Gotham is a crime drama based on DC Comics characters, telling the story of Detective James Gordon in Gotham City in the years before Batman’s arrival. The series brought to us by FOX first aired in 2014 and it currently has a 7.9 IMDB rating.
Bruno Heller’s main objective with this show was taking characters that everybody knows all the way through their origins. The main characters that Gotham focuses on are Commissioner Gordon, Bruce Wayne, Cat Woman, The Penguin, Poison Ivy, and The Riddler.
Season one begins with a well-known story – the alleyway murder of Dr. Thomas Wayne and Martha, his wife. The traumatic event had two witnesses – one being Bruce, their son, whilst the second character being Selina Kyle also known as Cat Woman.
That’s the moment when Detective James Gordon is introduced into the story, as he is going to investigate the murder and make sure that Bruce is going to be okay. As the season progresses, we learn that Gotham is controlled by villains in the story through their immense power while Detective Gordon’s main objective is to defend the city altogether.
The main villains are the Falcone and Maroni crime families as well as Fish Mooney. “Fish” was a former member of the Falcone crime family as well as the owner of Mooney’s Nightclub. Her powers include the mind control, being able to order someone what to do against their will with a touch of her hand, as well as her high tolerance for pain.
One of her known weaknesses was her cellular degeneration as her DNA would deteriorate every time she decided to use her powers.
Another powerful villain the series has is Oswald Cobblepot, known as the Penguin. He started out as a low-level member of Gotham’s criminal Underworld, working his way up to become the kingpin of Gotham.
He has an unlimited number of abilities, such as high-level intellect, intimidation, master of deception, skilled marksman, as well as being a skilled knife-wielder and a torturer (being able to inflict brutal torture on several of his victims without restraint). He is cunning and violent and he will go as far as aligning himself with anyone in order to get what he wants.
Another great villain the series introduces is Ivy Pepper, also known as Poison Ivy. She became an orphan when her father was shot by Harvey Bullock in defense of James Gordon’s life, causing her mother to commit suicide.
She then goes on to saving the Penguin and nurturing him back to life, becoming his right-hand woman in the criminal underworld. Her powers include the mutated physiology which has helped her gain superhuman powers as well as the poisonous biology, being able to poison others just by touching them.
Her abilities include being a botanist, a toxicologist and hypnotism – when people smell a perfume she has crafted, they fall under her hypnotic control. She is also the first character on the show to be portrayed by three different actresses.
One of the most interesting twists of the series was then the honest and trustworthy James Gordon temporarily aligned himself with the likes of Falcone and Penguin for the greater good.
Another good character who tries to defend the city is Harvey Bullock, Gordon’s current partner. It is a wonderful relationship portrayed on the screen – going from a resentful partnership at first, all the way to a trustful one in the end. Another interesting character added was Selina Kylie, also known as Cat Woman.
She is well known around the city through her connections in the criminal underworld and around the streets, as well as, further into the story, she ends up helping Bruce destroying Wayne Enterprises. Her abilities include the peak of human physical condition, as well as being an expert thief, an expert hand-to-hand combatant, and a skilled knife wielder.
Season two introduced new villains which inevitably made the series improve a lot, such as The Joker, Tigress, The Riddler, Mr. Freeze and Hugo Strange. Jerome Valeska, also known as The Joker was a criminally insane sociopath and murderer.
His abilities include a high-level intellect as well as a master of deception with an eidetic memory. He also has a high pain tolerance as well as being a skilled knife thrower. Tabitha Galavan, also known as Tigress, was Theo Galavan’s late sister.
She became involved in the criminal underworld after his death. Her abilities include master hand-to-hand combatant, the peak of the physical human condition, expert markswoman (highly trailed at using both handguns and rifles), and manipulation (talented in the art of persuasion).
Edward Nygma, also known as The Riddler, is a former scientist working for the Gotham City Police Department with an ability to speak in riddles, hence his name. He entered the path of criminal activity by murdering Tom Dougherty and Kristen Kringle.
Later on in the series, he also ends up framing Detective Gordon when they begin to look into Kringle’s murder. His abilities include: having a genius-level intellect, eidetic memory, encyclopedic knowledge, being a master manipulator and an explosives expert. His main weakness is his split personality.
Victor Fries, also known as Mr. Freeze, is a very interesting villain. He was a former cryogenicist engineer who dedicated his time with finding out a way to revive his ill wife, Nora.
He then started kidnapping people from Gotham City in order to be apart of his experiments. His abilities include having a genius-level intellect as well as being a very skilled chemist. His main weakness was that he was only unable to survive above-zero temperatures without his suit.
Dr. Hugo Strange is the former Chief of Psychiatry and director of Arkham Asylum. He was the man behind the main plot, so to speak: the hired the hit that resulted in the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne, and was therefore responsible for the orphaning of Bruce Wayne.
Season 5’s finale ends on a very interesting and shocking note to all the viewers out there who have been watching the show since the very beginning. It all takes place 10 years later, and just as the final battles are occurring in order to decide to ends up saving or conquering Gotham City, Cat Woman senses something. Bruce’s presence.
The Penguin, The Riddler, Detective Gordon, Harvey, and Alfred are almost blinded by a spotlight coming directly at them. Revealing from the dark shadows, there he is; the character who will become known as Batman.
