Official GOTHAM Description Emphasizes James Gordon

There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Fox’s Batman prequel show Gotham. While we know the show will revolve around James Gordon as well as tell the origin of Bruce Wayne and multiple Batman villains, there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding what the show will be about. To alleviate some of our confusion, Fox has officially opened the Gotham website on Fox.com, revealing the logo for the series and the first detailed plot synopsis.

Everyone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world’s greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon’s story and his rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? What did it take to navigate the multiple layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world’s most iconic villains? And what circumstances created them – the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker?

 GOTHAM is an origin story of the great DC Comics super villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told. From executive producer/writer Bruno Heller (“The Mentalist,” “Rome”), GOTHAM follows one cop’s rise through a dangerously corrupt city teetering on the edge of evil and chronicles the birth of one of the most popular super heroes of our time. 

Growing up in Gotham City’s surrounding suburbs, JAMES GORDON (Ben McKenzie, “Southland,” “The O.C.”) romanticized the city as a glamorous and exciting metropolis where his late father once served as a successful district attorney. Now, two weeks into his new job as a Gotham City detective and engaged to his beloved fiancée, BARBARA KEAN (Erin Richards, “Open Grave,” “Breaking In”), Gordon is living his dream – even as he hopes to restore the city back to the pure version he remembers it was as a kid. 

Brave, honest and ready to prove himself, the newly-minted detective is partnered with the brash, but shrewd police legend HARVEY BULLOCK (Donal Logue, “Sons of Anarchy,” “Terriers,” “Vikings,” “Copper”), as the two stumble upon the city’s highest-profile case ever: the murder of local billionaires Thomas and Martha Wayne. At the scene of the crime, Gordon meets the sole survivor: the Waynes’ hauntingly intense 12-year-old son, BRUCE (David Mazouz, “Touch”), toward whom the young detective feels an inexplicable kinship. Moved by the boy’s profound loss, Gordon vows to catch the killer. 

As he navigates the often-underhanded politics of Gotham’s criminal justice system, Gordon will confront imposing gang boss FISH MOONEY (Jada Pinkett Smith, “The Matrix” films, “HawthoRNe,” “Collateral”), and many of the characters who will become some of fiction’s most renowned, enduring villains, including a teenaged SELINA KYLE/the future CATWOMAN (acting newcomer Camren Bicondova) and OSWALD COBBLEPOT/THE PENGUIN (Robin Lord Taylor, “The Walking Dead,” “Another Earth”). 

Although the crime drama will follow Gordon’s turbulent and singular rise through the Gotham City police department, led by Police Captain SARAH ESSEN (Zabryna Guevara, “Burn Notice”), it also will focus on the unlikely friendship Gordon forms with the young heir to the Wayne fortune, who is being raised by his unflappable butler, ALFRED (Sean Pertwee, “Camelot,” “Elementary”). It is a friendship that will last them all of their lives, playing a crucial role in helping the young boy eventually become the crusader he’s destined to be.

GOTHAM is based upon characters published by DC Comics and is produced by Warner Bros. Television. Executive producer Bruno Heller (“The Mentalist”) wrote the pilot, which will be directed and executive-produced by Emmy Award nominee Danny Cannon (the “CSI” series, “Nikita”).

The show has also opened up an official Twitter account @Gotham to accompany the Facebook page, which has already been out several months.

While I’ve been skeptical on the idea of a Batman prequel show, I appreciate that the synopsis highlights Gordon’s elevated status. This show has always been touted primarily as exploring his younger days, so I’m glad that he’s considered the main character of the show. It look like the series will deviate from the source material and give Gordon a connection to Gotham City stretching back to his childhood. Most stories have Gordon moving to Gotham City well into his police career, but I’m okay with him “romanticizing” the city he remembered as a boy. That will help the audience understand why he wants to clean the city up.

More importantly, however, is his relationship with young Bruce Wayne. Recent Batman stories, most notably Batman Begins, have shown Gordon as watching over Bruce in the hours after his parents were killed. For Gotham, it appears that Gordon will take extra interest in Bruce and develop a closer relationship with him than we’ve seen before.

Speaking of which, there’s the matter of the Waynes’ killer. Ideally the show will stick to the idea that their murder was a simple mugging gone wrong. Obviously the police want to catch the guy, but I don’t want this to turn into a multi-season arc of how Joe Chill was actually an assassin payed by the mob to “whack” the Waynes. Maybe it’s just me, but I think the mugger angle works better, especially since it will eventually teach Bruce that not all crime is connected or has a purpose. Sometimes it’s just random and violent.

The synopsis didn’t reveal too much about the other characters that we didn’t already know from casting announcements (Bullock is gruff, Fish Mooney is the big boss, Penguin is a small-time criminal, etc). Bruce and Alfred seem to be taking supporting roles for the series, which is fine. There’s not much to tell while Bruce is still this young, but as the show goes on, I imagine he’ll take a more prominent role as he begins his quest to rid Gotham City of crime.

Well, we’ve got the story details down, now we need some official pictures of the actors in character. Ben McKenzie better be able to pull off that Gordon mustache!

SOURCE: GothamSite