Yeah I never got that about other shows like Batwoman and Riverdale either. Gotham knights is totally darker, but they follow the same dumb trend here. The characters are usually more light-hearted while the storylines are weirdly gritty and violent which is surreal at best and at worse distracting.
Being set in Gotham doesn’t excuse excessive edginess in a show like this. It just screams trying to appeal to a demographic of young people by showing occasional gratuitous violence.
They couldn’t use any of the established Robins like Dick, Tim, Jason or Damian because WB won’t allow them to. There are few cases, exceptions, and they are able to get a big name license character on the program but it’s really rare.
Since they got a new character here though, I’m hoping they do something interesting with his character.
I’m thinking of a few scenarios like maybe it’s revealed he was secretly the son of a Batman villain or the identity of Turner’s mother being someone he never knew about. Someone important to Batman that isn’t Selina or Talia. People like Zatanna or Andrea Belmont come into mind.
Well, I wasn’t meaning to watch the first episode of Gotham Knights, but since they showed a repeat of it after The Flash last night, I went ahead and did so. I will admit that it was better than I thought it would be, but given I thought it would be absolutely unwatchable, that isn’t saying much. I think the show has some big problems. I can’t buy Bruce Wayne being killed in the manner that he is in the episode. After all, he is Batman. And then there is the fact the central character, Turner, who was created for the show, just isn’t that interesting. There is nothing compelling about him, nothing to make me interested in him at all. Duella and Harper and Cullen Row are from the comic books, of course, but in Gotham Knights they don’t seem that interesting. The only characters who really clicked with me are Stephanie Brown and Carrie Kelley/Robin, who are also both from the comics. If I continue to watch the show at all it will be because of those two characters.
Anyway, I think most of us are tired of Batman shows without Batman and I don’t think this one even has a good reason to exist. Why not simply do a show centered around Nightwing? Or Jason Todd? Or Tim Drake? Or Stephanie Brown? Or Carrie Kelley? I don’t understand the need to create a whole new character who really isn’t even very interesting.
Agreed, it would take a lot of effort and a big mess
I finally got around to watching it. Like most I thought it was not great but better than expected (although as others also pointed out given the shows low expectations, that didn’t take a lot to pass them).
There were some things I found interesting. I actually like fugitives on the run type stories and shows, and having it in Gotham City was a nice touch for this old time comic book fan. I like Harvey Dent is in it, having him become Two Face after Batman dies is… a choice, but I am all for seeing another live action Harvey Dent as he is my favorite Batman villain. Seeing him make the journey from Harvey Dent two Two Face could be interesting too, but my interest is somewhat tampered knowing that if it doesn’t happen by the end of the season we likely won’t see it. Not completely out of the question this show could end up picked up… but also not very likely. Even if he becomes Two Face that likely will happen in the finale of this season at the earliest so again, with limited chance of a season 2 my interest in seeing it is somewhat cancelled out by the fact this show may not be on long enough to finish the arc.
I also was fine with Duella, Harper and Cullen Rowe and Carrie Kelly being on the team. The fact they won’t suit up at least this season from what we have heard (and good chance there won’t be a second season) is not as exciting, and who knows if that is ever the plan. But even then I like seeing B and C (or in their case maybe even D) list characters portrayed so while I think we all agree they could have chosen better (although I don’t buy for a second producters were saying “what… people wanted Dick Grayson and Batgirl… I was sure they wanted Blue Bird and Duella Dent above all else. Why did no one tell me?” so guessing the more obvious choices were not allowed to them) but I also am not against them introducing the general public to new characters.
Although I do think they may have gotten a bit too obscure for main characters. I mean I think even some non-heavy comic readers at least read The Dark Knight returns, so despute her being in the present being another “interesting” choice at least they heard of her. But about half the people who complained about the cast thought that ALL The Gotham KNights were original characters to the show, and assume Duella is some jokers daughter they made up. Most don’t get the fact she likely will turn out to be Harvey Dents daughter given he is in this show, so clearly they are not familiar, and I don’t think anyone but fans who are somewhat up on current Batman comics has any idea who Harper and Cullen are. Hell I saw a YouTuber actually say "I wish they would instead use some of the deeper cut Batman characters… like Batwing, The Signal and BLUE BIRD… ummm hello? In short while I am all up for lesser known characters getting the spotlight with the exception of Harvey Dent and Stephanie Brown these characters are so obscure that being the main characters might be to their detriment.
Speaking of Stephanie Brown… they cast someone who looks a lot like her I will give them that. But beyond that… it just baffles me the only main character (aside from Two Face at least) with any kind of following is apparently not even one of the Gotham Knights. I mean why isn’t Stephanie Brown the female Robin? Make Carrie Kelly the best friend of Turner, yeah it is a chance from Carrie Kelly but not like this show hasn’t changed a lot. And how is she not on the team, hell she would have worked better in Harper’s sport even as her being a private school girl… I admit to not reading a ton of Stephanie Brown stuff but was she ever rich? And yeah, this is not the show to be a pruist of, but it feels like this show struggled to get permission to use anyone but the lower tier Batman family characters, so why push their most famous one… by far to the sidelines. Hell, why not make Stephanie the adopted child of Bruce Wayne? Yeah Bruce never adopted her in the comics, but again this show has taken bigger liberties. CW loves female leads and it would seem more logical than making someone up.
Which brings me to Turner. Ok, it has been well documented why they didn’t get Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian or hell even Duke Thomas. So I won’t go over that and it seems clear they couldn’t get the righys to it. I doubt they looked at all the names and said “nope, none of them work not even Dick Grayson, make someone up” so like it or not we know the reason they didn’t use any of them.
But as others have said he has not shown much reason to care as he is kind of bland. And while I think the actors performance was fine he was not given a lot of good material to work with. Seems he will be learning to be a hero but not like he is among the best teachers. Also even if they can’t get any of the obvious choices I just don’t see people getting attached to Turner unless he makes some big changes to his character in the next couple episodes. Especially when even the most casual of superhero fans will just be focues on “why isn’t it one of the Robins?”
Also didn’t know where else to put this, but while it has been said I got to agree with the criticism about Batman’s death. Even ignoring that it seems like he was killed too easy, frame job or not all I thought when the kids got arrested was that I can’t buy the reacton from most wouldn’t be “They killed Batman? Them? Those three? THEY killed BATMAN?” And while I guess once we learn more about them being set up it might make sense, but why would they need to frame them and not The Riddler or something? Although apparently The Joker is already dead, so maybe this is after Batman put most of his famous rogues out of the equation. But if not The Riddler and the other top Batman villains should sue the GCPD for character defemation.
I did like seeing the Court of Owles on it. They made sense as a group of villains that would kill Batman and frame someone else for it. And it will be interesting to see them portrayed in live action.
I also liked the Batcave, people seem to want to point out it was CGI (they think the more recent ones in the movies weren’t?) but I thought it looked way better than the Batcave has in any other TV shows. So they definitely did a good job with that.
I hate I was so hard on this, I like to be positive as much as I can I try not to come online just to complain. And in truth the show was not that bad, I mean it wasn’t that great either, but it was no unwatchable dumpster fire most expected it to be. And I am going to give it a couple episodes, I am guessing after the backlash the trailer got they probably at least tried to course correct. Sure it was too late for the trailer, no way CW was going to give them money for reshoots given what is going on over there right now. But definitely likely they tried to imporove on the criticism once filming the rest of the season started, so hoping that it improves. Even if it only last 1 season doesn’t mean it is not worth watching if they can improve it. I guess time will tell, I saw potential in it so hoping they can improve it.
I think this is all extremely sensible.
WTF?
The entire show seems pathetic to me