We've seen Gotham City onscreen plenty of times over the years. In the 90s animated series it was a stylised metropolis (not Metropolis), in the Nolan films it was Chicago, and in the Adam West show...well, it didn't really stand out against everything else that was going on amongst the Bat-Usi. The point is, we've seen Gotham a lot, but we've only ever really seen it through Batman's eyes, and through Batman's very limited mission ie to eradicate crime. And it's a very specific sort of crime; sure, we might see Bats string up some muggers or burglars every once in a while, but he's mainly concerned with all the supervillains wandering around. One of the things people were most skeptical of when Gotham was announced is whether anybody cares about a pre-Caped Crusader, pre-rogue's gallery Gotham City. And my answer to that would be...well, yes! This show has the chance to stand out from the crowd of crime series on TV at the moment (and always, actually) by featuring larger-than-life characters that we know a little, but could do with being fleshed out a little; it does what Marvel have been doing for the past few years - and DC has desperately been trying to ape - by finding a new and suitable genre to fit its properties into; it covers a side of the Batman mythos, which are 75 years old this year by the way, which hasn't been covered. We can see how Gotham got into such a state that it needed a hero. We see how Commissioner Gordon got to where he is today. We get The Penguin before he got fat. I'm pretty excited, you guys.
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/
