Gotham (2014–2019) 🦇

⚠️ Disclaimer: Gotham is not your typical comic book show. It’s violent, messy, often feels like a soap opera, and it doesn’t shy away from heavy subjects like corruption, abuse, and manipulation. If you’re expecting a clean superhero origin tale, this is not it. Also, unlike shows like Big Shot or Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Gotham hasn’t been pulled from streaming — it’s still out there. But boy, is it a ride.

Before diving into the non-spoiler rundowns, let’s start by showing y’all the trailers, shall we?

Season 1 trailer

Season 2 trailer

Season 3 trailer

Season 4 trailer

Season 5 trailer

—

Non-Spoiler Rundown

Season 1

The show starts out as a gritty police drama, closer to a crime procedural than a Batman story. Jim Gordon is our lead, trying to do good in a city that’s already rotting to the core. The mob families (Falcone and Maroni) run Gotham while villains like Penguin and Riddler are just finding their footing. This season is dark, grounded, and mostly about corruption rather than colorful supervillains.

Season 2

The tone shifts into full comic book absurdity. Hugo Strange, Indian Hill experiments, resurrected characters, and an introduction to Jerome — the Joker that never was. The show embraces camp and chaos while losing some of its “gritty cop show” roots.

Season 3

Now the soap opera vibes are in full swing. Relationships, betrayals, shifting alliances, and characters dying only to be revived or retconned. This is also where the show leans heavier into freak-of-the-week villains and Gotham becoming a circus of chaos. Jerome returns, more unhinged than ever.

Season 4

This is Gotham at its best and worst. Best in the sense that arcs like Jerome’s big death and Jeremiah’s rise push Gotham into pre-Batman anarchy. Worst in the sense that the tone whiplash is exhausting. This is also where the show sets up the “No Man’s Land” arc — Gotham’s bridges are blown, the city is cut off, and the criminals carve out territories. Easily one of the most promising setups in the series.

Season 5

And then it all rushes to a conclusion. Only 12 episodes, which means corners are cut everywhere. Plotlines are tossed aside, arcs get resolved too quickly, and villains feel underdeveloped. Bane (Eduardo) is a disaster in both design and story, Jeremiah ends up wasted after so much buildup, and the ending is one of the weakest final episodes in TV comic book history.


—

Character Rundown

Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie): Stoic, stubborn, and idealistic to a fault. Gordon here is less the wise, seasoned cop from the comics and more a bulldog constantly dragged into conspiracies. He’s likable but also reckless, and at times he feels like he’s carrying the weight of five different shows in one.

Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue): Inaccurate to the comics but absolutely fantastic here. Normally Bullock is a corrupt slob, but in Gotham he’s loyal, funny, and the weary heart of the GCPD. Donal Logue steals every scene.

Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz): My least favorite take on Bruce. Whiny, inconsistent, and constantly shoved into arcs that feel like they should happen when he’s older. The time skip doesn’t help — and replacing him in the finale is just insulting.

Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova): One of the show’s highlights. Street-smart, sarcastic, and perfectly cast. Her relationship with Bruce is pure soap opera cheese, but it works better than most pairings here. Sadly, she too is recast in the finale for no good reason.

Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor): MVP of the entire series. From lowly umbrella boy to criminal mastermind, Penguin’s arc is the best-written. His design, his mannerisms, his warped love stories — he’s the soul of Gotham’s chaos.

Riddler (Cory Michael Smith): The other MVP. Starts as a nerdy, awkward forensic, grows into a deranged killer, and fully embraces the green suit and riddles by the end. His friendship-turned-betrayal-turned-bizarre-romance with Penguin is both ridiculous and gripping.

Alfred (Sean Pertwee): One of the best live-action Alfreds. Not the butler stereotype — this Alfred gets his hands dirty, trains Bruce, and will absolutely stab someone if they threaten his boy.

Lucius Fox (Chris Chalk): Bland, unfortunately. The performance is fine, but the writing gives him nothing to do. He’s supposed to be Batman’s Q — here he’s just “the smart guy” without personality.



—

Villain Rundown

Hugo Strange (BD Wong, Season 2–3): Brilliant actor, terrible design. He looks like “dollar store Hugo Strange,” nothing like the Arkham games’ version. The twist that he was friends with Thomas Wayne and known as “the Philosopher” is fascinating, but overall underwhelming.

The other problem with this version of Hugo is, in thr comics and in thr Arkham games hes supposed to be this tall looming figure, here? He’s kinds scrawny.

Say what you will about Gotham’s Hugo Strange (BD Wong and that dollar-store beard…), but at least the show actually gave him layers of menace and foresight. In Arkham City, Strange is hyped up as this brilliant mastermind, yet he folds like wet cardboard — one contingency plan (Protocol 10) that Oracle disables with a few keystrokes, followed by him monologuing until Ra’s shanks him. Not exactly intimidating. Meanwhile in Gotham, Strange works better because he hides in plain sight: the respectable doctor running Arkham Asylum on the outside, while secretly using its inmates as disposable test subjects on the inside. That cover identity made him feel like an actual threat, the kind of villain who could realistically keep his schemes going because society already dismissed his victims as “lost causes.”

Mr. Freeze (Nathan Darrow, Season 2): Underwhelming. Why does he have hair? The look is bland compared to comics or Batman & Robin.

Firefly (Michelle Veintimilla/Camila Perez, Season 2+): Another downgrade. A forgettable pyro with none of the menace of her comic counterpart.

Solomon Grundy (Drew Powell, Season 4): Yikes. From Butch Gilzean to zombie wrestler Grundy. The downgrade is painful, and the makeup is laughable.

Bane/Eduardo (Shane West, Season 5): The worst design of them all. Looks like he’s wearing a metal jockstrap on his face. Nothing about him resembles Bane from comics. A total flop.

Ventriloquist (Andrew Sellon, Season 5): Blink-and-you-miss-it, underwhelming introduction. Exactly the show’s problem — villains get introduced and killed in the same breath.

Falcone Family (various): Falcone himself is intimidating early on, but his daughter killing him and seizing power feels like a lazy soap opera twist. Compared to John Turturro in The Batman, this Falcone is weak.

Sal Maroni (David Zayas, Season 1): Good casting but underused. Clancy Brown’s Maroni in The Penguin makes this version look like a warm-up act.



—

The Joker That Never Was

Jerome Valeska (Cameron Monaghan) is the best live-action Joker we’ve ever had — except he isn’t Joker. WB’s contract forbade Gotham from using the Joker name, green hair, or clown gimmick. But the writers found loopholes. Jerome cackles, causes chaos, has his face cut off and sewn back on, builds cults, and basically is Joker in everything but name.

Then comes Jeremiah, his twin brother (a lazy trope). Jerome is the psychopath — unhinged, chaotic, unpredictable. Jeremiah is the sociopath — cold, calculating, manipulative. Jerome is scarier, but Jeremiah causes more damage: blowing up Gotham’s bridges, triggering No Man’s Land, and commanding a larger following.

Both are sadistic, both are terrifying. And by Season 5, WB finally said “screw it” and let the show give Jeremiah a Joker-style toxic waste accident. They still don’t call him Joker, but at that point the show dropped the pretense.

The final episode? Jeremiah wakes up from a catatonic state the second Bruce returns, and his design is half-burn victim, half-Joker cosplay. Easily one of the worst final Joker reveals ever.

Yeah this so called new Joker has white skin and purple outfit from the comics, but hes also missing hair and only has small strands of it.

Oh, and let’s not forget the director’s little “gotcha” statement by the end of all this — that Jerome and Jeremiah weren’t even the Joker, just precursors. The “real” Joker, apparently, is still out there somewhere, destined to take inspiration from these brothers. And honestly? That just cheapens Joker. It makes him look less like the Clown Prince of Crime and more like some guy with no original thought, blatantly copy-pasting his look and madness from the Valeska twins. Joker, the ultimate chaotic wild card, reduced to a fanboy cosplayer? Please. If anything, Jerome was Joker. Jeremiah, flawed as he was, was Joker. Saying the actual Joker is still out there waters down everything they built. Instead of originality, it paints him as an imitator — and that is the one thing Joker has never been.

—

Final Thoughts & Rating

Gotham is messy, campy, and often infuriating — but also addictive, stylish, and filled with incredible performances. Robin Lord Taylor’s Penguin and Cory Michael Smith’s Riddler are career-defining. The Joker loopholes are genius. But the soap opera plotting, repeated resurrections (no one ever stays dead), and underwhelming villain designs drag it down.

Season 1: 8/10

Season 2: 8.5/10

Season 3: 7.5/10

Season 4: 8.5/10

Season 5: 6/10

Overall: 7.5–8/10



—

Spoilers

Season 1

The mob war between Falcone and Maroni dominates, while Gordon tries to stay clean in a corrupt city. Penguin plays both sides and rises to power through manipulation. Riddler’s first kills foreshadow his turn. Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) chews scenery, then gets tossed aside. Bruce begins investigating Wayne Enterprises’ shady dealings. The season ends with Penguin killing Fish and becoming Gotham’s new crime lord, while Bruce discovers his father’s secret cave.

Season 2

Hugo Strange runs Indian Hill, resurrecting characters and experimenting on corpses. Theo Galavan poses as a savior but is secretly evil, and his sister Tabitha introduces chaos. Jerome steals the show, turning into proto-Joker before being killed (for now). Mr. Freeze and Firefly are introduced with weak designs. Barbara goes full psycho, kidnapping Gordon, before later being reworked into a crime boss. Hugo’s reveal as “the Philosopher,” connected to Thomas Wayne, ties him into Bruce’s past.

Season 3

Jerome returns, stitched back together, fully insane. His carnival of chaos pushes Gotham into full comic book madness. Edward Nygma frames Gordon for murder, leading to Gordon’s downfall before he claws his way back. Ivy magically ages into adulthood after a random accident (a lazy excuse for recasting). Bruce meets Ra’s al Ghul, who manipulates him into embracing darkness. Selina continues her push-pull dynamic with Bruce.

Season 4

Jerome escalates his chaos before finally dying for real, handing the torch to his twin Jeremiah. Jeremiah is colder, calmer, and even more dangerous. He blows the bridges around Gotham, cutting the city off and creating “No Man’s Land.” The season ends with Gotham carved into territories by different villains, a montage of criminals seizing blocks of the city. It’s an incredible cliffhanger… and then Season 5 throws it away.

Also here’s a montage of the billians taking over areas of the city.

Season 5

The shortest and weakest season.

And then there’s Eduardo, aka Gotham’s version of Bane. I almost don’t want to call him Bane because… c’mon. This was one of the weakest arcs the show ever coughed up. We’re supposed to buy that Jim and Eduardo were these old military pals with history, but the chemistry between them was about as convincing as two wet rocks trying to have a staring contest. Zero warmth, zero camaraderie, just clunky dialogue trying to tell me “oh yeah, they’re best buds.” Right. Sure.

And then he “transforms” into Bane. Transform might be too generous a word — because what we actually got was Eduardo slapped into a knockoff paintball mask that looked like it was made out of cheap Halloween plastic. This wasn’t intimidating. This wasn’t menacing. This wasn’t even functional. The comic Bane? A genius tactician with that iconic luchador-inspired look, juiced up on Venom. Arkham games Bane? Terrifying, hulking, and iconic. Gotham’s Bane? …a guy who looks like he got lost on his way to a Spirit Halloween store.

And the worst part? Season 5 only had 12 episodes. Time was precious. And instead of focusing on Jeremiah, Penguin, Riddler, Selina, or literally anyone the show had been building up for four seasons, they waste whole chunks of the final arc introducing “military bro turned bad.” The city is in chaos, bridges are blown, villains are rising, and Gotham’s like: “You know what this needs? A brand-new villain with no depth and a Party City mask.”

Eduardo’s entire presence screamed filler in a season that could least afford it. He’s the definition of “why are you here?” in Gotham’s story.

Eduardo becomes Bane — badly designed and badly written. He manipulates Gordon, bombs safe zones, and causes mass civilian deaths by programming Nygma. Nygma, despite being a killer, shows horror at innocent deaths and reluctantly helps Lucius investigate. Jeremiah escalates his madness, causing devastation, before his Joker-like toxic waste accident. The finale time-skips: Gordon grows a mustache and immediately shaves it. Selina and Bruce are recast. Batman finally appears in one shot — and the suit is laughably bad, more cosplay than legend.

The ending is rushed, messy, and unsatisfying. For a show that thrived on excess, it limps out with one of the weakest final episodes of any comic book series.