I shall miss my weekly fix of jim Gordon now that the season's finished...
Gotham - Season 1
- Thread starter Agent Richard07
- Start date
Nothing on them yet.
The only cast announcements we've heard so far are about the promotions of Nicholas D'Agosto and Morena Baccarin to regulars, and the additions of a new male and female villain.
IGN.com said:
Chris Chalk (Lucius Fox) Upped to Series Regular - http://tvline.com/2015/05/29/gotham-season-2-chris-chalk-series-regular-lucius-fox/
Good grief, it sounds like they're replacing one oversized cast with another oversized cast. I was hoping they'd pare down the number of regulars, given how they wasted characters like Allen and Montoya last season.
Well, Fox certainly makes sense for the direction that Bruce's storyline is going.
^Yeah, but it's not like making him a regular is the only way to include him. The first season had a bunch of regulars that either got neglected, like Montoya and Allen, or were forced into stories for no good reason to justify their presence, like Selina. They would've been better served as recurring players rather than regulars.
Yeah, but this guy now has more reason for being in the story than half of last season's regular cast....
Gotham is clearly taking the "soap opera" route when it comes to their ensemble, and I don't personally see anything wrong with that. Soap Operas typically have very large main casts, even if not every person who's listed as a series regular appears in every episode (or even in every season).
If Bruce wakes up one morning to find Thomas and Martha in the shower, I'm bailing.
Again, though, the problem isn't just that the characters aren't always used, it's just the opposite -- that they're used gratuitously when there isn't a good reason for having them around. That whole nonsense with Selina and Ivy squatting in Barbara's apartment was largely about having an excuse to keep Selina and Barbara around even though neither one had any narrative reason to be around at that point. (And, well, also to amortize the cost of that expensive apartment set by having scenes taking place there.)
Soap operas also air every day, giving them ample time to fit in all the characters.
How sick would it be if the original purpose of the Batcave was to be Thomas Wayne's shag pad...?
Not all Soap Operas air every day. Shows like Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, Empire, Downton Abby, Nashville, and Dallas only air weekly, and yet they don't shy away from having very large primary casts.
Even if it's possible in theory to make a sprawling cast work, Gotham failed at its attempt. The producers should recognize their limitations and scale back their ambitions, instead of just barrelling forward with the same mistakes.
I don't think Gotham's attempt at utilizing a "Soap Opera" approach to its primary ensemble failed, and I don't think the showrunners do either, so I think Jada Pinkett-Smith and John Doman will most likely be the only regular cast members from Season 1 who aren't part of the show in Season 2.
Of course the showrunners don't think it failed, because the showrunners don't know what they're doing. Of all the showrunners of comics-based shows on the air today, they're the ones who've done the least to prove their judgment is trustworthy. That's just the problem: They should learn from their mistakes, but so far there's no sign they have.
And really. Montoya and Allen were set up as major characters. They had an arc, initially suspicious of Gordon, but finally coming around and becoming his first major allies other than Bullock. And then, immediately after that, they disappeared and were never mentioned again, except for Montoya showing up once more purely in the capacity of Barbara's lover. How is that not a failure? It's a complete failure of story structure, of setup and payoff, and of continuity. (And it makes it very unlikely that they'll be part of the show in season 2. They stopped being part of the show a long time ago.)
And really. Montoya and Allen were set up as major characters. They had an arc, initially suspicious of Gordon, but finally coming around and becoming his first major allies other than Bullock. And then, immediately after that, they disappeared and were never mentioned again, except for Montoya showing up once more purely in the capacity of Barbara's lover. How is that not a failure? It's a complete failure of story structure, of setup and payoff, and of continuity. (And it makes it very unlikely that they'll be part of the show in season 2. They stopped being part of the show a long time ago.)
^ I have to say that I disagree with you on that, Christopher, but to each their own. 
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