Gotham - season 1 (2014)

	Also Known As: Gotham: Rise of the Villains
	Year of first release: 2014
	Creator: Bruno Heller
	Actors:  Ben McKenzie, Jada Pinkett Smith (The Matrix 2-3), Donal Logue, Morena Baccarin (Firefly TV-series, Deadpool)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: February-March 2016, HD VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: After his parents get killed, young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) doesn't know how to seek justice while freshly arrived Detective Jim Gordon (McKenzie) has big changes in mind for the all-too-corrupted Gotham City Police Department.
Review: I has skeptical about this series on the origins of the Cape Crusader but I remember reading years ago some good things about Smallville, which showed that a similar concept was viable (in that case for Superman). This series has many attractive aspects that earned it an Emmy award for best TV-show in 2015. First, I particularly like the sets and the look of the series. The inside of the Wayne Manor is beautiful and rich in details, the streets of Gotham have the same look as in the Dark Knight trilogy (was the series also shot in Chicago?) both from below and above, the skies are always cloudy and the contrast exaggerated to give it a HDR look (High Dynamic Range, for photographers), and last but not least the police station has an incredible gothic look, like if it used to be a high-end club in the 1920's. Speaking of which, the time period of the series is hard to define: people do have mobile phones but not smart ones, and computers are not to be seen. All in all an interesting mix. Then the story is interesting and well-told: how did Jim Gordon rise in the ranks of a completely corrupted Police Department, and how the death of his parents influenced Bruce Wayne in his early years, while their future super-villain enemies were not yet super, and for some not even villains. No wonder that the series second title is Rise of the Villains. But everybody's situation is evolving and this is one of the things that makes the series addictive to watch. We get to see all the characters I knew from the classic Batman story and from the previous movies: apart from Wayne and Gordon: Harvey Dent, Alfred of course with a more developed background, Gordon's girlfriend Barbara (with a darker path that I knew of), Selena Kyle (future Cat Woman), (Poison) Ivy, Ed Nygma, The Joker (I think...), Lucius Fox (head of research at Wayne Enterprise) and most importantly Oswald Cobblepot a.k.a. the Penguin wonderfully played by Robin Lord Taylor. I also discovered the characters of Fish Mooney, Marooni, Falcon and Gordon's partner Harvey Bullock. Thanks to all those elements the series manages very well to render the corrupted spirit of Gotham City, the powerlessness of a stubborn Jim Gordon and the early years of a future Knight not yet Dark.
Rating: 7 /10