Poll of the Day > Is the Gotham TV series any good?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I honestly had no idea this show existed until recently.
I love the hell out of Smallville. I've always liked Batman more than Superman though. I'm surprised I haven't heard that Gotham TV series existed until recently because apparently it already went through its entire run.
I"ve always liked Batman's darker tone, specifically in the Christopher Nolan films and in Arkham Asylum game.
Is Gotham recommended for me?

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No

there are a few points where it seems like it might start to get good, but it never does

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No, but that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it

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^Were you two fans of Smallville?

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No, it's always on the cusp of being good but never quite gets there.

I like Smallville.

Season one was good, but it was still finding its identity. After that it shifted to less police/mafia drama and more weirdness and playing with Batman lore, without taking itself too seriously. I liked it well enough, but I actually dropped it about halfway in because it came on at the same time as another show I liked more.

Also I love Smallville. I'm about to finish a re-watch actually.

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so Gotham couldn't capture the magic Smallville had huh
Bummer, I figured it was too good to be true

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Some seasons were okay, but it also goes off the rails at times and characters shift pretty fucking dynamically between seasons. Fucking Barbara seems to have a new personality, etc, every season. Characters seem to change alliances at the drop of a hat, only to later remind us that they logically still dislike each other and go back to doing that.

And some of the characters kinda work, others kinda don't, the character ages sometimes present issues, etc.

On the whole, I enjoyed it, but I'd hesitate to call it good. That whole last season -- which is also shorter than other seasons -- is kind of a write-off. There was a lot undeveloped potential.

The handling midway through was fucking awesome, particularly his big plan which -- outwardly -- felt like a very Batman thing. Then they kind of do a bunch of odd things with him. Penguin has lots of moments of greatness, but there are also tons of weird, implausible moments like where he falls in love with Riddler, purely because Riddler is the only person who seems to like him; up until that point he'd been portrayed as being asexual which, itself, was a little odd. And one of Penguin's storylines -- which was kinda fun -- seemed to exist solely to find a way to use him (namely the arc where he learns about his father and reconnects with him)

Ferarri619 posted...

^Were you two fans of Smallville?

Yes, which also went off the rails at times, but probably not as dramatically as Gotham. There are some parallels, though, particularly with weird continuity changes towards the end to make it seem more like it would fit with the normal universe.

Smallville was a lot heavier on the teen drama and various social elements. There are soap opera-ish elements in Gotham, but it's a bit less pronounced (and revolve around Gordon mostly).

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I enjoyed the hell out of Smallville for six, maybe seven seasons. I don't remember exactly what it was at this point. But something changed and it really killed my interest in the show.

I also really enjoyed Gotham and watched it until it ended.


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Bugmeat posted...

I don't remember exactly what it was at this point. But something changed and it really killed my interest in the show.

Could have been either too much Clark/Lana, no more Lex/Lionel, the darker tone of the second half, or just generally subpar writing.

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