• 46

  
• 0
  
  
  
• Email

What do you call a TV show based on the world of D.C.’s Batman character, set in his infamously corrupt Gotham City, and following the adventures of his cop buddy, a Detective name James Gordon — but without Batman ever showing up? As in, EVER?

You call that a cop show.

Except this cop show will be burdened with the Batman history, the Batman shadow, but without any of the Batman pluses like, you know, Batman himself. Hell, I don’t think they’re even allowed to MENTION Batman.

But apparently Fox and Warner Bros. TV think there is an audience for a TV show about Batman’s loyal police buddy Commissioner James Gordon. Except here Gordon will still be a police Detective. We’re told that the show will “explore the origin stories of Commissioner James Gordon and the villains who made Gotham City famous”.

But no Joker, right? Or Two-Face? How could you have The Joker and Two-Face without Batman? See the problem here? So it’s not REALLY “the villains who made Gotham City famous”.

As for Batman, well, the Caped Crusader apparently “will not be part of the series”. Probably because while Warner Bros. is selling the show to Fox, they don’t want their prized goat Batman showing up on a network other than the CW, where all D.C. comic book characters are currently located, being that they’re essentially the same company.

But if you’re wondering why Warner Bros. didn’t just put the show on the CW, apparently it’s because Fox won rights to the show after an intense bidding war. So if that means Warner Bros. TV sold the show to Fox instead of giving it to the CW as part of their growing D.C. TV universe, it sure is a bit short-sighted on their part.

The only reason I can see why Warner Bros. TV and Fox are doing this is because they saw all the fanboygasm happening over ABC and Marvel’s “Agents of SHIELD”, and thought, “Let’s get some of that!” But the big difference, of course, is that Marvel is ridiculously brilliant about merging their brands, and although Iron Man, Hulk, and Captain America PROBABLY won’t show up in “Agents of SHIELD” (though they’re certainly mentioned often enough), Batman won’t actually EXIST in “Gotham”.

In any case, “Gotham” will be coming to you from “The Mentalist” creator Bruno Heller, who is quite accustomed to police procedurals, so ol Jim Gordon should be in good hands.