I reviewed Gotham early in its run and see that I gave it only 6 out of 10 at that time. I wasn't sure then about a series in Batman's city without old cape and cowl nor was I sure about Jim Gordon's ability to hold the series together as the central character. I did also say however that I would stay with it and now 100 episodes on and at the end of its five year run I'm more than happy to positively re-evaluate my previous opinion.
Those of us who stayed with the show will have seen the benefit in its retention of its main cast for the full run (let's just leave Poison Ivy's transformations out of this, okay) letting us get to know the characters as they developed as well as appreciating the acting behind them. In this there was no one better in my opinion than Robin Lord Stewart as the Penguin, who stole his scenes as easily as his character did bank bullion and high office, although the portrayals of the Riddler and Joker weren't far behind. I wasn't quite as taken with young Catwoman, who was missing the feline grace of Selina Kyle and in the broader scheme of things wish that Scarecrow and especially Two Face had made bigger appearances in the show. That said, it was pleasing to see appearances by throwback lesser villains like Ivy, Mad Hatter, Solomon Grundy and even in the last series Clayface. One character I hated though was Jada Pinkett-Smith's artificial and unconvincing creation of Fish Mooney who thankfully didn't stay the course. Smith just seemed like a marquee-name production indulgence to me.
Besides her, other women played bigger and better-written parts in the show too, apart from the on-off Bruce and Selina mutual attraction, there were great turns by Erin Richards as Jim's first love turned gangster Barbara Kane and his second, more enduring love Dr Lee Tompkins. Nice to think that Ben Shepherd as Gordon and Morena Baccarian as the doc hooked up in real life and now have a child of their own. Shepherd in the pivotal role of Gordon, while he never once looked like the young commissioner, grew into his part abetted by Donal Logue as the slovenly but loyal detective Harvey Bullock.
And then there was young Bruce Wayne (with his ever-loyal, army-trained butler Alfred) a growing presence throughout who we finally saw grow to maturity in the final episode. About that final episode, which really was a near-perfect send-off for the show, where we finally got our green-faced Joker, Pengy and Nygma continuing their wonderfully entertaining bromance, a grown up slinky-sexy Catwoman and yes, a first and last look at the Caped Crusader.
With only few reservations, I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much the whole run and really just wish DC's movie division would hand big-screen Batman to the show-runners here to transform and reignite the ailing screen-life of our favourite masked manhunter.
Those of us who stayed with the show will have seen the benefit in its retention of its main cast for the full run (let's just leave Poison Ivy's transformations out of this, okay) letting us get to know the characters as they developed as well as appreciating the acting behind them. In this there was no one better in my opinion than Robin Lord Stewart as the Penguin, who stole his scenes as easily as his character did bank bullion and high office, although the portrayals of the Riddler and Joker weren't far behind. I wasn't quite as taken with young Catwoman, who was missing the feline grace of Selina Kyle and in the broader scheme of things wish that Scarecrow and especially Two Face had made bigger appearances in the show. That said, it was pleasing to see appearances by throwback lesser villains like Ivy, Mad Hatter, Solomon Grundy and even in the last series Clayface. One character I hated though was Jada Pinkett-Smith's artificial and unconvincing creation of Fish Mooney who thankfully didn't stay the course. Smith just seemed like a marquee-name production indulgence to me.
Besides her, other women played bigger and better-written parts in the show too, apart from the on-off Bruce and Selina mutual attraction, there were great turns by Erin Richards as Jim's first love turned gangster Barbara Kane and his second, more enduring love Dr Lee Tompkins. Nice to think that Ben Shepherd as Gordon and Morena Baccarian as the doc hooked up in real life and now have a child of their own. Shepherd in the pivotal role of Gordon, while he never once looked like the young commissioner, grew into his part abetted by Donal Logue as the slovenly but loyal detective Harvey Bullock.
And then there was young Bruce Wayne (with his ever-loyal, army-trained butler Alfred) a growing presence throughout who we finally saw grow to maturity in the final episode. About that final episode, which really was a near-perfect send-off for the show, where we finally got our green-faced Joker, Pengy and Nygma continuing their wonderfully entertaining bromance, a grown up slinky-sexy Catwoman and yes, a first and last look at the Caped Crusader.
With only few reservations, I thoroughly enjoyed pretty much the whole run and really just wish DC's movie division would hand big-screen Batman to the show-runners here to transform and reignite the ailing screen-life of our favourite masked manhunter.