Gotham – The Complete First Season: DVD Review
Season Overview:
In Gotham,before there was Batman, there was Gotham City. Everyone knows the name of Commissioner Gordon, but what of his rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? What did it take to navigate the layers of corruption in Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world’s most iconic villains? Gotham tells the story of the world’s most iconic DC Comics Super-Villains and vigilantes from the very beginning, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told.
We’ve seen so many Batman movies and TV shows over the years but this is the first time that we actually get to experience the story from the perspective of Jim Gordon. I liked this show from the start because it’s more like an actual crime drama show than a superhero show which is a great change of pace. The main storyline has to do with the mob and citywide corruption which is really interesting and had me engaged enough to want to find out who was double crossing who and who will come out on top. We do get some of the Batman villains that we are all used to but in this case they change up their origins a bit and give us a fresh take on them. I like what they are doing with them because this gives more time to develop their character and story a bit and really get into what caused them to become who they ended up as. They even showed a villain that looked a bit like (and acted like) Joker but they never said he was. I have my own theories about this but we’ll save that for another time. I was really surprised by the performance of Ben McKenzie. He played Gordon very tough and dark, almost the way Christian Bale played Batman in The Dark Knight Trilogy. I also thought Sean Pertwee‘s version of Alfred was fantastic as well. He’s always been looked at like a surrogate father to Bruce Wayne and in this show he really shows it. Every scene with him and Bruce is like a hint to the future of who Bruce will become and that’s pretty cool to see. To me Robin Lord Taylor had the most impressive performance. I never thought that Taylor could do something like that and what he’s done with Cobblepot is absolutely genius. The show definitely shows lots of promise and even people that don’t normally like the superhero genre will dig this. 8/10
Special Features:
Gotham Invented – A really interesting 3 part documentary on the creation of the show that includes interviews with the cast and crew.
Gotham: Designing The Fiction – This feature takes a look at the production design side of the show and how they were able to get the area to look like Gotham.
The Game Of Cobblepot – A look at the way that Cobblepot schemes and plots his way to the top of the mob game.
Gotham: The Legend Reborn – A long preview of Gotham’s pilot episode.
DC Comics Night At Comic-Con 2014: Presenting Gotham, The Flash, Constantine and Arrow – A DC Comics TV Panel that probably has been seen before but if not then it’s here on this release.
Gag Reel – Such a great feature filled with mistakes, missed cues and flubs.
Unaired Scenes – Not very many scenes here and to be honest they aren’t that great so this is one feature that you could skip if you wanted.
Character Profiles
