I love watching Gotham every week, but I'm worried about it's long term sustainability.
True Blood and Game Thrones have/had the same basic flaw in common in my view. They had too many characters in seemingly unconnected stories all over the place, and trying to include as many as possible every single week.
GoT is like that largely because of the Books it's adapted from, being all over the place is a bit more palpable in print. TB is also theoretically based on a series of books, but not really.
I don't have a problem with there being a lot of characters and a lot of story-lines. But we don't need to see everyone or even almost everyone every single week. Not if you're having stories this loosely connected. Gordon and maybe Bullock are the only ones who need to appear every episode.
It doesn't help that no one in this fandom agrees on what stories are the expendable ones.
Some people hate Fish and think she's the worst most pointless character. Others think she's the best Character on the show. I like the character, but some characters are hurt by seeing them to much. When Fish left Gotham after her plan against Falcone failed, that was a perfect time to simply have her be gone for awhile so her return latter could be a big deal. Instead we have this pointless Dollmaker story-line that basically thrives on Shock Value.
Some don't like Barbara, I love Barbara. Some don't like Tompkins, I like her but think her being a love interest for Gordon is a waste. I'm really upset we're not seeing more of Renee Montoya lately, but I wouldn't want her every single week either. If the show had been an adaptation of Gotham Central she'd have been a perfect lead, but it's not.
The people at LadyGeekGirl think Gordon is the most useless character, but as much as I love them they're sometimes living caricatures of radical liberals, who just hold a grudge over him being a "Cishet White Male lead". I think Gordon's character has improved a great deal during the second part of the season, he's no longer a typical bland lead.
Gotham is still salvageable, here is why.
This all over the place structure can work out if by the Season finale everything comes together. For Season 2 of True Blood that is what happened, the Texas stuff was wrapped up and the closing episodes were all about the Meaned. I loved Season 2.
But for Season 3, the last one I watched to it's end, that didn't happen. It ended on several separate cliff hangers.
You may be thinking," those shows lasted a really long time, why would it hurt Gotham?" a few key differences.
1. They had short seasons, 10-12 episodes, Gotham is getting 22, that makes a difference if your going to invest a lot of time in a story for things to never come together.
2. Gotham is a network show not a premium channel show, that makes the Ratings standards a lot different.
3. Neither of those shows seemed like followers of a Trend, rather they set trends.
4. Gotham has less respectability from the Critics and snobs to begin with for completely unfair reasons.
A season 2 for Gotham may seem like a sure thing right now, but many shows with strong first seasons drop quickly for season 2. And next year Gotham will have more competition then just the CW in being a DC based TV show.
I disagree with a lot of what you said. I think GoT does a great job of balancing characters especially since they have one of the biggest casts. They don't feature everyone all at once. Like this upcoming season won't have Bran Stark in it and that's okay even though his story line was just starting to get good. It's because GoT doesn't focus on everyone at the same time that you can tell how great the show is. I may not see my favorite character but I watch because maybe my favorite will interact with another character down the road. Sometimes we may not see the connection right away, but it happens in a later episode. Gotham can be thought of the same way. But I agree with you on the Fish story. I rather she pop up when you least expect it.
ReplyDeleteI have never seen anyone say they love Barbara. What is there to love? You seriously have to tell me because she has done nothing, but complain since the pilot. First it was all Gordon you have to let me in, then it was Gordon I'm giving you an ultimatum, then when he does share, it was I can't handle this. She leaves and then has sex with her ex who then dumps her. I don't blame the actress, I blame the poor writing skills.
Gordon is pretty much useless because his goal is to clean the streets which we know he won't succeed in doing because that's Batman's job. When you know how the story plays out, Gordon just seems so pointless. It has nothing to do with him being a white male lead at least to me it doesn't. I wish Gordon would just loosen up. He was never this uptight. By the book, yes, but not so stern and wooden. I wish the show didn't focus on him at all to tell you the truth. Agree with you on Thompkins.
Season 2 of True Blood was the worst season I watched (I did however skip a lot in season 6 and I didn't even watch season 7 so it's debatable if it's the worst season). That season was nothing but a huge orgy. The only good thing to come out of it was the set up for season 3. I'm just glad I made it through that one so I could enjoy my best season (3), which you're right did not end on a great note, but it did have a great story throughout the season.
I won't be watching but Gotham did get renewed so there will definitely be a season 2. Fox overall is having a terrible year (Empire really saved them) so it's really hard to see where Fox's head is at right now.
A Character doesn't have to do something to be likable to me. I enjoy Erin performance, especially the last we saw her. They need to write for all heir Female characters better.
DeleteBatman never really succeeds at that either. Gordon has been wooden at all lately, he's gotten fired up.
True Blood kept going because it always had fun shocking moments. But people want Coherency from a Batman show.
The fans at After Ellen also like Barbara
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