Commissioner Gordon's Origin

[cyberghostface]

With Gotham premiering today I figured some of you might find this amusing. From Dorkly.

Comments

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Tangentially, the other day I found out that Neil Hamilton was in the original Beau Geste with Ronald Colman. Next, I expect to discover that the actor who played Chief O'Hara is one of history's great Hamlets.

[icon_uk]

Not quite, but Stafford Repp had a worthy career as a realiable character actor, and after Batman also invested in, of all things, a chain of car-washes, which were very successful.

[burkeonthesly]

That's one way to clean up the streets.

[starwolf_oakley]

As I was first introduced to Commissioner Gordon through Neil Hamilton in reruns of the 1960s series, I didn't know Gordon was "supposed" to have glasses and a mustache for a while. Heck, even Pat Hingle didn't have glasses for the Burton/Schumacher movies.

Regarding "Gotham," I wonder if the show will cover Bruce Wayne's control freak tendencies, and how he decided "If I don't do this, it won't get done."

[zapbiffpow]

I kinda wanted to see Gordon sporting a moustache. For me it's representative of his character: as stalwart and loyal in his watch over Gotham today as he was during Year One, or Zero Year, or just plain day one.

I guess the EP's were too unnerved at the thought of having to audition a room full of moustached, bespectacled Gary Oldmen lookalikes.

[espanolbot]

Ah, it's still another ten years until Batman shows up, plenty of time to grow one if necessary.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Gordon won't grow a mustache.

He'll earn it.

Big difference.

[shadowpsykie]

.... ikinda want Gordon to fly now...

[grumman]

So... is it as awful as the premise suggests? Is it a series desperately trying to use its association with Batman to pretend it's cool, or does it somehow make effective use of the Gotham setting despite being set a decade before that meant something?

[cyberghostface]

Too early to tell but it's not that bad.

My only issue is they assume that the audience isn't familiar with the characters (which I guess is fair) so there's lots of stuff like "Have anyone told you you look like a penguin?"

[jaybee3]

Haven't seen it but that seems weak storytelling. With a name like "Gotham" and with all the commercials/trailers/advertising purposely tying into Batman you have to assume that the people who will be turning it know what they're getting.

[cyberghostface]

True but most people probably aren't going to know Oswald Cobblepot is the Penguin by name alone. Like ask some random person who saw the first Batman movie who Harvey Dent is supposed to be and they'll give you a blank stare.

[donnblake]

To be fair, Penguin at least in some versions, started out as an insulting name his peers called him.

[nate_abril96]

Haha! My favorite is still Bullock's remark to the police forensic scientist:
"I don't have time for your RIDDLES!"
As if we the audience can't tell that a guy with glasses, reading a book, and telling riddles is the Riddler. I'm still waiting for the eventual scene where Alfred or Jim Gordon starts teaching Bruce baseball and one of them says:
"Grab the BAT, MAN."

[thezmage]

I'm sure they'll save that for the episode where they investigate a new steroid in the baseball community. Developed and distributed by a certain doctor Kirk Langstrom.

[thezmage]

Also from Dorkly, and related: http://www.dorkly.com/post/68741/8-biggest-moments-of-foreshadowing-on-gotham

[thatnickguy]

Having been vehemently against the show from the beginning, I...didn't think it was that terrible. It wasn't great or even good most times, but it wasn't bad, either.

All the cop-related stuff was actually pretty good. The actors that play Gordon, Bullock, Montoya, and Allen are all pretty great and that alone will get me to tune in at least for the next few episodes. And to be fair, the people playing Falcone, Nygma, Cobblepot, and even Bruce Wayne were all pretty good. Especially Coppblepot, who has a really great maniacal glee I expect from Penguin.

Unfortunately, there are a LOT of blatant, infuriating winks to the camera like the below mention about Nygma and riddles.

If the show can focus more on the cop side of the story more than teasing villains, I think it'll turn out all right.

Of course, they're also planning on showing one character each episode that COULD be the Joker and build him up. Which I will hate if they actually do Joker without Batman.

[zapbiffpow]

"There are a LOT of blatant, infuriating winks to the camera like the below mention about Nygma and riddles."

Yeah, I've always been opposed to Nygma's addition to the show.

Me, I think they're pushing the 'He worked for the GCPD once, so he knows how to run circles around them!' thing a little too much. It's a character aspect that won't even be relevant until the Batman era, unless they're planning to make him go rogue a few seasons in. Which, in itself, poses a lot of problems.

How much was Geoff Johns' involvement in this? Because this reminds me heavily of Arkham Origins!Riddler.

[cyberghostface]

Another issue is that making Bruce a kid it stands to reason when he's Batman the Penguin and Riddler at least will be much older men. Young Gordon makes sense given that he's a fairly old guy but the rest of his rogues I don't imagine being that much older than Bruce.

[zapbiffpow]

"Making Bruce a kid, it stands to reason when he's Batman the Penguin and Riddler at least will be much older men."

This, so much. I guess it does depend on the adaptation, though: his presence isn't exactly an earth-shattering shake-up to the source material, and I like Batman enough to support Gotham strongly. Growing the beard takes at least a season, I suppose.

[burkeonthesly]

Or the mustache, as the case may be.

[donnblake]

Always hard to tell with TV (some actors maintain a baby face for years, on the other hand, Gendry in Game of Thrones provoked me, the first time I saw it to say, "Gendry, you can't be Robert's bastard, you are clearly forty-three years old." But Penguin, at least, seems to be fairly young. Older than Bruce, certainly, but not likely to be ancient and decrepit by the time Bruce finishes his training. And an older Riddler works fairly well for me- he's always been about imposing an intellectual challenge rather than a physical one.