Posted in: DC Universe, TV | Tagged: Batman, entertainment, fox, gotham, Jim Gordon, Penguin, television

Gotham Season 4: Saving A Corrupt Man By Making The City Worse

Published Sun, 05 Nov 2017 13:22:10 -0600

Gotham is seven episodes into it's fourth season and some folks wonder how it's lasted that long. I've seen a lot of negativity against the series, but those who have stuck with it are being rewarded as the series took a while to figure out just what it wanted to be and is now flying there in style. If you started watching expecting to see THE prequel to Batman Begins or any other version of Batman that we've come to know well, then you likely bailed early on. But if you can accept that this is something different… you may just learn to love the show.

My biggest complaint about the series was that I really didn't like the people we're supposed to like. Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) was kind of stiff and one-dimensional and Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) was a self-righteous a-hole that crossed the line so many times there was no line anymore. I tuned in for Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor), Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith), Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee), Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) and Barbara Kean (Erin Richards). These were not the Commissioner Gordon and Batman that I grew up with. And even thinking this was an Elseworlds only got me so far. Bruce started coming around by the end of the second season and going into the third… but Gordon was so far gone I didn't think he could come back.

I didn't realize the writers had a trick up their sleeve. After spending three seasons corrupting Gordon to almost beyond redemption… they decided they would go ahead and make Gotham even worse. They've created so much corruption that Gordon has become the one good man again. I didn't see it coming either, but that's the whole purpose of introducing Professor Pyg (Michael Cerveris) this season. Both Bruce and Gordon have killed in cold blood, but now the city around them is getting so bad that it's covering up their sins. The series has introduced us to so many over-the-top villains and crazy characters that we no longer blink when the introduce someone like Solomon Grundy (Drew Powell). In truth, Gotham may be the most comic book of all the comic book television series.

Gotham goes from big reveal to big reveal, introducing one Batman villain after another for the grand spectacle while quietly moving all the pieces into place. Maybe it's course corrections after having gone the wrong way for a while, or maybe they just decided to embrace the source material in a big way and run with it. Either way… it's really been a lot of fun and definitely worth tuning in for.

Gotham airs Thursday at 8 PM on Fox.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!