There's just something about that Batman universe that makes for good TV. Gotham is the latest adaptation of the Dark Knight to appear on the small screen and it's good. We're dealing with an origin story that doesn't immediately jump to "and then he became a hero." No, the focus here is firmly on the interactions between the rising supervillains and the rising Detective James Gordon.
We're only one hour into the series and the people who will become Penguin, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, The Riddler, and The Joker have already been introduced. Only Penguin and Catwoman are already criminals. Catwoman is already obsessed with young Bruce Wayne.
The pilot episode is a bit frenetic, but it has to be. This is a very different kind of superhero show. Unlike Arrow or Smallville, the focus is not on the rise of the popular hero. This isn't some high school soap opera with young crime fighters. Quite the contrary. Bruce Wayne is actually portrayed as a young boy and the show kicks off with the murder of his parents in the alley.
The focus here is on Detective Gordon and his partner, Detective Harvey Bullock (aka the crooked cop). Gordon just got promoted to detective and is assigned to be Bullock's partner. Bullock will do anything to solve the case and has a deep connection to underground crime in Gotham.
That connection is the true genius of the show, the newly created Fish Mooney character. Fish Mooney is a ruthless mob boss who runs a night club. Her men fear her and do everything she says instantly. She does not fool around. If something needs to be done, she'll do it herself. That go-to attitude involves a whole lot of breaking chairs and baseball bats over disloyal employees' faces. Her fourth victim in the pilot episode (arguably fifth, an impressive attack count either way for about 10 minutes of screen time) finds out firsthand what happens if you betray Fish Mooney and it's brutal.
It's not hard to see where the series is going at this point. Gordon promises young Bruce Wayne that he will find the man who killed his parents. Another criminal is framed and killed to preserve order in Gotham and Gordon is stuck fighting against an unknown murderer, his crooked partner, and the Major Crimes Unit officers trying to take him down. Meanwhile, all the criminals are circling the top of the mob pyramid, trying to dethrone the Don and take over the city of Gotham. And then there's the mystery of how the good guys already introduced turn bad.
You can watch the pilot episode right now on Hulu. Gotham airs Monday nights at 8PM on Fox.
