6 Times Gotham Improved Batman's Mythology (And 4 Times It Failed)
2. It Didn’t Overly Rely On The Freaks
Fox
Of course Gotham served up its fair share of camp, erratic,
vibrant supervillains, but the series didn’t lazily fall back and just rely on
the ‘freak’ corner of Batman’s rogues gallery to carry the show.
So often in the Bat-books, the narrative will be solely
focussed on one of the Caped Crusader’s freakish villains. That’s all well and
good, yet there’s always the temptation to allow this ‘freak of the
week’ to take centre-stage at the expense of the greater world of Gotham City
and its more non-powered characters.
In the Gotham TV show, while such villains were allowed to
flourish and were showcased well, the series also retained its
identity of being a show about regular people in a corrupt and dirty city. More
time was afforded to the war between mob bosses than it was to simply
highlighting a crazed supervillain. And in doing so, Gotham shone a spotlight
on how everyday people can be just as vicious and underhand as any over-elaborate,
amped up to 11 comic book rogue.
Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics.
As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic.
Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.
