Gotham (New Batman TV series)

[Jack / Joker]

Fox is bringing us another TV series centered around the B-Man.

 

http://tvline.com/2014/01/13/gotham-on-fox-follows-bruce-wayne-to-batman/

 

“We will arc a young Bruce Wayne from a child” of about 12 until whenever the series finale might be, at which point he “puts on the cape.”

 

 

It will focus on the Commissioner-to-be James Gordon and some loser called Bruce Wayne on their ways to become Gotham's only two decent men ever. A first for a Batman TV series, ol' Brucie isn't gonna don the cape until the series finale! Ain't that a hook!

 

Dramatic, dark, gritty, it sounds to be standard Bats fare, showing Gotham City before Batman turned it from a festering shithole to a festering shithole with more interesting villains.

 

“This is all of the classic Batman characters, with a young Bruce Wayne, the Penguin, the Riddler [and] how they came to be…"

 

 

But that's not all, we get to see how Ozzy Cobblepot, Eddie Nigs and ol' Miss Kitka became their costumed alter-egos, similar to Arkham Origins.

 

There hasn't been mention of whether or not the Joker will appear. It would seem about right if he only appeared as an unnamed gangster, since... well, tradition. It would be weird to have the Joker running around when there's no Batman to play with.

 

Important to remember that this isn't afflicted with Man of Property Damage 2: Electric Bataloo, by Zack Snyder. It will begin airing... eh, some time. They haven't even filmed the damn pilot.

 

Personally, I'm hyped to hell, but you already knew that. Thoughts? Admittedly, I'm taking caution. Wouldn't be the first time a DC show gets bitched around, but hey, Cartoon Network isn't involved, so we could be ONTO SOMETHING GOOD HERE.

[Wraith]

My only fear is that it turns into a generic cop show with the occasional Batman name drop. Agents of SHIELD managed to avoid that, so I don't see why this can't.

Then again there's that whole "Marvel generally handles this live action thing far better than DC could even dream" factor.

[Dr. Homem]

Two of my favourite things combined, Batman and cop dramas. I'm quite excited for this.

 

Only thing I'm doubtful about is how they'll handle major villains. They obviously need a main story for the season to keep things focused, but they also need the individual plots. I think this can work if they show the major forces of crime like Cobblepot and Black Mask as being behind things as a whole but without being necessarily prominent in every episode. That sounds like a good formula for a comicbook-based cop show.

 

Then again there's that whole "Marvel generally handles this live action thing far better than DC could even dream" factor.

I don't understand why a Marvel comparison is necessary here, but either way that isn't necessarily true. While Marvel has had more success so far building a connected cinematic universe, DC has always had success in television with Smallvile, Arrow and especially the smashing success of the animated shows. So I'm not really worried about this one being bad.

[Chaos Incarnate]

I'll approach it with a cautiously optimistic mindset. I'm glad we're going to see a Gordon-centric series, or at least anything Batman related on Television(knowing Beware the Batman will most likely end up canned ) but I hope to god whoever gets casted fits the character like a glove. I thought maybe Bryan Cranston for a second, but then realized it's going to be a younger version. I'm also happy to hear they aren't ignoring Bruce Wayne and that he'll don the costume in the finale. Sounds exciting.

 

Oh, and we'll possibly get to see Batman villains done justice that we may never see on film again for a while. I know I'm aching for a really good depiction of Penguin done well that isn't the Batman:Arkham games.

[Sean]

Seems like it's gonna be the Batman version of Smallville. I never really watched enough of that show to form an opinion so I have no idea what expectations to have for this.

[Kuzu]

It sounds different at the very least, So I can definitely see myself watching.

[Celestia]

Premise definitely reminds me of Smallville. As someone who enjoyed that show and liked the few episodes of Arrow I've seen, I'm certainly interested. Anyway, hopefully this show is just as successful so it can last long enough for them to tell the story they want to tell.

 

Question: in the comics, how early did Bruce start his training? I'm pretty sure he started as a kid right? It'll be interesting to see how this show handles it.

 

There hasn't been mention of whether or not the Joker will appear. It would seem about right if he only appeared as an unnamed gangster, since... well, tradition. It would be weird to have the Joker running around when there's no Batman to play with.

I'm going to guess for now that he'll show up later in the series. Though I think it'd be cool if he ended up becoming a full on supervillain in the series finale, at the same time Bruce puts on the suit for the first time.

[Kevin]

Huh, well this is something different for a Batman series since they usual focus on after the events of Bruce becoming the Batman. I'm getting reminders of Smallville from this as well, and I'm curious to see how this new series will play out.

[Tornado]

It's nice that they are going to hold off the Batman until the series finale. I can hardly contain my excitement for the final one of the 9 episodes the show will have before almost certainly getting cancelled

[Solkia]

take a shot each time his parents are mentioned

[Dejimon11]

Originally Warner bros were going to make a show about Bruce Wayne's journey on becoming batman but they scrapped it and created smallvile instead so it's good to see the original idea is still being used. It sounds interesting seeing how Gotham characters were before they became the people they turned out to be my only complaint is why is this going to be on Fox instead of the CW?

[Salamander]

Hmm.  I wonder if this has the potential to end up like the BBC series Merlin, which was meant to be a "before they were famous" for Arthurian legend, but ended up through all of Arthurian lore right up until Arthur's death at the end?  In other words, might it wind up not as a Batman prequel but as just plain Batman?  Actually, I kind of wonder if a Batman series without Batman as the protagonist, just as a mysterious character who only shows up occasionally, could be a really good idea.  Still, as suggested above, there's no reason to assume it'll actually get that far.

[iDEATH]

This is a pretty interesting concept, I'll be keeping an eye on this.

 

I'd prefer animation to live action personally but that's just me. The only major problem I can think of is, if bruce is still a kid, how are they gonna create a relationship between him and Gordon? We'll have to see.

[Jack / Joker]

Bruce and Sgt. Gordon don't necessarily have to be working together. My guess is they cross paths throughout the series, but don't start a proper team-up until the very end. Since Gordon is considerably older than Bruce, there'll be a scene where Jim confronts Bruce as a kid after his parents' death, and Bruce will start stalking/monitoring him from there.

Plus, I think it'd be cool if the two main characters cross paths but don't really interact.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

So, Batman's own Smallville?

[Eternal EX]

Seems like it's gonna be the Batman version of Smallville. I never really watched enough of that show to form an opinion so I have no idea what expectations to have for this.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking. I had a love-hate relationship with Smallville so hopefully, this new series will piss all over it. 

[Jack / Joker]

So, who would you guys like to see playing the characters? I feel like Benedict Cumberbatch would make a fine Riddler, although Penguin... I dunno. How many fat, grotesque birdmen work in the TV industry???

[iDEATH]

So, who would you guys like to see playing the characters? I feel like Benedict Cumberbatch would make a fine Riddler, although Penguin... I dunno. How many fat, grotesque birdmen work in the TV industry???

 

That's another thing, how are they gonna introduce characters like the riddler? Cobblepot makes sense seeing as he's just basically a gangster, but the majority of Batman's roster only become villains after Batman arrves on the scene, (leading to the whole "Does batman stop criminals or encourage them?" argument).

 

I can't see any way too include characters like the riddler or scarecrow, Two-face, Mr Freeze...We'd basically be left with penguin and Joker in his hapless mobster origin.

[Tornado]

That's another thing, how are they gonna introduce characters like the riddler? Cobblepot makes sense seeing as he's just basically a gangster, but the majority of Batman's roster only become villains after Batman arrves on the scene, (leading to the whole "Does batman stop criminals or encourage them?" argument).

 

I can't see any way too include characters like the riddler or scarecrow, Two-face, Mr Freeze...We'd basically be left with penguin and Joker in his hapless mobster origin.

 

You're starting to unearth the reasoning why the show's production has been pretty much completely ignored after Fox first announced it back in September.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

So, who would you guys like to see playing the characters? I feel like Benedict Cumberbatch would make a fine everybody

 

There we go. Re-christening this show Beware the Benedictman until further notice.

[Dejimon11]

Bumping this because the trailer finally came out

To be honest this doesnt look interesting. This is basically smallvile with batman characters it might be good and all but at the same time why should care if I know what's going to happened to these characters? Yeah there might be some twist and turns that might catch us off guard and some interesting story elements but at the same time what's the point. As I've said earlier in this thread smallvile was originally going to be a batman origin story but they scrapped that and made smallvile instead this comes off as somebody who really wanted to revisit that idea again and just wouldn't let it go. Idk I think I'm coming off a but too cynical my opinion would mostly change over time just being exposed to the batman mythos is kinda killing my interest especially considering we just had a batman cartoon that was trying to be an origin story of how batman became the dark knight(and that got cancelled)

[NGw00d]

Why should it matter if you know what happens to the characters later on down the road? By that logic, prequels should never exist. And its not about where they end up, its the journey they take to get there. This show isn't even solely based around Bruce, its mostly about Gordon. Its about Gordon's start as a detective and how Gotham is making its plummet down the toilet. People know Bruce's story and his evolution into Batman, but few know the story of Gotham itself, and that's what this show is focusing on. Hell, I doubt Batman will even be in it unless there are some major time jumps later on. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[Celestia]

Smallville managed, for me at least, to keep things interesting with what it did differently (while still being an origin story for the writers' take on Superman). Things got a lot more comic book-y in the last few years (and for the better, too), but it still put a twist on things here and there. There's really only one regarding a certain character important to the mythos that annoyed me, and it's one that pretty much everybody hated, so there you go!

 

I think this show could do the same, though I suspect it'll be more faithful in comparison. The general reception to the worst aspects of Smallville's early ~"teen drama"~ years was hopefully a learning experience in that regard.

 

Plus like NG said, it seems to be more about the city itself and why it's in the state it's in when Batman begins. Ha! Though obviously characters that are big players in the comics have a role in that, which ties into their origins.

 

At this point, I'm still thinking this show could be pretty cool.