Remember last Tuesday evening when you poured yourself that 7:59 PM cup of coffee and eagerly sat yourself down on the couch to watch the Joss Whedon created, produced, and directed pilot episode of the new Marvel Television series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D series on the ABC Network?
Sure you do. We all do. Everyone’s been waiting to see the continuing adventures of post-Avengers Agent Coulson, alive and in the flesh since, well, since he died in that very flick last year.
But just as you were sitting down, wide-eyed in front of the television screen, excitedly hoping on a brand new Tuesday night ritual, plans and machinations were afoot from rivals Warner Bros. TV and the Fox.
Follow me after the jump, Detective, and we’ll piece together the excitement surrounding one particular word: Gotham.
It’s funny, really.
At approximately 8:00 PM, Tuesday, September 24, 2013, just as Agent Coulson entered the frame of your boob tube from out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. interrogation room shadows, word was released that Fox outbid all other suitors for the long-awaited and soon-to-be on your watch list Warner Brothers TV show, Gotham.
Gotham looks to be somewhat based on the critically acclaimed and award-winning comic book series, Gotham Central, published by DC Comics for 40 monthly issues between 2003-2006. That particular series, now compiled in four hardcover or four softcover books, has been very highly spoken of on this site before, both here and here. It’s a police procedural series that just happens to take place in the same city as everyone’s favourite Dark Knight. But it’s the characters that make up the Gotham City Police Department’s day and night shift, the cops and administrative staff, that are the main attraction here – not Batman. In fact, Batman hardly ever appears in the series! He’s omnipresent, of course (how could a police force not have the Batman affect their jobs and lives?), but the drama that exists between regular men and women is the main draw in Gotham Central – and it’s a breath of fresh air in a comic book world ruled by characters with masks and capes.
The upcoming television series, Gotham, looks to take this cue and run with it.
The series will be centred on a young Detective James Gordon, probably new to Gotham City and it’s criminal citizens. I’m wondering if it doesn’t borrow from the first few issues of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One mini-series wherein Gordon goes up against not only the criminal underclass but also his fellow cops on the take. Perhaps the Falcone crime family is on the rise – a nod to the Nolan series of successful Batman films. Corrupt businessmen could very well run Wayne Enterprises, and I expect a slow but steady rise of extreme – even super-powered – villains operating in the city. There will be no Batman in Gotham. Bruce Wayne will be off travelling the world, studying martial arts and philosophizing on how to battle injustice while the good cops of Gotham will be treading water, trying to stay above an unlawful and immoral line.
There are a lot of great comic book stories and comic book characters to mine here and Gotham could be a television series for the ages. Bruno Heller, the creator of the series, The Mentalist, will be the brain behind bringing those stories to (real) life. We here at Biff Bam Pop! have been pining for a television series like this for a long, long time. The evidence, dear Detectives, is right here. Now we just wait on casting news.
So, who’d make a great young James Gordon? I understand that Michael C. Hall is available…
Great review and good information. I would love to see Michael C. Hall as Gordon.