Gotham-Batman Prequel Series on Fox, Fall 2014

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Encuentro, May 28, 2014.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Splungeworthy

    Splungeworthy Forum Rezidentura

    I'm getting indigestion from all of the scenery Jada Pinkett Smith has been chewing. But this show has serious long-term viability, and as long as Ben McKenzie and Donal Logue are paired up I'm in. It's like a dystopian "Law & Order".
     
    robertawillisjr, Leviethan and Mazzy like this.
  2. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    As a naysayer who *did* watch it, what about folks who watched the first three episodes and decided they didn't care for it? Are they illegitimized because you like it?

    (don't get me wrong, I'm on board with vilifying anyone who is prejudging before expereincing)
     
  3. tommy-thewho

    tommy-thewho Senior Member

    Location:
    detroit, mi
    I could use a little less time of young Bruce Wayne and more time with Gordon and his partner...

    Penguin is a great character....
     
  4. davenav

    davenav High Plains Grifter

    Location:
    Louisville, KY USA
    I'd say they were perhaps prejudiced by their own before-the-fact pronouncements. Hard to say, when someone has already made a judgement before actually seeing something....

    As for myself, I'll admit that I was *very* skeptical about Gotham. I haven't been pleased by anything DC-related in a long time (The Nolan Batman films being a huge exception).

    And, I don't care much for Flash, but I waited to see it before deciding that, and I'll continue to give it more chances to improve, but it has a long way to go, IMO.

    As for Gotham, I was surprised at all the left turns it took, and I really dug how it constantly played off viewers expectations with those turns. By focusing on Gordon, and the utter corruption of the city, which leads to the birth of all these super-villains - I think they've hit upon a premise that can run as long as Smallville.

    We'll have to see how it plays out, but so far - colour me impressed, and I'm a tough audience.

    And, as someone already said, the young lady playing Cat could be a real star, if she continues as well as she has been doing so far.
     
    robertawillisjr likes this.
  5. Leviethan

    Leviethan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    I'm digging this show. I think it's taking a fresh look at a story that has frankly, been done to death. It's asking the question, "How does a regular, dingy, corrupt crime-ridden metropolis turn into a comic book dystopia where the regular mob type crime bosses and cops run in fear from villains in costumes?" Ben McKenzie and Donal Logue make a great pair. The guy who plays the Penguin is awesome!
     
    chrischerm, GeoffC and Mazzy like this.
  6. ascot

    ascot Senior Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    I am enjoying Gotham so far. I won't say I'm completely sold on everything, but the Gordon-Bullock pairing is well done. What is throwing me off a bit is that Bruce Wayne is now considerably younger than pretty much everyone else. Even Selena Kyle ("Cat") is 4-5 years older than Bruce.
     
  7. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    Hey, Bruce digs older women!

    I think this makes sense to me reading the comics of the 'fifites and the sixties. I always got the sense that the Penguin, the Joker, the Riddler were older than Batman. Catwoman, maybe not so much, I was just dazzled by her anyway, and who can tell the age of a timeless femme fatale when they are as young as I was?
     
  8. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    Appreciate the clarification. Speaking for myself, I hadn't paid attention to any buzz good or bad and just watched the first few when they aired, and decided I didn't care for it (which is a shame, because I'll watch pretty much anything with Donal Logue in it).
     
  9. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    Pleasantly surprised! Niche evil characters by fine actors, interesting storyline, with Gordon as the central character. It took some re-adjusting from the history I thought I knew from the movies....so seeing young Bruce Wayne in the age of mobile phones is a bit strange. But one of the better series at the moment!
     
  10. I am actually warming up to the Young Bruce Wayne. He is showing interest in the family business and an appetite for doing things right and getting rid of the bad stuff seeping into the family business and Gotham It's a timeframe never shown in any of the films so I love seeing this. I agree this could go on potentially for many years but we all know that that rarely happens with the networks.
     
  11. robertawillisjr

    robertawillisjr Music Lover

    Location:
    Hampton, VA
    I am still onboard.
     
  12. Old Mac

    Old Mac Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brady Montana USA
    I'm liking this show a bit more with every episode. Jim Gordon's facial expressions are interesting. He actually reacts with something other than the usual stoic tough guy hero looks that you normally see. His corrupt but lovable partner is a cliché but he provided me with a laugh-out-loud moment in the last episode when he shouted "What is altruism?" Gotham looks spectacular, great sfx. And it seems to be set in some sort of alternate past-present. Vehicles are chosen for their look, some identifiable as older models and some sorta futuristic (in a retro way, if that makes any sense).

    Then again, a few things are too predictable, each of the detectives bursting in a at last minute to save the other one, Jim's domestic problems. But on the whole it moves along quite nicely with a quasi-comic book feel. I find myself looking forward to the next episode and it made my 'record series' on the DVR. I hope they keep it fresh and interesting.
     
  13. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    It lost me on the second episode but I'm not into Batman as much as some so I get enjoying it.
     
  14. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    I wonder if you have to be kind of in the middle to enjoy it - I couldn't get into it either, but I'm WAY MORE into Batman than most people (at least at one time I was). Not to say that there aren't megafans that dig the show as well, but I sort of wondered if my being too steeped in the source material kept me from appreciating the show.
     
  15. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    Interesting your really into Batman but the show didn't work. Maybe give it a few more?
     
  16. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    I'm kicking around coming back to it, but for me it deviated too much from the spirit of some of the characters as far as source material goes. Maybe the longer I stew in it the less I'd mind.
     
  17. noname74

    noname74 Allegedly Canadian

    Location:
    .
    Everyone changes- nobody is the exact same person they are at 20 as they are at 40 etc. It wouldn't make sense if all of the characters in their youth/young adulthood were exactly what they were when they got older. I personally love the fact we're seeing the germs of evil in some of the characters when they are younger....it explains why they became what they are when they are older. For example I assume the the slightly off/creepy police lab tech will become The Riddler...if he were spouting riddles from day 1 it would be boring....he's working up to that person though.
     
    robertawillisjr and Mazzy like this.
  18. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    I get that aspect of it, but the histories of a lot of these characters are established already. I'm all for deviations that make it interesting, and actually I was looking forward to that, but the deviations didn't grab me.

    I already know the lab tech will become The Riddler because he's got the guy's name, and the show is saying "HEY! THIS GUY LOOOOOOOVES RIDDLES!" at every opportunity. Other than that, there's nothing about him that makes him anything like The Riddler. Admittedly, the stuff that they are using is probably the most important, but it's all too convenient. A huge number of major players are already in the mix and know each other and interact with each other too conveniently. I'd rather have started from the ground up with mostly unfamiliar characters and gradually introduced more familiar elements.

    I think for me it's not at all that these characters aren't who they would become from day one - it's that they're around at all, and how they've been injected into the mix feels ham-handed to me. Again, just my take. It stands to reason that there's going to be lots of people on either side of this, since monkeying with stuff that's so established is pretty much always polarizing.
     
    Deesky likes this.
  19. The Spaceman

    The Spaceman Forum Resident

    But they were around. Even in the source material it's established that these characters didn't suddenly exist when Batman came on the scene. They had lives in Gotham prior to Batman's arrival. Some were criminals others worked in respectable positions, Selena Kyle was a prostitute prior according to Year One. Showing how they became what they became is a very interesting story to tell. Some of them have tragic backgrounds that lead them down a dark path. Comparing that to Bruce's own tragic background and comparing his path to theirs is a very compelling story. Batman fans are a fickle fanbase who all have very specific ideas on what they want from Batman. I don't see where's any kind of obnoxious deviation to be annoyed with. Yes the villains existed in Gotham and many of which were active criminals. They should be around. It would make less sense if they weren't.
     
    Mazzy and Standoffish like this.
  20. The Spaceman

    The Spaceman Forum Resident

    One thing I absolutely love about the show is the imagery and setting. My God what a stunning Gotham! That was the Gotham that was sorely lacking in the Nolan films!

    The way they gave a nod to Year One with the Wayne's' assassination scene was clever and heightened the emotional impact of that scene for me.

    Here the image I'm talking about:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000NW7K5I?pc_redir=1413930402&robot_redir=1
     
  21. Perfect. That's why this show interests me. I can't see a movie ever being made of this time period in Gotham so here is the perfect venue. I do hope it continues on as I wrote earlier, I think even Bruce's is slightly beconubg more interesting. This could get really good given a chance.
     
  22. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    At the risk of sounding disrespectful, what are you on about? I agree that it's an interesting story to tell - all I ever said was that I didn't care for how they've chosen to tell it. Just because it isn't my thing doesn't mean it can't be someone else's.

    Full disclosure: I have probably about half or so (maybe more than half) of all the Batman comics DC published for about the first 70 years of the character (I quit when they rebooted a couple years ago), including an unbroken run of both Batman and Detective that goes a little longer than 30 years. I say this not as an effort to one-up you (for all I know, you've got them all; there's actually an older fellow that lives around here who does), but to try and clarify that my not enjoying the series has absolutely nothing to do with my lack of awareness of the characters' history or backstory, and being in that "fickle fanbase" may even be why it's not hitting the right notes for me - which I also alluded to earlier in the thread.
     
  23. I have no problem for this TV show to be very different thank the comics. It's a different medium and I don't know their origins or back stories.
     
  24. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    Don't get me wrong - I am all for straying from the source material. The Marvel movies are all over the place in how they deviate, and I've really enjoyed those. This one just didn't do it for me for whatever reason.
     
    Mazzy likes this.
  25. Standoffish

    Standoffish Smarter than a turkey

    Location:
    North Carolina
    I'm loving the show. It's like Gotham Confidential. The guy playing Jim Gordon reminds me a lot of Bud from LA Confidential. I like the Gotham they've created, and that some of the future villains aren't really villains yet.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine