Everyone who knows me, knows that I love television. I’m usually watching reality television but I do have a couple of scripted shows that are on my DVR and every year Fox has a show that is super sci-fi related and it usually fails (not returning back after it’s winter finale). This year’s sci-fi is Gotham..and it has returned from winter break and going strong.

Gotham follows the pre-vigilante city of Gotham; the life of young detective Gordon, played by Benjamin McKenzie. He is placed in the filthy corrupted city that is run by mobsters, drug dealers and “villains,” and is the knight in shining armor, the hope, the good and definitely the “hero.” Yes, it’s true, there are villains on this show, except right now, they’re all just “regular” bad guys, children or not-yet fully evolved.

These villains will grow to be the villains that are taken down by the Batman. But right now, he’s only like 12 and he just witnessed the murder of his parents; trying to get to the bottom of it. He’s a smart kid but he’s also slightly hardheaded and trying to find his place in this world. I think I’d be the same way had I gone through all he had. He inherited the billion dollar Wayne Enterprises corporation from his parents and you seem him starting his heroics by trying to get rid of the corruption in his own company. He may be 12, but he’s in control and you see him putting fear in several of his employees’ eyes (kind of a power comes in all shapes and sizes type metaphor).

We see all of these unevolved villains and you’re left seeing their weaknesses, they’re struggles and their humanity. The Penguin, Two Face, Poison Ivy, Cat Woman are all the familiar names but one of the stars and my favorite characters is Fish Mooney, played by none other than the talented, hardcore, tough-as-nails, Jada Pinkett Smith. Fish is one of the “evolved” bad guys in this mix and is currently fighting, participating and dealing with Gotham’s main issue; over-organized crime. We see her fighting with other groups and even in the midst of failing, she gets herself back up and returns leading the pack….in some way.  Fox created this role for her and she’s really making it her own. I guess that’s a good thing right? She gets her own character and doesn’t have to emulate our favorite villains of Batman’s past.

Who else does it great? Well…if you’re talking about seeing a younger version of our favorites villains…then they all do. Casting for this show was pretty amazing. Penguin is this weird quirky guy with facial features of a crooked nose and long face. Kat (Catwoman) is this girl that literally kind of looks like a cat and you just see that is the essence of her. Poison Ivy is still super young and has red hair. The Joker, also a kid, has the crazy eyes and lop-ish hair style that the cartoon would see. It’s like Fox took the main features that you recognize from these villains and put suddle yet muted hints of the future them. The other great thing that I like about this show is that other than Gordon and Fish, I don’t recognize any of the actors. They’re all fresh faces and really owning their roles.

The show focuses on the evolution of these characters; each weekly episode involves them all getting one step closer to their future roles as super villains. You really get their back-history and why they are the way they turn out to be. I’m eager to see what happens to this show and how it evolves, how far they’ll take it and whether or not we’ll ever see the Batman. This show is not for kids but for all of us adult kids that love super heroes. I’d say this is weekday version of superhero and save weekends for the heavy Marvel shit 🙂

This show, like sometimes in life, shows that there is bad and evil in this world, but the little hints of light show us that there’s always hope for a better future.

#SpenceDoesTV