GOTHAM
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Blockbuster comic book adaptations have been propping up Hollywood movie studios for years but TV, which had a brief involvement with superheroes in the Seventies, is now very much in on the act again. After Smallville's very successful run for about a decade, we now have Arrow, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD and most recently, Gotham.
Venturing into the pre-history of the Batman's genesis, Gotham certainly didn't stint on production values. The opening sequence, depicting the pivotal double murder of Bruce Wayne's parents, was a glossily knee-dipping homage to both Tim Burton's Batman and Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins. And the drama's movie-like visual panache is certainly one of the best reasons to watch the show.
Even more compelling was that, despite some moments of cartoonish violence, this opening episode was also exceedingly good fun – with plenty to entertain both Batman obsessives and novices alike. With central figure Bruce Wayne being, for now at least, a grieving 12-year-old traumatised by witnessing his parents' deaths, the focus had to move elsewhere. And it landed on James Gordon, the heroic rookie detective investigating their murder – who in a canny stroke of casting is played by Ben McKenzie.
Batman fans will have instantly clocked the name Gordon as that of the policeman who eventually becomes Commissioner Gordon, Batman's chief ally in the fight against crime and corruption in Gotham. Similarly, the large cast of characters featured a plethora of other familiar names – from butler Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee) to crime boss Carmine Falcone (John Dornan) and, most notably in this episode, corrupt cop Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) and Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor), aka the Penguin.
Indeed part of the fun was trying to figure out who was who (other tantalising glimpses flagged up characters who may or may not become Catwoman, Poison Ivy and the Riddler) and separating them from vivid new creations for the series like the glamorously vicious club owner Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith). Should the series run and run, it could encounter problems – not least that some of these villains could be of pensionable age by the time Bruce Wayne matures into Batman. But for now it certainly has a broader appeal, and delivers more fun and surprises than any other comic book TV.
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