When the first announcements of Fox’ upcoming series Gotham started trickling down, it put a whickery little chill down or collective literary spine(s). Do we really need the Smallville version of the Batman origin? Then we saw the pictures of the cute li’l guy who’s playing young Bruce Wayne and the chills go worse.
Then came the trailer from Fox and … well, maybe it’s not so bad. The production design is first-rate – this really does look like Gotham City, without the gleeful excesses of Tim Burton or the monolithic weight of Chirstopher Nolan. And though the boy playing young Gordon is kind of a dead fish, the ‘look’ of the young version of Selina Kyle, E. Nigma, Oswald Cobblepot and more are really pretty stylish and even – dare we dream? – interesting. Then we heard that Sean Pertwee, the actual, biological son of The Fourth Doctor, was signing on as Alfred, and finally the closer: Donal Logue as the legendary slob detective Harvey Bullock. And if you haven’t seen Logue do — well, pretty much anything, but especially Terriers, the woefully short-live cable series now on Netflix, see it. The guys’ gold.
SO we have been forced to revise our opinion from an unequivocal “Hell, no!” to a cautiously optimistic “Well, mayyybeee.” Judge for yourself with the extended trailer below, and hold your breath until the fall, when Gotham appears out of the misty night and clings to flatscreen on Fox:
