Duck Fox

Credit: Fox

When it comes to adaptations, there’s a fine line between fan service and pandering. Many an adaptation has attempted to shove every bit of trivia and reference the writers can come up with into a series, only to make it feel like the show’s writers picked up a generic script and pored through Wikipedia articles on the source material to see which names, places and events they could replace and have it hold up (I’m looking at you, Dragonball Evolution). The best adaptations tend to have a measured use of elements from the original series attached to a well-constructed frame full of new ideas and characters. Bruno Heller’s Gotham, thankfully takes more from the “build a new world on existing concepts” than the “drop fan service exactly every 30 seconds.”

Gotham centers on the developing relationship between James Gordon (Ben McKenzie), the city’s future Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department, and just about every other character in the Batman mythos. While focusing mainly on Gordon and Harvey Bullock’s (Donal Logue, of the gone-to-soon Terriers) budding relationship, Gordon gets screentime with Penguin, The Riddler, what’s likely to be Poison Ivy, and Carmine Falcone in just this first episode. The pilot opens with Gordon only recently arriving in the city. He’s been recruited because his deceased father used to be a District Attorney in Gotham, and James’ own war hero status certainly doesn’t hurt, if his current boss is to be believed. His first day is pretty eventful, as he first has to talk down a bruiser who’s stolen a fellow officer’s gun. The opening scene harkens back to the canon by having Gordon be the only officer not hold a gun on the suspect in a room full of dozens of trigger happy cops. Instead, Gordon decides to talk the man down, earning a reprimand from his newly appointed partner, Harvey Bullock.

The next scene is more sobering, as we see Bruce Wayne’s (David Mazouz) defining moment, and one of the most tragic moments in DC comics history: the murder of Martha and Thomas Wayne. It’s a little perfunctory, with the obligatory slow motion emphasizing the way Martha’s pearl necklace shatters along with Bruce Wayne’s reality. The mugger is decidedly colder than I would have expected, given the retelling usually suggest a desperate man versus a calculating hit. Gotham seems to be leaning towards the conspiracy angle. Given that it’s a television procedural this isn’t unexpected. It is still somewhat disappointing. Bruce Wayne never finds out who murdered his parents, despite being the world’s greatest detective, because the mugger was just some random Joe Chill. The randomness of the act is a fairly important element in making him decide to assault all crime, rather than just hunt for this one guy or the one group of people who were aiming to harm his family. But of course, this isn’t the story about Batman, it’s about Gordon.

So seeing Gordon share his own tragedy (his father was killed in a drunk driving accident) with Bruce, and tell him there is a way through the pain Bruce feels right now, is the perfect way to pay homage to the original premise while expanding on Gordon’s own life. The rest of the show does a similarly good job with the rest of the ensemble. The larger theme of Gotham’s corruption connects the myriad of characters. One of the most electrifying scenes in the Pilot capitalizes on this. Harvey Bullock goes to meet an underworld contact, Jada Pinkett-Smith’s original character, Fish Mooney. While the exact relationship between Bullock and Mooney isn’t expanded upon, it’s clear through their coy camaraderie that they’re not detective and suspect. Their unspoken understanding of how Gotham works is lost on James Gordon, who has nothing but disgust for the criminal activity Bullock overlooks.

And man is there criminal activity in Gotham. While there is only one actual case taking up time in the premiere—the murder of the Waynes—Gordon and Bullock are sent spiraling through a broken bureaucracy and every arm of the mob. Everyone has their own motives, schemes and obsessions. But there is really only one end in mind for all: power. Oswald Cobblepot, AKA the Penguin (Robin Taylor), hates his nickname and just seems to want enough power to get people to stop calling him that. Falcone is losing his grip on the criminal underbelly and wants to ensure he stays in power. Fish Mooney is a wildcard who is allegedly loyal to Falcone, but she apparently had her eyes on the Waynes for some reason. Really even Gordon seems to be warming to the idea of gathering enough force to take on the GCPD’s corruption directly. So direct he ends up dodging bullets and butcher knives in the first hour.

Which brings up the point of the action. Make no mistake, this is not your granddaddy’s police procedural. There’s certainly a few scenes which capture the old school police procedural feeling of hitting the pavement and interrogating suspects, but it eventually boils down to chasing guys and shooting them. Or just shooting them. These fast paced action sequences are well choreographed and timed, and Mackenzie really puts his all into them. The camera does some weird tricks with a couple of awkward push ins on Gordon as he’s chasing the first real lead in the Wayne murder, but aside from that the frenetic action is excellently framed.

Director Bruno Heller’s most recent work consisted of the rather sloppily plotted procedural, The Mentalist, so it’s all the more notable that he managed to capture the casual corruption of the police and marry it with the desperation and depravity of the criminal elements. 

Of course, Heller can’t fully elevate himself—his dialogue is still a little forced and leans too hard on the exposition. Together with Danny Cannon’s directing, Heller manages to pull out a little levity, but it leans a little too campy given the source material and overarching themes of the show. Make no mistake, this is not Batman’s version of Smallville, nor should it try to shoehorn in the 1950s-60s era light heartedness of Batman comics. But then in a way, it is like Smallville in that the story here is solidly about the city in the name, with the main characters acting as the pillars of the community who lend themselves to debauchery and murder as readily as you or I order Chinese food. Gordon is the man who stands on the edge of both the darkness and the light; fundamentally believing in the good of people, but slowly coming to understand just how broken the system he’s become a part of is. While we know Gordon will fight the good fight, and live to be an influence for Bruce Wayne for years to come, there’s still tension in seeing exactly how far he’ll go for the greater good before the Dark Knight rises. If this pilot is any indication, Gotham will be one hell of a ride!