5 Changes That'll Make "Gotham" The Series Batman Fans Deserve

[CBR News]

With "Gotham's" season two premiere imminent, here are some changes that could make this season even better than the first.


Full article here.

[Greg McElhatton]

I actually thought this article was a joke based on the first three points.

Personally I think Gotham is working exactly the way it should. If you want costumes and more DCU characters, that's what Arrow and Flash and Legends of Tomorrow are for. (And to be fair, I'm also watching and enjoying Flash and will definitely give Legends a whirl.) But Gotham's strength is in NOT being those shows. These changes would be an entirely different show, and I'm glad that it's not afraid to go for its own look and feel.

[AndrewCrossett]

Gotham has clearly been established as a "no superpowers" zone, so I don't expect any metahuman heroes or villains to show up anytime in the near future. I imagine that when Bruce Wayne finally becomes Batman, he will be the first superhero in this continuity.

As for iconic costumes... they tend to look pretty dumb on the small screen, for some reason. Lynda Carter was the last one to really pull it off, and that's because... well, Lynda Carter. Most of the time, costumed superheroes on TV will come across like the Big Bang Theory guys on one of their cosplaying forays. The Riddler is the only one of the current crop of villains I can see really leaning into the costume thing, because Ed Nygma is a) crazy now and b) doesn't have much in the way of social self-awareness.

They could also do it with the Joker, depending on which way they intend to go with that character. And Selina already wears the iconic Catwoman suit, pretty much.

They'll probably go more toward suggesting the costumes rather than actually reproducing them. Penguin might start carrying an umbrella everywhere as a personal trademark (a trick umbrella, I hope). He won't have the old cigarette holder, though: no smoking on network TV anymore.

The opportunity to go more in the Gotham Central direction has probably passed. We've seen enough proto-supervillains and heroes now that the audience won't be interested in turning it into another police procedural.

[SOLID MATTIC]

^^ yeah far too late for it to be like Gotham Central. Which is a damn shame because I really liked that series.

[Zartan's Brother]

I disagree that it would improve the show to take it away from its grounded style (adding superheroes and costumes) and to stop introducing/developing original characters. Mooney wasn't a bad character, the problem was that the writers shoehorned the bizarre island subplot into the season and then killed her in a weak way. I don't know that it's ever been confirmed, but all of the Dollmaker Island stuff comes across like it was written last-minute when the season was extended by six episodes. Improve the quality of the writing, and original characters are fine.

I'd like to see the following from Gotham to convince me to keep watching through the rest of this upcoming season:

-Ben McKenzie needs to work on emoting. I would love to see a Gordon with more than two facial expressions (determined-angry and determined-distressed).
-Don't waste supporting characters. Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen were in a third of the first season's episodes, and they disappeared for the entire second half of the season.
-Introduce more of the police. If Gordon's the main character, and he's inextricably tied to the GCPD, I'd like to see more recurring cops, crooked or not.
-Harvey Bullock, Penguin, Riddler... I think these characters are all being handled pretty well. I hope that continues.
-Keep the villains coming. I liked the takes on Zsasz, Electrocutioner, and Sionis. I'm glad to hear that there are more planned.
-I doubt this will happen, but I'd prefer fewer Lil Gotham cameos. I really don't care about what Poison Ivy or Hush are doing at age 8.

[johnnyrocket]

While you might get some other characters from the comics with some affiliation to Gotham City, a larger connection to the "outside" may not be in the cards for this series. Geller was interviewed recently and said they are intentionally not referring to the world beyond Gotham (Who's president, world events, etc) and making the look of the show as timeless as possible. Clothes can look both modern and from the 1920's. All the cars are from the 70's, architecture is a hodgepodge but with a lot of gothic or baroque 30's and '40s design.. all intentional to create this timeless, mythical quality. So any reference to other heroes or places might detract/distract from this. But I'm all for spending more time with the core cast.

[AndrewCrossett]

Clare Foley, who plays Ivy, is 13. She just looked very, very young in her first couple of appearances. I suspect she went through puberty during the course of last season...

[abysslord]

Yeah, i think I disagree with everything in the article. "How to make the show better? Change everything that worked, that will do it!"

[Starter Set]

Now, now, at first yes it may seem like a complete waste of web space but i did learn something from it.

Ancillary, i actually googled it. (English's not my mother tongue)

Auxiliary apparently. Thank you CBR, even from the silliest articles you put online there is something to learn from. You're like my ol', often drunk, math teacher from 8th grade.

[Zero Hunter]

I think Gotham has fallen into the same trap Smallville did all those years ago. It is trying to be a Batman show without really using Batman the same way Smallville tried to be Superman without Superman. The more they try to make it like Batman without using him the farther off the rail the show goes.

[AndrewCrossett]

I think we might see Batman on this show sooner than we think. The show doesn't seem to be backing away from steadily (if slowly) moving Bruce Wayne in that direction. They say that the mysterious passage discovered in the final scene of season 1 is NOT the Batcave, but they're really teasing in that direction rather than just having Bruce be a regular kid in the background while Jim Gordon does all the hero stuff.

I know they originally didn't intend to have Bruce on the show at all, and the stated intention is still to have Gordon be the main protagonist, but I suspect there may be some level of "give the people what they want" coming through here.

Bruce is still a long way from having the training or physical ability to be Batman, of course. An interesting idea would be to have a 10-episode miniseries, to air during the winter hiatus or over the summer, that shows Bruce going off to some Tibetan monastery or whatever and getting some of that training. Now would be a good time to do it, since David Mazouz is going to start growing and getting a deeper voice any minute now...

[Vworp Vworp]

Less/No Bruce.

It's the kiddie adventures of Batman that stopped me being able to take this show even mildly seriously.

[BeastieRunner]

I'd rather just have a Batman show, since they missed the boat on making this like Gotham Central already.

[Holt]

I'll echo the person who said the article's solution is basically "Change everything that worked in the first season." Even the point about focusing too much on the original characters falls flat to me since I thought Fish was one of the strongest parts of the show.

Plus it's not like Agents of SHIELD where the first season would go weeks at a time without featuring anyone from the comics.

[Phil Clark]

I think that trying to fix Gotham is in itself a flawed concept. Gotham isn't broken IMO. It works as it's own reality. It is frankly quite awesome to see the formation of the personalities that become Batman's biggest villains. The slow decline of Edward into insanity. The rise of Oswald to power. Devito's performance as Penguin just about killed the character, but this version... You pull for him as he grows into the big bad he is meant to be.

And watching the rise of Jim to his eventual position as Commissioner... Gotham is just plain fun, and I hope it runs a good long time.