I will not be watching Gotham next year. I’m usually a completist who will watch a show to the bitter end regardless of quality, but I’m out. One and done. Should you watch Gotham? I would respond that it depends on WHY you want to watch Gotham. Whose story are you invested in?
First, Gotham suffers a pacing problem. Gotham wants everything, and it wants it now. I don’t remember who originally said it, but what if Gotham had shown viewers what Bruce Wayne’s life was like before his parents died or waited longer to kill them off? Instead Gotham does it in the first episode. It feels like everyone in Batman’s universe appears in the first few episodes, not even the first season. It is ridiculous, rushed and random.
Second, Gotham’s main focus is on Jim Gordon and the police force. Unfortunately Jim is not innately interesting. I have nothing against Ben McKenzie, and I adore Donal Logue, but they’re the least interesting characters in the show. You get what you see-there is no development. Jim started out incorruptible and determined, and he is who he is. Harvey Bullock is basically good although extremely shady, and that is who he is. Sure the story’s tension lies in whether or not they will root out the corruption among them, but we already know the answer to that so yawn!
Third, Barbara Kean is probably the most poorly written character on any show, including Gotham. She has no characteristics except apparently everyone wants to sleep with her, she is wealthy and an alcoholic. Things generally happen to her as opposed to her responding to them based on a set of firm characteristics.
Fourth, the villains are moderately more interesting, but generally hit or miss. Carmine Falcone gets interesting towards the middle of the season, but otherwise John Doman just walks on set and leaves. I like Selina Kyle, Ivy, Penguin, etc., but again there is no character development. They come crazy or criminal and sprout fully formed from Zeus’ head. They are as interesting as the obstacles they face.
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The only villain with any character development is Fish Mooney. Before Gotham, I lived in a world without Jada Pinkett Smith, but when I saw the commercials for Gotham, I could not believe it was her. She was transformative, badass and interesting. When I watched the show, Fish Mooney was the only one who was unpredictable: her allegiances, her motivations, her fears and strengths. Jada Pinkett Smith gave me an Eartha Kitt growl with the poise of a ruler.
Initially her storyline was predictable-she wanted to be the head of the criminal organization and unseat Falcone, but something amazing happened.
Fish Mooney became Spartacus- a ruler robbed of her kingdom, taken to an unfamiliar territory and the leader of an enslaved population. She became the Khalessi of Gotham. The obstacles got progressively harder, and this tiny woman met each of them using her wits, her strength and will. She became positively Spartan when she chose to rip out her own eye instead of surrender to her wannabe masters. Her enslavement was their doom, not hers. The question of what she actually feared and whom she actually cared for became more interesting than any part of Gotham. When she did not appear, Gotham suffered. She was tortured, kidnapped, dismembered, threatened with rape, shot repeatedly and still refused to die while creating a new army of henchmen and allies while honestly saying that they may not survive.
I am not an idiot so I knew that Fish would die because of contract announcements so after so much build up, her death would either have to be magnificent or poetic. Gotham almost got it right. If Butch, a long-time ally whom Fish cared for deeply, had shot and killed her, I would have accepted it, but if she could fly a helicopter after getting shot, she could take the Penguin, who is only an effective murderer if he surprises or attacks someone who can’t fight back. Fish saw him coming and at least both of them should have gone over board. So Gotham does not get what made it great, and I have no interest in being strung along for any more predictable or ridiculous episodes. Thanks, but no thanks.