Fox/DC Moving forward with Gotham Central TV show, will focus on Commisioner Gordon

[Afrobean]

I hope Thomas and Martha show up as supporting characters.

Maybe the mob tries taking down Thomas and we get to see how he and Martha met.

That isn't what the comics tell us. Gordon came to Gotham around the same time that Bruce came back to be Batman. Batman: Year One tells us about Batman's entry into Gotham, but it also tells us about Gordon's first year in Gotham as well. Gordon being present as an officer during Bruce's childhood was made up for the Nolan films.

Yeah, yeah, TV show doesn't have to follow the comics, but I don't think they'd push Gordon's generation all the way back to being as old or older than Bruce's parents. Not if they want it to connect with the Batman mythos while still having Gordon as the hero of the story. With how the Internet reacted to this news, I suspect that they'll be incorporating more and more elements from Gotham Central, even if that wasn't their original goal. Even if Batman doesn't exist during the run of the show, I fully expect it to be happening "just" before Batman arrived in Gotham, not decades before. They'll be using the villains who are Batman's contemporaries, even though Batman just happens to have not come by yet.

End the series with Thomas and Martha's death.

So you see this show using characters like Mad Hatter, but yet it's a full couple of decades before Batman will be on the scene? You think that makes sense? Not that I condone it, but I could understand wanting to end the series before Batman exists at all... but ending the series a minimum of 12 years before Batman exists? That would be depressing and kind of pointless to the Batman mythos. It'd be like if instead of Smallville, we got a series about Jor-El on Krypton and the show ended when Krypton blew up.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

That isn't what the comics tell us. Gordon came to Gotham around the same time that Bruce came back to be Batman. Batman: Year One tells us about Batman's entry into Gotham, but it also tells us about Gordon's first year in Gotham as well. Gordon being present as an officer during Bruce's childhood was made up for the Nolan films.

Yeah, yeah, TV show doesn't have to follow the comics, but I don't think they'd push Gordon's generation all the way back to being as old or older than Bruce's parents. Not if they want it to connect with the Batman mythos while still having Gordon as the hero of the story. With how the Internet reacted to this news, I suspect that they'll be incorporating more and more elements from Gotham Central, even if that wasn't their original goal. Even if Batman doesn't exist during the run of the show, I fully expect it to be happening "just" before Batman arrived in Gotham, not decades before. They'll be using the villains who are Batman's contemporaries, even though Batman just happens to have not come by yet.

Yeah, so there's precedent that writers can change whatever they like and if it works it works.

Year One wasn't the first Gordon story or the Bible. It's just one take on the story. Does Catwoman still have some dominatrix origin?

This isn't Batman's story. It's Gordon/Gotham. The point is to set up how Gotham turns into what needs a Batman.

So you see this show using characters like Mad Hatter, but yet it's a full couple of decades before Batman will be on the scene? You think that makes sense? Not that I condone it, but I could understand wanting to end the series before Batman exists at all... but ending the series a minimum of 12 years before Batman exists? That would be depressing and kind of pointless to the Batman mythos. It'd be like if instead of Smallville, we got a series about Jor-El on Krypton and the show ended when Krypton blew up.

Don't many serial killers and criminals operate years/decades before they're caught?

You act like this is some imaginary world that you can do whatever you like in? Oh wait... it is.

Mad Hatter isn't the Joker. It doesn't matter if he's a 50 year old man by the time the Batman shows up but starts off as a disturbed 25 year old.

In my mind the point is to show how Gotham falls further. So it would be cool to see Carmine Falco rise through the ranks the same as Gordon. Parallels of good and evil that turn Gotham into the world Batman will inhabit.

 

[Afrobean]

Year One wasn't the first Gordon story or the Bible.

Funny that you name "the Bible", as Year One is currently canon. Yeah, they can change whatever they want and there is precedent: they could make Gordon homosexual, they could add Dick Grayson to the show as a detective, they could erase the Waynes from existence altogether, they could make Green Arrow a recurring support character in the role that could have been given to Batman if not for rights issues. They could make a lot of changes, some wilder departures than others, but is that a good thing? Just because they can make a change from the expected chronology, should we hope for or necessarily expect it? Furthermore, do we gain anything of value by telling a story twenty years before the Bat versus a story that, as the show goes on, continually exists in the immediate moment right before?

In my mind the point is to show how Gotham falls further. So it would be cool to see Carmine Falco rise through the ranks the same as Gordon. Parallels of good and evil that turn Gotham into the world Batman will inhabit.

I really don't want to see Carmine Falcone as Gordon's "arch enemy" or "dark mirror"... as soon as Batman arrives on the scene, which he presumably will at some point even if it's after the show's end, Falcone and his whole world are pretty quickly brushed aside in favor of the crazies like Joker or Riddler. I'd much rather just see Falcone as one of many mafiosos who Gordon has to deal with.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

Funny that you name "the Bible", as Year One is currently canon. Yeah, they can change whatever they want and there is precedent: they could make Gordon homosexual, they could add Dick Grayson to the show as a detective, they could erase the Waynes from existence altogether, they could make Green Arrow a recurring support character in the role that could have been given to Batman if not for rights issues. They could make a lot of changes, some wilder departures than others, but is that a good thing? Just because they can make a change from the expected chronology, should we hope for or necessarily expect it? Furthermore, do we gain anything of value by telling a story twenty years before the Bat versus a story that, as the show goes on, continually exists in the immediate moment right before?

It maybe the bible to the comics, but Nolan's movies grossed a billion dollars by liberally pulling from it, so I think that gives them some leadway to not feel like they have to do anything.

I really don't want to see Carmine Falcone as Gordon's "arch enemy" or "dark mirror"... as soon as Batman arrives on the scene, which he presumably will at some point even if it's after the show's end, Falcone and his whole world are pretty quickly brushed aside in favor of the crazies like Joker or Riddler. I'd much rather just see Falcone as one of many mafiosos who Gordon has to deal with.

It's not about being Gordon's dark mirror. It's about how Gotham turns into a place that needs a Batman.

Batman is still the main direction of the show. It's not Gordon can clean up the streets and have a happy ending. The city, by it's definition, has to get worse.

Showing that from all angles is the point. Mob, Police, Thomas/Martha, and the beginnings of the crazy criminals. That's why you sparingly use a few rogues.
Don't make this a freak-of-the-week. That's not the point.

 

[Dr. Evil]

This show is on Fox, so if I am Fox I'd debut it in November, so this way it won't lose any momentum when it gets bumped for Baseball. Or have it as a midseason show in January.

 

[BlackMagicWolf]

I've been hearing a lot of mixed feelings about Gotham. A lot of people don't see the potential for this show for some reason. I see a bunch of potential, so I wrote up an article on how I know it'll work...if done the right way.

Here's the link if you want to read, love to chat with you here or on the comments section about what you think.

http://twodashstash.com/2013/10/gotham-will-work-jim-gordon/