Gotham: Requiem

Final Thoughts

Random observations!

• Richard Kind plays Aubrey James, the easily corrupted Mayor of Gotham. He’s always kind of neat as a sinister character, probably because he’s so perfectly suited for broad comedy, and the discongruity is interesting to watch. He gets deposed by proper villains at least twice, and by actual politicians at least once, but finds his way back to City Hall so often he’s mayor again in the finale.
• David Mazouz does some occasionally digitally altered voice work in the finale (his Bat-voice is as good as anything else they did with the character), and Camren Bicondova gets it off completely, because while she has her skills, “Not looking 15” is not yet among them. Adult Selina is played instead by Banshee and Bone Tomahawk’s Lili Simmons, who actually does look like Camren 10 years later, and nails her awkward reunion with Bruce (who basically just bailed on her without warning after Reunification) so well I wish she was getting a Catwoman spinoff.
• Does Jeremiah realize Bruce is the bat-guy who shows up to ruin his torment of Jim Gordon? Or does he just think this new bat-guy is a hoot? Who’s to say. Other than Cameron Monaghan, who probably wouldn’t tell me.
• In most cases, if there’s a plot you don’t like, it won’t last long. This show is all about mini-arcs after season one. Maybe that was a choice, maybe it was lack of attention span in the writers’ room, I reiterate, who’s to say.
• Comics-Sarah Essen was Jim Gordon’s second wife, fought with him in No Man’s Land, and then was killed by the Joker right before Reunification. TV-Sarah Essen is Jim’s Captain in season one, begins to regret her precinct’s wicked ways, becomes Police Commissioner in season two, and gets killed by Jerome Valeska. So… they got one part of her character almost right.
• Paul Reubens, who played Penguin’s father in Batman Returns, has a short arc in season two as… Penguin’s father. That’s the sort of stunt casting I always love.
• One of my favourite things in season four was watching them try to shoot a scene so we wouldn’t notice that Baby Bruce was now taller than Jim Gordon.

Gotham was… I wouldn’t say “good.” I’d never go that far. But by god it wasn’t boring. Well, it eventually wasn’t boring. It was weirdly riveting, tuning in to see what shenanigans they’d dream up from week to week, even the bad ones, and I’ll miss their takes on Penguin, Riddler, and Zsasz for a while.

At some point, maybe not in season one but eventually, the new Batwoman show might consider pitting Penguin or Riddler against Kate Kane (not Zsasz, he’s in Birds of Prey*, and the film branch does not like sharing), and when that time comes, they’ll probably recast with some convenient Vancouver actor.

I wish they wouldn’t.

Because they are not going to do better. And… well… the cast all probably have some spare time, so… if any Arrowverse writers are reading…

Put the Gotham cast in Crisis on Infinite Earths, you cowards.

I shouldn’t miss Gotham. And yet, in a weird way, I will a little. Only watching comic book shows I honestly like feels weird and wrong somehow.

(*I know what the subtitle is, but I’m not typing it out, nobody has that kind of time.)

Next time… ah, who knows. Doom Patrol won’t be done for weeks and I’m not sure I can make several pages of “Trust me, just watch Umbrella Academy” really sing, you know?

Images: Warner Bros.