Gotham (TV series)

Gotham
General Information
Format:	16:9 (HDTV)
Created by:	Bruno Heller Danny Cannon
No. of Series:	5
No. of Episodes:	100
Duration of Episodes:	42–49 mins
Starring:	see here

Gotham is a TV series based on James Gordon's early days as a policeman in Gotham City and Bruce Wayne's path to becoming Batman, as well as the origins of several of Batman's rogues' gallery such as Penguin, Riddler, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Bane, Ventriloquist and the Joker.

Overview

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.

Acclaim and Influence

The series marked the live-action debut of many iconic Batman characters like the Ventriloquist, Hugo Strange, Professor Pyg, Sensei, Mutant Leader, Renee Montoya, Thomas Elliot, Leslie Thompkins, Sarah Essen and the Red Hood Gang. Obscure and forgotten Batman villains like the Executioner, Magpie, Lunkhead, Cornelius Stirk, Jane Doe, Headhunter and the Toymaker were also introduced over the course of the show's run. The plots often drew inspiration from comic storylines that were released just prior or even during the series' release, such as the plot surrounding the Court of Owls, as well as adapting characters that were only introduced in the comics very recently, like the Dentist, Mother, Dollmaker, Talon or the modern version of Copperhead, which was based on the Arkhamverse incarnation. Classic villains like the Ventriloquist, Mad Hatter, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Bane or Firefly were given new and unique origin stories, while others like Mr. Freeze's genesis story were given an unexpected twist.

New villains created specifically for the show like The Mask and Bridgit Pike were adapted for use in comic book continuity. The idea of a young Penguin working for Carmine Falcone and then filling the power vacuum after Falcone's retirement served as an inspiration for the comic storyline Batman: The War of Jokes and Riddles. Actress Peyton List later reprised her role as Poison Ivy for the 2019 animated movie Batman: Hush, a role which she already played in the fourth and fifth season of Gotham.

Cast

Main Cast

• Ben McKenzie as James Gordon
• Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock
• David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne and 514A
• Zabryna Guevara as Sarah Essen (main season 1-2)
• Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth
• Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot
• Erin Richards as Barbara Kean
• Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle
• Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma
• Cameron Monaghan as Jerome Valeska (guest season 1; recurring season 2-4) and Jeremiah Valeska ( recurring season 4-5)
• Victoria Cartagena as Renee Montoya (main season 1)
• Andrew Stewart-Jones as Crispus Allen (main season 1)
• John Doman as Carmine Falcone (main season 1; recurring season 3; guest season 2,4)
• Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney (main season 1; recurring season 3; guest season 2)
• Morena Baccarin as Leslie Thompkins (main season 2-5; recurring season 1)
• James Frain as Theo Galavan (main season 2)
• Jessica Lucas as Tabitha Galavan (main season 2-5)
• Chris Chalk as Lucius Fox (main season 2-5; guest season 1)
• Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean (main season 2-4; recurring season 1)
• Nicholas D'Agosto as Harvey Dent (main season 2; recurring season 2)
• Michael Chiklis as Nathaniel Barnes (main season 2-3)
• Clare Foley, Maggie Geha, and Peyton List as Ivy Pepper (main season 3; recurring seasons 1,2 and 4,5)
• Benedict Samuel as Jervis Tetch (main season 3; recurring season 4; guest season 5)
• Crystal Reed as Sofia Falcone (main season 4)
• Alexander Siddig as Ra's al Ghul (main season 4; guest season 3)

Episodes

Season 1

• "Pilot"
• "Selina Kyle"
• "The Balloonman"
• "Arkham"
• "Viper"
• "Spirit of the Goat"
• "Penguin's Umbrella"
• "The Mask"
• "Harvey Dent"
• "Lovecraft"
• "Rogues' Gallery"
• "What The Little Bird Told Him"
• "Welcome Back, Jim Gordon"
• "The Fearsome Dr. Crane"
• "The Scarecrow"
• "The Blind Fortune Teller"
• "Red Hood"
• "Everyone Has a Cobblepot"
• "Beasts of Prey"
• "Under the Knife"
• "The Anvil or the Hammer"
• "All Happy Families Are Alike"

Season 2

• "Rise of the Villains: Damned If You Do..."
• "Rise of the Villains: Knock, Knock"
• "Rise of the Villains: The Last Laugh"
• "Rise of the Villains: Strike Force"
• "Rise of the Villains: Scarification"
• "Rise of the Villains: By Fire"
• "Rise of the Villains: Mommy's Little Monster"
• "Rise of the Villains: Tonight’s the Night"
• "Rise of the Villains: A Bitter Pill to Swallow"
• "Rise of the Villains: The Son of Gotham"
• "Rise of the Villains: Worse Than A Crime"
• "Rise of the Villains: Mr. Freeze"
• "Rise of the Villains: A Dead Man Feels No Cold"
• "Wrath of the Villains: This Ball of Mud and Meanness"
• "Wrath of the Villains: Mad Grey Dawn"
• "Prisoners"
• "Wrath of the Villains: Into the Woods"
• "Wrath of the Villains: Pinewood"
• "Wrath of the Villains: Azrael"
• "Wrath of the Villains: Unleashed"
• "Wrath of the Villains: A Legion of Horribles"
• "Wrath of the Villains: Transference"

Season 3

• "Mad City: Better to Reign in Hell..."
• "Mad City: Burn the Witch"
• "Mad City: Look Into My Eyes"
• "Mad City: New Day Rising"
• "Mad City: Anything for You"
• "Follow the White Rabbit"
• "Mad City: Red Queen"
• "Mad City: Blood Rush"
• "Mad City: The Executioner"
• "Mad City: Time Bomb"
• "Mad City: Beware the Green-Eyed Monster"
• "Mad City: Ghosts"
• "Mad City: Smile Like You Mean It"
• "Mad City: The Gentle Art of Making Enemies"
• "Heroes Rise: How the Riddler Got His Name"
• "Heroes Rise: These Delicate and Dark Obsessions"
• "Heroes Rise: The Primal Riddle"
• "Heroes Rise: Light The Wick"
• "Heroes Rise: All Will Be Judged"
• "Heroes Rise: Pretty Hate Machine"
• "Heroes Rise: Destiny Calling"
• "Heroes Rise: Heavydirtysoul"

Season 4

• "Pax Penguina"
• "The Fear Reaper"
• "They Who Hide Behind Masks"
• "The Demon's Head"
• "The Blade's Path"
• "Hog Day Afternoon"
• "A Day in the Narrows"
• "Stop Hitting Yourself"
• "Let Them Eat Pie"
• Things That Go Boom"
• "Queen Takes Knight"
• "Pieces of a Broken Mirror"
• "A Beautiful Darkness"
• "Reunion"
• "The Sinking Ship The Grand Applause"
• "One of My Three Soups"
• "Mandatory Brunch Meeting"
• "That's Entertainment"
• "To Our Deaths and Beyond"
• "That Old Corpse"
• "One Bad Day"
• "No Man's Land"

Season 5

• "Year Zero"
• "The Fear Reaper"
• "Trespassers"
• "Penguin, Our Hero"
• "Ruin"
• "Pena Dura"
• "Ace Chemicals"
• "Nothing's Shocking"
• "The Trial of Jim Gordon"
• I Am Bane"
• "They Did What?"
• "The Beginning..."

Easter Eggs

Producers put easter eggs to gotham universe about the Batman Mythos.

• ''Smile'' word on a building.
• young Bruce draw what would appear to be the first concept sketches for the famous Batcave to his sketchbook and he drew a monstrous beast, seemingly of reptilian nature with a whole bunch of teeth. 
• In "Penguin's Umbrella" a graffiti saying The Riddler are coming can be seen. 
• In "Rogues' Gallery" Nurse Dorothy first appears overseeing the asylum's play, which results in a fight between the cast/inmates, which Jim breaks up. Dorothy says that the genre may have been too much for them to handle, and that in the future they will stick to comedies, this is a clear easter egg to The Joker. 

Videos

Gotham Trailer

Gotham - First Reaction to the Pilot - IGN Conversation

Cast of Gotham Talks Batman's Origins - Comic Con 2014

Gotham The Synopsis

Gotham Season 1

Gotham B-Roll

Gotham Sneak Peek

Gotham The Dark Side Of Gotham

See Also

• Gotham (TV series)/Gallery