Just finished watching the premier of Gotham, the prequel show to Batman. I wasn’t going to watch it because, much like Smallville, I don’t really care to watch a show before the superhero is the superhero. But positive buzz was enough to get me to check out the pilot.

Gee…never seen that before.

I went in with an “I dare you to try and entertain me” attitude, and this show at least took the dare. (Unlike “Man of Steel” which took a dump on Superman’s legacy…but I digress). I won’t commit to watching it every week yet, but I’ll give episode 2 a try. Maybe the issues I have with the show will fall by the waste side now that the pilot has set everything up.

The first thing that jumped out at me was how they really crammed all the characters into this first episode. A lot of Star Wars prequel-esque coincidences of major baddies crossing paths. Catwoman happens to be in the alley the night the Waynes get shot? The Riddler is a crime tech in Gordan’s police station? The Penguin happens to be working for the gang leader who [spoiler] frames Poison Ivy’s dad for the murder of the Waynes? Oh and the Joker just happens to be auditioning to be a comedian at that crime boss’s club that same week? This is all in the first half of the show! I was half expecting Mr. Freeze to pop out when the characters end up in a meat locker. But I get it. We’ve gotta set these people up so we know them later. Hopefully these amazingly coincidental crossing of paths won’t be as prevalent in future episodes.

I will say, if this show is gonna work, it’s going to be because of this guy…

“Hello, I’m detective handsome.”

That’s the new Jim Gordan. Definitely the highlight of the show for me. He’s new to Gotham and he’s a good cop in a bad city. Not too dissimilar from the way we find Gary Oldman’s Gordan in Batman Begins. But this guy’s got some of that charisma that you read about (come to think of it, you’re reading about it now). They’ve written him well as a straight cop who just wants to do the right thing, and he’s very interesting to watch. They also imply that his fiance, Barbara, was (is?) bisexual. So I look forward to something hot come sweeps week.

But the main reason I may not stick with the show is the same reason I don’t watch things like Lost, Once Upon a Time, Star Trek: Voyager*, etc. Basically any show where there is a central question/problem that can’t be answered/solved because it would mean the end of the show. In this case, Gordan promises young Bruce he will find the man who killed his parents. You know he’s not going to find him until the last episode of the show. I don’t want to sit through 5 seasons of treading water. Just find him and then give me weekly adventures of Gordan kicking ass. In this particular case, it’s even worse, because we’ll have to sit through tons of episodes and WE ALREADY KNOW WHO DID IT!

“Hey look at that…it was Joe Chill. What a surprise. That was totally worth 5 years of my life.”
-No One

But like I said, I’ll watch episode 2 before I write this show off. If David Tennant’s charisma could be enough to get me to stick with Doctor Who, maybe Ben McKenzie has what it takes to keep me watching Gotham.

We’ll see. Speaking of see…let’s see today’s product…

Attention: I Don’t Care Tee Shirts by TANcast

*Full disclosure – Star Trek: Voyager, in addition to having the “solving the central problem would end the series” flaw, also sucked. So there’s that.