Pre-Batman Series Gotham Finds its Gordon

[StewShearerOld]

Pre-Batman Series Gotham Finds its Gordon

Southland actor Ben McKenzie will be playing Gotham's younger version of Jim Gordon.

Arguably one of the more interesting, non-comic Batman developments to come out last year was the announcement of Gotham, a pre-Batman show centered on <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/128137-Foxs-Gotham-Will-Have-More-Police-Less-Batman>the early career of Commissioner Gordon. It's an idea that strikes us being pretty danged nifty. That said, up until now there hasn't been any word on who will actually be playing the show's version of Gordon. Thankfully, Fox and Warner Bros have broken the silence and revealed the man behind the fictional badge.

Gotham's Gordon will be played actor Ben McKenzie. McKenzie, of course, is famous for his work on The O.C. as well as, more recently, for his role as Officer Ben Sherman in the cop drama Southland. Somehow we get the feeling his experiences from the latter will be more relevant here. Then again, maybe he'll be able to draw more on his role in 2011's animated version of Batman: Year One. Granted, he played Bruce Wayne in that, but you never know. He might have picked something up from Bryan Cranston.

Any who, as far as the actors they could have picked for the role, McKenzie seems like a decent enough choice. If nothing else, he looks like someone we could picture growing into the older, grizzled cop that Bat-fans know and love. Of course, time will have to tell if he winds up doing a good job, but somehow we have a good feeling about this. What do you think? Is McKenzie the cop that Gotham needs, or should they find someone else to don Gordon's trench coat?

Source: Variety


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[Cranyx]

If this is before Batman, then I fail to see how it will be different than any other crime show on TV. It sounds like that's the plan- make a generic Law and Order knock off but replace "New York" with "Gotham" for some name recognition.

 

[UltimatheChosen]

If this is before Batman, then I fail to see how it will be different than any other crime show on TV. It sounds like that's the plan- make a generic Law and Order knock off but replace "New York" with "Gotham" for some name recognition.

My understanding is that it has pre-Batman Bruce Wayne, as well as some of the Batman villains.

Which is at least more unique than a run-of-the-mill police show, but "unique" doesn't necessarily mean it'll be any good. We'll see, I guess.

 

[Shocksplicer]

*Sees thumbnail*
Is that Ben McKenzie??
*Expands article*
Yep, that's Ben McKenzie.
Huh... That'll be interesting...

 

[Shreder55]

After hearing that Bryan Cranston was not playing Lex Luthor I thought they were gonna cast him here as Gordon. Oh well he could always play a villain or something. Maybe Heisenberg moves up to Gotham?

 

[Evil Smurf]

Ooooo, I'll keep a lookout for this, I loved him in the O.C.

That was a great show.

 

[Smooth Operator]

The guy is a good pick no doubt because he can pull that "weight of the world" thing off very nicely, but the premise of the series sounds like the dullest accountant attempt at squeezing out something extra now that the Batman name is hot.

 

[AgentLampshade]

He seems okay, but I need to see a moustache picture. I can't imagine Gordon without the moustache.

 

[cerebus23]

If fx keeps it dark like batman year one dark, it could be really interesting to see that gotham on screen. and how an honest cops exists in all that, yo gordan its was clearly no picnic.

 

[Kmadden2004]

If they really wanted to make a cop show set in the Batman universe, but without Batman himself, they should have just adapted Gotham Central.

As it stands, I just can't seem to drum up any excitement for a show about Jim Gordon fighting stereotypical mafia figures, interspersed with scenes of a depressed ten-yearl-old child mourning for his parents...

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I really liked southland and him in it, so definitely going to pay attention to this when it comes out. Hopefully they reference batman and have a decent plot to it, otherwise not much point in this show being "pre-batman"

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

If they really wanted to make a cop show set in the Batman universe, but without Batman himself, they should have just adapted Gotham Central.

This. A thousand times this. They could have had an engaging story about regular cops being forced to deal not just with crazy supervillains like Mister Freeze and Mad Hatter but a superhero who is irascible at best and unreliable at worst and corruption within their own ranks. Add in the personal dramas and the series is really really good.

Instead we're getting Gordon, which from the descriptions I've read sounds like its going to spend half its time focusing on Batman and his origins. Because what we really needed right now was yet another Batman origin story. Good job guys.

If it does turn out they are doing more than just stretching Batman: Year One out into a whole series and we get even one story from Gotham Central then I will quite happily retract everything I'm saying, but until then my scepticism remains on high alert

 

[Kmadden2004]

If they really wanted to make a cop show set in the Batman universe, but without Batman himself, they should have just adapted Gotham Central.

This. A thousand times this. They could have had an engaging story about regular cops being forced to deal not just with crazy supervillains like Mister Freeze and Mad Hatter but a superhero who is irascible at best and unreliable at worst and corruption within their own ranks. Add in the personal dramas and the series is really really good.

Instead we're getting Gordon, which from the descriptions I've read sounds like its going to spend half its time focusing on Batman and his origins. Because what we really needed right now was yet another Batman origin story. Good job guys.

If it does turn out they are doing more than just stretching Batman: Year One out into a whole series and we get even one story from Gotham Central then I will quite happily retract everything I'm saying, but until then my scepticism remains on high alert

This thing about the inclusion of Bruce is that that element just reeks of compromise to me, considering that - when this series was being shopped around to the networks - the writers were very specific in saying that Bruce Wayne wouldn't feature in the series beyond a brief cameo in the pilot.

Then, as soon as Fox picked up the show, they announce that Bruce will be a series regular, and will play an important role in the overall story...

Now, I know shows have a tendency to change things up between the pilot and full series, but that sudden shift does not send out a particularly positive message to me.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Wait, they are making a Batman tv show? Without Batman? And bringing in an actor that is basically typecast as a tv cop. No offense to the actor. I've never watched any of those other shows. But this is the reason I don't have cable anymore. TV is so damn unoriginal anymore. This could have been taken care of as a sidestory comic. They love those anyway. Why not do that?

Futurama was/is in limbo(then and now) with Family Guy and it's crappy spinoffs winning out. The Discovery channel wentt from a having informative shows with little bit of fabrication shows like Mythbusters and American Chopper to so many car shows I can't even tell which is which. The History Channel is now were your can watch less than one year old footage of loggers, crab fishermen, Truckers on Ice(I'm still working on the lyrics for my adaptation of that one), and hicks hunting ducks. The History channel was better when is WAS the Hitler Channel. At least it had history on at the time. MTV died before I would even have been interested in watching Music Television. And there have been so many of these police dramas in the past few years, I don't even think this one will have an impact even if it is about Commissioner Gordon's younger days. Not unless Clayface busts out of a bank and Poison Ivy rides a giant walking flower every so often. Which I doubt they are going for that approach.

TV sucks. I'd rather watch guys on youtube and blip.tv talk about cheesy movies, old cartoons, video games and comics and have the Joker randomly come in and mess up the place with obviously homemade special effects. That's better than most high budget films coming out anymore.

 

[The Funslinger]

After hearing that Bryan Cranston was not playing Lex Luthor I thought they were gonna cast him here as Gordon. Oh well he could always play a villain or something. Maybe Heisenberg moves up to Gotham?

I could see Bryan Cranston as a good Doctor Hugo Strange.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Who reads or watches the Batman movies/comics just for Gordon? This show could be good, after all we havnt heard much about it yet. Though i thought that about the Agents Of Shield tv show and lost interest after episode 6. Thing is, maybe a Batman comic fan could help me, but didnt all those weird villians (Joker, Penguin etc) only appear once Batman started fighting crime? But Gordon vs Joker etc wouldnt be that great if the Joker is just some random guy.

Granted im being negative, but i am waiting for more info.

 

[schmulki]

This screams of, "hey, this is the DC version of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D!" No, that's not a compliment. That's an awful show.