Gotham (TV series)

Gotham is an American crime television series developed by Bruno Heller, based on characters appearing in and published by DC Comics in their Batman franchise, primarily those of Detective James Gordon and Bruce Wayne. The series stars Ben McKenzie as the young Gordon. Heller is the executive producer along with Danny Cannon, who also directed the pilot. Gotham received a series order from Fox on May 5, 2014, and premiered on September 22, 2014.

As originally conceived, the series would have served as a straightforward story of Gordon's early days on the Gotham City police force. The idea evolved not only to include the Bruce Wayne character, but will also tell the origin stories of several Batman villains, including Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Joker, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Hugo Strange, Harvey Dent, Mr. Freeze and Victor Zsasz. The first season order consisted of 16 episodes, which was later extended to a total of 22.

Synopsis
A new recruit in Captain Sarah Essen's Gotham City Police Department, Detective James Gordon is paired with Harvey Bullock to solve one of Gotham's highest-profile cases: the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. During his investigation, Gordon meets the Waynes' son Bruce, now in the care of his Butler Alfred Pennyworth, which further compels Gordon to catch the mysterious killer. Along the way, Gordon must confront mobstress Fish Mooney, mafia led by Carmine Falcone, as well as many of Gotham's future villains such as Selina Kyle, Edward Nygma, and Oswald Cobblepot. Eventually, Gordon is forced to form an unlikely friendship with Wayne, one that will help shape the boy's future in his destiny of becoming a crusader.

Main

 * Ben McKenzie as James Gordon. James Gordon is a detective at Gotham City Police Department who works to find the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents and get rid of the corruption at the Gotham City Police Department. (4 episodes)
 * Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, Gordon's partner, a corrupt and brutish detective, secretly allied with Carmine Falcone. (4 episodes)
 * David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne, the son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, who is now under the care of Alfred Pennyworth. (4 episodes)
 * Zabryna Guevara as Sarah Essen, the Captain of the Gotham City Police Department homicide squad and the boss of James Gordon and Harvey Bullock. (4 episodes)
 * Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth, the Butler of Bruce Wayne who raises him after the murders of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He has been worried at Bruce's ways of overcoming fear. (4 episodes)
 * Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald "Penguin" Cobblepot, an up-and-coming mobster in Fish Mooney's gang who is nicknamed "Penguin" by her thugs; has a lethal falling out with Mooney after he is discovered to be police informant, as well as one to Don Falcone. Falcone orders a hit on him, but he escapes with the help of Gordon, and later aligns himself with Don Salvatore Maroni.
 * Erin Richards as Barbara Kean, James Gordon's fiancée. (4 episodes)
 * Camren Bicondova as Selina "Cat" Kyle, a young thief with a fascination with cats who witnesses the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents. Since that incident, Kyle has been lingering around the borders of Wayne Manor. (3 episodes)
 * Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma, a coroner and forensics operative who works for the Gotham City Police Department and often presents his information in riddles. (3 episodes)
 * Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney, a mob leader, under Don Carmine Falcone, whom she intends on making a move against. She is able to operate Gotham's theater district with ease, despite the heavy presence of the Italian Mafia. She has a good relationship with the ethically challenged Detective Bullock who often goes to her for information. (4 episodes)


 * Victoria Cartagena as Renee Montoya, a detective in the Major Crimes Unit of the Gotham City Police Department. She was revealed to have had a relationship with Barbara Kean. (3 episodes)
 * Andrew Stewart-Jones as Crispus Allen, a detective in the Major Crimes Unit of the Gotham City Police Department. (3 episodes)
 * John Doman as Carmine Falcone, a Mafia Don and businessman who is Fish Mooney's superior and has specific members of both the Gotham City government and the Gotham City Police Department on his payroll. However, his hold on Gotham is slipping and rivals such as the Maroni family and his inferiors like Fish Mooney plan to move against him. (4 episodes)

Recurring

 * Richard Kind as Aubrey James, the Mayor of Gotham City and an ally of Carmine Falcone.
 * Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean, Fish Mooney's second-in-command and enforcer.


 * Clare Foley as Ivy Pepper, loosely based on the character Poison Ivy. She is the daughter of the late low-level crook Mario Pepper, who was falsely believed to be the Wayne killer.


 * Kyle Massey as Macky, a kid living on the streets of Gotham and evaded capture from Dollmaker's thugs.
 * Carol Kane as Gertrud Kapelput, the over-possessive, heavily accented mother of Oswald Cobblepot.


 * David Zayas as Salvatore Maroni, a Mafia Don who owns a restaurant and heads a crime family rival to Don Falcone's, and a friend of Oswald Copplepot's.


 * Michaelangelo Milano as Lazlo, a waiter who works for Fish Mooney and is also her gigolo.
 * Nicholas D'Agosto as Harvey Dent, a "handsome, warm and engaging" Assistant District Attorney.
 * Makenzie Leigh as Liza, a rising singer who has applied for an opening at Fish Mooney's strip club.
 * Sara Paxton has been cast in an unidentified role.

Production
On September 24, 2013, Fox announced that it had bypassed the traditional pilot phase and placed a straight-to-series order for Gotham, to be written and executive produced by Bruno Heller. Danny Cannon was later announced as director for the project.

Speaking of the project at the 2014 winter TCA press tour, Fox president Kevin Reilly described the series as "this operatic soap that has a slightly larger-than-life quality. This is not some adjunct companion series. This is the Batman franchise, just backing it up [in chronology]." He added that the series is separate from any DC film universe.

In January 2014, rumors arose that Donal Logue would portray Gordon in the series. Logue denied these rumors via Twitter. Logue was eventually cast as Harvey Bullock. In February 2014, Ben McKenzie was cast as James Gordon. Later in the month, it was reported that production would begin in New York City in March 2014. In early March 2014, David Mazouz was cast as Bruce Wayne, while Camren Bicondova was cast as Selina Kyle. At the 2014 Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, DC's Jim Cunninham said that Renee Montoya would be a character on the show. The first season was reported to consist of 16 episodes, rather than the standard 13 or 22. Fox’s Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly stated, "We were only contractually obligated to order 13, and we ordered 16, because we think that’s the way that show, at least in its first iteration, will be very strong to arc to. Could we do more next season? We certainly could, but that’s where we’re starting with that one. That show is going to have a very strong, serialized element." On October 13, Fox ordered an additional six episodes for the show, bringing the first season order to a full 22 episodes.

The pilot was screened at the Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment panel at San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2014. In July 2014, it was announced that Graeme Revell would be the composer for the series.

Broadcast
The series premiered in New Zealand on TV2 on September 28, 2014.

The Nine Network airs the show in Australia, while CTV has acquired the broadcast rights for Canada. Channel 5 will air Gotham in the United Kingdom from October 13, while RTÉ Two will air the show in Ireland. In September 2014, Warner Bros. Television Distribution sold the video on demand rights to the series to Netflix.

Reviews
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the first season of the show a rating of 90% based on 80 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's consensus states, "High production values, a talented cast, and an appealingly stylized approach to the Batman mythos help Gotham overcome its occasionally familiar themes." Metacritic gives the show a score of 71 out of 100, based on 34 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In early October 2014, market research firm Survata polled more than 1,400 viewers to determine which of the 24 major TV premiers they were most interested to watch this fall, with "Gotham" taking top honors. SideReel users have given the show a 4 out of 5 rating based on 911 ratings.

David Hinckley of the New York Daily News praised the first episode for playing "like a 45-minute movie, with stunning visuals that never feel like a shrunken TV version of the Batman films against which it will inevitably be measured" and lauded Donal Logue's Harvey Bullock as a scene-stealer. The San Jose Mercury News's Chuck Barney called the pilot "a fun, dark, moody and well-paced first hour" and Ben McKenzie's James Gordon a commanding lead, while saying Jada Pinkett Smith is "an absolute blast to watch." Matt Brennan of Indiewire said that Gotham was "the perfect antidote to superhero fatigue", praising the "bright, pop-inflected aesthetic, with urban backdrops that appear as though cut out from the panels of a comic book."