Gotham - Season 1

[Guy Gardener]

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut... Lois wasn't doing full seasons at the end.

Longmire was just cancelled.

Cassiday Freeman is back on the block.

I wonder where that cool drink of water is going to end up next?

 

[Icemizer]

I could see Cassidy Freeman as Ms. Kane with little toddler Kathy in tow.

 

[Trekker4747]

Smallville's proximity to Metropolis fluctuated wildly over the course of that series. At one point it seemed implied to be almost half-way across the state. Essentially put Smallville around Topeka and Metropolis essentially being the Kansas City area (although probably on the Kansas City as opposed to where Kansas City (the more well known one, that is) is in real life, in Missouri. But as the series wore on bizarre continental drift took place drawing Smallville closer and closer to Metropolis. At one point Metropolis is visible on the horizon from the top of a water-tower. Pretty much meaning the city is probably 20 or 30 minutes away, probably around 30 miles. Meaning Metropolis is "Kansas City" and Smallville is, essentially, where I live in a suburb of Kansas City.

Then by the time of season 9/10 Smallville seemed even closer as we see injured persons going to the overworked Smallville General Hospital, meaning it's the nearest open trauma center somehow more useful than any medical center in Metropolis, pretty much meaning Smallville is no longer a suburb of Metropolis on the far-edge of the suburbs but is damn-near IN Metropolis.

The city also had an impressive water-front given that it's in the middle of a country and therefor not next to an ocean and that the Missouri River is hardly an impressive waterway right now that can handle heavy (or any, really) waterway traffic.

 

[davejames]

Longmire was just cancelled.

Sigh, don't remind me. I'm still really bummed about that.

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

I could see Cassidy Freeman as Ms. Kane with little toddler Kathy in tow.

When Montoya dropped by Barbara's place in the pilot, I thought that the show's creator may be substituting Barbara Kean for Kathy Kane in this version of the mythology. Obviously she wouldn't become Batwoman, but maybe she'll fill the Kane role in other ways (socialite, ex-lover to Renee, etc.).

I would love an unexpected twist like that.

 

[Guy Gardener]

But she is the socialite ex-lover of Rene.

That's already canon after one episode.

What else are you wondering about?

Personally, I wonder if James Gordon Jr will come into play?

Barbara's serial killer kid who joined the suicide Squad.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Personally, I wonder if James Gordon Jr will come into play?

Barbara's serial killer kid who joined the suicide Squad.

Jim and Barbara haven't even had Babs yet! Even if Barbara was pregnant with Jim, Jr. I'm not sure how you can use a zygote-fetus as a serial killer.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Wait! What? Commissioner Gordon had a serial killer son???!
Non comic book reader here. Please explain. Norman, coordinate...

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wait! What? Commissioner Gordon had a serial killer son???!
Non comic book reader here. Please explain. Norman, coordinate...

Jim and his wife have a son. Sadly he's a psychopath and has been one since he was a child.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Yep. You can read all about him here.

 

[Dorian Thompson]

I had no idea. Thanks for the clarification. I hope they don't go there on Gotham, but they made a point to show that Jim and Barbara had been together in the biblical sense.

 

[Christopher]

I figure that any comic-book character who's been around that long is bound to have acquired an evil, psychopathic family member or two somewhere along the way...

And Commissioner Gordon is tied with Bruce Wayne as the oldest Batman character. Both of them debuted in the first panel (aside from the title banner) of the first story:

http://www.reading-room.net/Detective27/Detective27P01.html

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Oh well, they'd have to do a time jump of at least 14 years for James Jr to be psychotic in any meaningful way that could affect the plot line. TPTB may ignore it and just make Barbara pregnant with Barbara the younger and forget the son.

 

[Trekker4747]

I just watched the first episode again with a friend, he agreed with me the episode showed promise but seemed too front-loaded with setting up characters and situations and likely future arcs (beyond the series' premise.) But he thinks it could be good once it gets in the groove, the look and setting of Gotham is great and that The Penguin is really going to stand out both as a character and because of the actor.

My opinions didn't change too much from what I said the other night. I will say that the gunshot to Pepper (based on where the stage-blood pack was) seemed to be at his shoulder which (though not impossible) likely wouldn't be a fatal shot.

As mentioned up-thread it did seem that most of the cell-phones were "old-style" flip-phones mostly like ones from the early part of this century. Didn't catch any "present-day" look devices like flat-screen TVs, monitors or anything like that and, as noted above, the cars are all pretty much older models from 20-30 years ago.

I still find it odd the Waynes were walking to catch a cab/bus/whatever up this dark alley in a crime-ridden city as opposed to calling Alfred to pick them up or just getting a cab by the theater or something.

Anyway, again, I think the series shows pretty good promise once it steps into its rhythm and stride when it's not weighted down too much with exposition. It does seem like the guy playing Bullock has his character-traits and mannerisms turned up to 8 or 9 where everyone else seems to be at a more normalized setting of 4 or 5. It's fun and everything in the way he acts and makes his motions, but it sort of stands out.

The other night I had thought Jim stepped behind a shipping container or something to fire the gun hiding that he let Oswald go. But he did "shoot' Oswald in front of Harvey, he just happened to have the gun angled in a non-lethal way (though deafening or at the very least ear-damaging) and released Oswald into the narrows at the same time as firing. (Though, you'd think Bullock would have noticed the lack of brain splatter from the bullet passing through.)

Still think it stands a good chance of being a good series. I do wonder if in it we'll see some of the "lighter" side of Gotham. the "normal city" parts of it that shows why it appeals to people as a place to live, work, and play. Going along with Morrison's run and idea that there *had* to be some good aspects to this city in order to appeal to residents and businesses (and to suggest Batman was successful at his job in some manner) and that it couldn't completely be a corrupt, crime-ridden hell-hole.

I mean, will we get to see Gotham's version of "The Village" or other nicer areas of the city where an unusual for the area type of crime occurred necessitating Bullock/Gordon's investigating?

I do think in the episode the swinging lamp-interrogation montage amd the pointed at Gordon "GoPro" shot during the chance scene both stood out as odd directional choices compared to the rest of the movie that more-or-less looked like it was filmed conventionally without trying to go for something artsy or out of the norm.

Oh! And I also noticed that Selena steals the 1/2 gallon of milk from the woman on the street, escapes to the building and goes down the fire-escape and by the time she gets to the ground to pour the milk into the dish for the cat the jug is nearly empty. Maybe a couple of cups left in it. There doesn't seem to be enough time or any indication Selena drank almost a half-gallon of milk so quickly before feeding some to the cat.

Still be interesting to see where the show goes from here, I look forward to it.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Oh well, they'd have to do a time jump of at least 14 years for James Jr to be psychotic in any meaningful way that could affect the plot line. TPTB may ignore it and just make Barbara pregnant with Barbara the younger and forget the son.

Babs is not Jim Gordon Snr's biological daughter.

He adopted his niece after his brother died.

It is unlikely but, a 5 year old Barbara could show up at any point in season 1.

Also I'm pretty sure that Barbara was raised by Jim's second wife Sarah.

Yes. Guide lines, not set in stone commandments, but it helps with the speculation.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Oh well, they'd have to do a time jump of at least 14 years for James Jr to be psychotic in any meaningful way that could affect the plot line. TPTB may ignore it and just make Barbara pregnant with Barbara the younger and forget the son.

Babs is not Jim Gordon Snr's biological daughter.

He adopted his niece after his brother died.

It is unlikely but, a 5 year old Barbara could show up at any point in season 1.

Also I'm pretty sure that Barbara was raised by Jim's second wife Sarah.

Yes. Guide lines, not set in stone commandments, but it helps with the speculation.

You're living in a Post Crisis, Pre New52 Universe. Currently Babs and Jim,Jr are the biological children of Barbara and James, Sr. I don't think Gordon has even met Sarah yet.

Sarah's involvement in raising Babs is dependent on which version of Post Crisis continuity you follow. It's the Infinite Crisis version where Sarah helps raise Babs. The version prior to that she married Jim Gordon after Babs was an adult.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I found the pilot to be quite underwhelming. Turning who murdered Bruce's parents into a whodunit and something about which the action of all, or almost all, of the characters revolves doesn't interest me. I would have been more intrigued by the Penguin's secret origin if there had been nothing penguin-like about him at all until he was injured. Any chance of realism in the Penguin is undermined by the hokey juxtaposition of the myriad evidently coincidental reasons why the penguin motif is apt for him: it was his destiny all along. Blech. I'll give it another chance with Catwoman, or Catgirl, or whatever, but.... Arrow started out so much stronger and only got better.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Arrow is terrible intellectually, but that pounding music and those declarative speeches grabs one by the emotional scrote.

 

[Nociod]

The pilot kept me interested, and I will watch the next episode. The pilot wasn't without its faults though.

The dialog and the way the characters spoke were awful. Normally when I watch a show I have a suspension of disbelief, and accept that it's the 'real world' within the universe of the show. However, the way the actors delivered their lines took me straight out it, and it was too painfully apparent that this is not a real world, everything the characters say are just badly written lines from a script. It didn't feel real.

I also thought they crammed too many Batman villains into the pilot, and hope they will use them more sparingly in the future.

With that being said, I thought the pilot was interesting, and will catch the next one as well.

 

[Guy Gardener]

They're not villains yet.

A twist of fate and some of these characters can rewrite their destinies.

Seriously.

If I didn't know better, I would have pegged Alfred for the Wayne murders.