You knew going into "Gotham" that it was going to be a Batman show based in the past, with no Batman. With the first season almost over, have things gone as you anticipated they would in terms of the reaction to the show and its success?
I think the thing that's true of all first-year shows, at least every first year show that I've ever been on -- and I've done three now -- is it's impossible to predict almost anything in terms of the reaction to the show by the public at large, but also the evolution of the show itself. This show in particular has had an interesting first year. I'm very proud of it. I've grown a lot. I believe in the first year. I think we've learned from some mistakes that we made in the first year.
After we made what I consider a very strong pilot, we ended up on a detour where we became a little too procedural. We became a little too focused on the crime of the week and we were using villains that were not really from the mythology. That did a disservice to the mythology that we were trying to serve, and to the fans. We've adjusted. We've introduced villains with multi-episode arcs. They are from the mythology by-and-large and the grandeur of Gotham is more fully exposed. We're learning as you learn on the first year of a show. You can only learn by making mistakes and correcting them.
As far as the reaction to the show, it's been incredible. I honestly expected a little more flak. Any time you enter into a universe that is beloved, people have strong opinions. By and large, it's been incredibly positive. Obviously, the show is a hit and watched all over the world. I know that we can do better and will continue to do better in Season Two in terms of the stories we're telling and how we tell them. But, I'm very proud of the show. So far, so good. I'm particularly relieved that the primary criticism of the show -- a Batman show without a Batman -- at this point, I believe has been shown to be a misunderstood complaint. If one is really a fan of Batman and the world of Batman, I would think discovering how Batman came to be and how the villains came to be, is fascinating to me. At this point, we dodged that bullet for the most part, but need to live up to the expectations of the fans.
