Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
Cast: Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, Erin Richards, Robin Lord Taylor, David Mazouz, Zabryna Guevara, Sean Pertwee, Camren Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith, Victoria Cartagena, Andrew Stewart-Jones, John Doman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nick D’Agosto, Morena Baccarin, Chelsea Spack, Richard Kind, Clare Foley, Carol Kane, Peter Scolari, Milo Ventimiglia, Julian Sands.
Occasionally the often spoilt brat in the corner of the room spits out something convincing and truly entertaining. The land of the free has added quite a few of these moments over the years but at times, more often than not, anything that has come out of the American television companies always feels as though it’s just been let loose like Frankenstein’s monster. Its comedies have always been first class, it is in its drama, especially its detective projects, where it falls down, suffering in comparison to the likes of Morse, Gently, Lewis, Poirot and Marple.
Give the detective drama enough twist, Bones for example or even the dogged Colombo and it can enthral and keep the viewer entertained enough to think on par with the British or even the Scandinavian Noir detective. When it twists round enough to look itself in the face, to see the reflection of the society it is supposed to parodying, then it becomes legendary and in Gotham, the city that D.C Comic’s hero Batman prowls with dark justice in his heart; that reflection really is to admired and looked at deeply.
It may seem strange that whilst D.C.’s other main comic strip hero has had his early life documented in the average Smallville, Batman/Bruce Wayne has been left alone. The simple fact that Christian Bale has given much gravitas to the Dark Knight in three outstanding films is to be applauded and yet the first series of Gotham has added so much more, so much definition and colour to the fable of the origins of Batman that in all the filmed versions of the life of Bruce Wayne, this really is the pinnacle of anything that D.C/television or film/graphic novels has offered so far.
Arguably the appeal of the series lays in the fact that Bruce Wayne is not the cornerstone of the various strands of the story. That’s not to say that Bruce Wayne doesn’t appear but it is the very young David Mazouz in which the foundations are placed. The success of the series should be seen in how the re-imagining of how some of the more memorable villains of the comic book are viewed. Oswald “Penguin” Cobblepot, portrayed by Robin Lord Taylor, is a revelation of criminal proportions; Don Falcone is a well rounded character and far and away more human than his comic book twin and Edward Nygma, the emerging Riddler, is one of the most fascinating villains to be screened as his human frailty comes out.
It is though in a character that was conceived for the television series, Fish Mooney, played by Jada Pinkett Smith, which holds all the aces. Psychopathic, ambitious, downright scary and played with exquisite charm by a very good actor, Fish Mooney is a creation in which congratulations should be laid at the scriptwriter’s feet.
Surrounding them all is Detective James Gordon, the true hero of Gotham, incorruptible, loyal but with that dash of anti-hero that makes him fallible and interesting. Trying to compare Ben McKenzie’s portrayal against possibly the finest Commissioner Gordon of them all in Gary Oldman, is like trying to discuss the merits of the same cuts of prime steak, yet where Gary Oldman gave the part the gravitas it required in the darker Batman films, Ben McKenzie’s portrayal is more grounded, less concerned with selling the tightrope of moral values and one for whom seems perfect in a role designed to take the spotlight away from the man who will hold justice in his grip in years to come.
One of the great American detective programmes, only made possible by turning the mirror round 180 degrees and making it face the darkness in the heart of all. A classic!
Ian D. Hall