innocent.)

I do rather like this show. I like the relationships forming among the "Knights" and I'm invested in their journey. Although I know better than to get my hopes up about a second season.

 

[Greg Cox]

I assume that Brody is being turned into the new Talon, although that doesn't quite hold up to close examination. Unlike the legendary serial killer, or even Turner, Brody does seem to have the skills or aptitude to be a master assassin.

Trivia: In the comics, the Court tended to recruit circus performers as Talons -- knife throwers, acrobats, strong men, etc -- which tied in with the Flying Graysons in some way I can't precisely recall. My memory is fuzzy, but I think the Court had intended to recruit young Dick Grayson -- only for him to end up as Robin instead.

 

[Greg Cox]

Spoilers for "Daddy Issues."




Whoa, talk about a deep dive into DC lore. The reveal that Duela, "the Joker's Daughter," is actually Duela Dent, Harvey's daughter, dates back to her original pre-Crisis appearances back in the 1970s! Somebody's been doing their homework!

 

[Christopher]

This week's episode ramped things up pretty effectively, as we head toward the climax. Always nice to see Lindy Booth. (Since we don't know her real name, maybe Jane Doe is the multiversal doppelganger of Vanya Davis, Booth's reporter character who works for Iris West on Earth-Prime?)

The revelation about Duela's parentage came as no surprise, for the reason Greg mentioned. To elaborate, in the character's debut comics story in Teen Titans, she initially claimed to be The Joker's Daughter, then masqueraded as the daughter of several other supervillains in turn, until it finally came out that she was Duela Dent, Two-Face's daughter (hence the name Duela), though that later turned out to be wrong too. She joined the Titans under the name Harlequin.

Not sure how Duela can come back from this, though, since she did attempt to murder Harvey and it's only by luck that she failed. (Cute way to give Two-Face his scarred coin, although it's not flippable in its condition.)

Nice that Stephanie and Harper finally figured out what they feel for each other. Harper standing up to Steph's mom was great, although it was a bit contrived how the bar scene was set up to require them to hide from the cops in the most romantic way possible.

 

[Greg Cox]

Did some reading up on Duela's tangled comic-book history. Seems that DC originally picked Two-Face to be Duella's true father because he was the only major Bat-Villain known to have been married (back in his district-attorney days). Guess you couldn't have Duela born out of wedlock back when the Comics Code was in force.

Funny thing: the internet reminded me that Duela was once killed off in miniseries I novelized. I went back to see if I'd actually written that scene, but it looks like I skipped over it. (The challenges of condensing a year-long storyline into a ordinary-sized novel.)

 

[Aragorn]

Show's been canceled.

https://tvline.com/news/gotham-knights-cancelled-season-2-1234985108/

 

[Christopher]

Show's been canceled.

Unsurprising, but disappointing. I've enjoyed it more than I ever expected to. I hope it has satisfactory closure and works as a self-contained limited series.

 

[The Realist]

Unsurprising, but disappointing. I've enjoyed it more than I ever expected to.

Indeed. Before the CW's implosion, the show would doubtless have run until it sucked out loud and we were all praying for cancellation.

Still, Superman & Lois was renewed, which is the far more important thing.