It's probably not unreasonable to suggest that if you're watching Gotham, you're probably something of a Batman fan. The show's whole gimmick is that it's a prolonged origin story for Bruce Wayne and his transformation into the Dark Knight, but with Bruce mainly shoved into the background (since he's a child) so the grown-ups can work. But amongst those grown-ups, and Bruce's fellow kids, there's a bumper crop of ne'er-do-wells who are destined to be amongst Batman's rogues gallery. And Gotham really wants you to know that. Which is why a young Selina Kyle dresses as a feline and refers to herself as The Cat, and a young Ivy Pepper is always glimpsed near some plants. Gotham is not a particularly subtle program. That's because it's appealing to the wide spectrum of Batman fans: those who have read every one of his umpteen comic book appearances cover-to-cover, multiple times, and those who quite liked the Christopher Nolan films and would like to check out more of this Caped Crusader chap. Which is why, say, you get the cloyingly obvious Edward Nygma who enjoys riddles, Ivy Pepper, the Flying Graysons and all that. But that's not to say the makers of the show are forgetting the die-hards in fact, they're so ingenious at hiding the nods to the hardcore audience in Gotham that there's at least nineteen Easter Eggs, in-jokes and references you totally missed.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
