10 Reasons You're Wrong About Gotham

4. The First Season Showed Massive Potential

Gotham Pilot
Fox

Admittedly, Gotham hasn't managed to exhibit the same form it showed in its first season, but that's no excuse to write it off.

While that very season sported the ever-annoying '24' syndrome (in which a series stalls after a stunning mid-season finale), it's important to remember just how compelling those first ten episodes were. It had everything a cracking Miller-esque TV show should have: action, tension, James Gordon fighting the system, and it built towards a natural conclusion.

That's without even mentioning the strength of that season's villains, with David Zayas' garnering plaudits for his convincing portrayal of Sal Maroni all the way up to his death in the finale. John Doman's Carmine Falcone also offered a convincing threat as Gotham's preeminent mob boss, on top of the strong introductions of Penguin, Riddler et al.

It showed flashes of brilliance right from the very get go, yet fans were all too willing to write it off before the first episode had even aired. And yes, while it's true that the series has somewhat failed to live up to the expectations it built in that season, it's still very enjoyable to watch, and worth watching, with the promise that it could yet tap the very obvious potential it possesses.

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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.