10 Reasons You're Wrong About Gotham

by Ewan Paterson

1. You've Not Given It A Chance

Gotham Season 3
Fox

Right from its very first announcement, Gotham was met with criticism left right and centre. The aforementioned puritan chorus drowned out what little optimism there was regarding the series in online spaces, and it set the stage for what would follow.

The fact of the matter is that no one gave the series the time of day when it was released, dropping off after the second or third episode in protest of its ostensibly aberrant portrayal of the Kane-Finger comic. Considering how people have been incredibly patient to invest in Arrow - despite the fact that it's in no way faithful to that character's comics - the opposition feels somewhat baseless. Are people just happy to chop and change a character to get their Bat-analogue? Even at the expense of an accurate portrayal?

It makes little sense, and fans of Gotham will no doubt attest to the series' unashamed embrace of the Bat-mythos in its attempt to create a compelling show. This may lend the series a somewhat dissonant feel, in that it can often blend both the lighter and darker aspects of the comics together, but it works... somehow, as the scene above demonstrates.

Gotham is, at its core, a fun TV series about a young Batman. It might not be faithful, and it might not cater to the hardcore among the DC faithful, but its commitment to do its own thing must surely be admired or - if anything else - tolerated, as is the case with the CW's line of DC-themed programming.

So go on, give it a chance. There might just be something in there worth investing in.

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What are your thoughts on Gotham? Is it too big a departure from the source material? Let us know in the comments below!

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.