Gotham Season 1 Pilot Review!!

Synopsis – The origin story behind Commissioner James Gordon’s rise to prominence in Gotham City in the years before Batman’s arrival.

Episode – S01E01 “Pilot”

My Take – A TV series based in the Batman universe without Batman sounds like a bad idea, just as how Marvel’s Agents of Shield turned out, luckily that is not the case here as show runner Bruno Heller (The Mentalist) has created an excellent production (based on the pilot) which will surely be a treat for Batman & Non Batman fans, the pre Batman era has never been so awesome!! The show is so well written to work as crime drama it doesn’t impose the superhero angle. Fans of Batman, will recognize the variety of characters (especially dc villains) introduced, here is a hoping they have more role further down the line.

Seeing people before they become the villains are fascinating, like seeing The Riddler, Poison Ivy and The Penguin before their time, and even Catwoman. Ben McKenzie is no Gary Oldman (Nolan’ Gordon) but it looks like he can sure pull this show of on his own. Jada Pinkett Smith, David Mazouz & Robin Lord Taylor provide great support. Donal Logue seems like a great actor, but being a Batman geek, he is no where close to the character of the original Harvey Bullock.

Two factors which really worked for me; the show gives more of Tim Burton’s underrated Batman (films) feel other than Nolan & the being a FOX show, It can avoid all the unnecessary cheesiness & relationship troubles forced into the other DC shows on CW (Smallville, Arrow). Pilots often bare little resemblance to the series that follows; we’ll see in the case of GOTHAM; far as I can tell, they’ve gotten off to a good start. So clearly I am looking forward to Gotham Origins or Gotham Begins…..