Gotham: First Impressions

    Last night was Gotham's first episode and it was great. I know the basic backstory of Batman, I do like the comics, and I have been watching Batman shows since Adam West was Batman, but by no way am I an expert.

Spoiler Alert.

    While watching the show, I kept getting excited when a character like the Riddler, The Penguin or even Falcone interacted with Jim Gordon. I know in the future those encounters won’t be as “civil” to say the least, but the only thing that killed it for me was that there was no element of surprise. I know this was just the first episode, but I already knew that Bruce Wayne wasn't going to jump and commit suicide, and that Jim Gordon wasn’t going to kill the Penguin. Therefore, I had to keep reminding myself that it is a origin story. We know most of the fates of these characters, and now we are going to see a different perspective on how they became the people we got to know in the comics and movies.

    One of the best parts in the show was when you get those hints and clues and how they introduce every character. For example, Ed Nygma, AKA the Riddler, works for Gotham PD. In one scene, Mr. Nygma (pictured below) was explaining the forensics of the Wayne murder to Detective Gordon and Bullock, of course he had to speak in riddles. I'm not complaining, on the contrary it was awesome because it wasn’t overdone. This is just one small example of things on how the show using hints and clues to introduce it's characters.

    Granted, there are a few characters that don’t need an introduction. The show starts with a girl wearing goggles and a fur hoody, running across the roofs of gotham, and later stealing milk for stray cats. Clearly she needs no introduction. Also, right after the milk scene we see a kid with his parents walking into an alley, again we all know what is going to happen and who the family is, but it wasn't a bad thing.

     The show is dark, and the way that they filmed some scenes takes away from the show. In a chase scene involving Jim Gordon they had a camera to his face while he ran after the suspect. The way they filmed it looks like they had a GoPro camera on him (it probably was), but it took away from the whole scene because in my opinion it was cheap.

    With that said, Jada Pinkett Smith was awesome in the show, Ben Mckencie's performance lacked emotion, and I didn't feel a connection with the character. Again, it wasn't a bad start. It was a really good episode, but just an introductory episode. I want to see how the show is going to incorporate all characters, and how Jim Gordon gets to become Commissioner, as well as how young Bruce Wayne deals with his inevitable loss and his path towards becoming Batman. Gotham airs on Mondays at 8 P/E on FOX. 

Source: IMDb