Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Gotham: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown October 3, 2024

Five seasons with The Bat. Not too shabby, right? But there are so, so, so many ways to adapt and interpret the Dark Knight. Is there really a right way to do it? Or just better and worse ways to proceed? Such questions have haunted DC Comics for decades, not that Gotham seems to care. At least it picks a lane, blending dark camp with inspired, modestly budgeted comic-booking to deliver an oh so watchable series that keeps dragging you back, episode after episode, season after season. Does it pay off in the end? Shrugs shoulders and quietly looks around the room for someone with an answer. If it hits your sweet spot, sure. If it doesn't... well, prepare for equal doses of excitement, frustration and hard eye rolls interspersed with two prevailing questions: wait, did *insert series concept* just work? And my favorite, then why could it have been done so much better?

With hits, misses, more hits, and certainly more misses, Gotham is all over the frickin' place. When it works, it really works. When it doesn't (sigh, the show's take on The Joker), it really doesn't. Oh it continually engages the imagination, taking the fabled city the Waynes Built, liberally sprinkling in the Caped Crusader's notorious rogues gallery, and constantly vying to drag its core concept in intriguing new directions. And it does really make it increasingly difficult to jump ship. I so wanted to take advantage of multiple exit ramps on the more poorly penned stretches of its highways and byways, but I could never quite tear myself away. Worse? It fumbles several fundamentals, delivers too many mediocre scripts, struggles with tone, mismanages its overly expansive cast of characters, and leaves far too much of the DC fandom's satisfaction to chance. But... but. But I kept watching, didn't I? What's that tell ya?

Before there was Batman, or even lil' Brucey Wayne, there was the dark streets and alleyways of Gotham City, a sweaty, rainy metropolis far removed from Superman's chosen city on a hill (Metropolis, capital M). In the world of the Dark Knight, everyone is familiar the name Commissioner Jim Gordon. But what about his rise from rookie detective to GCPD Commissioner? How did he survive the corruption and criminality of Gotham, a veritable spawning ground for the world's most sadistic and psychotic street-level supervillains? Therein lies Gotham, an origin story not just of the world's Greatest Detective and his coming of age, but that of his most trusted friend and police contact, the lives of those closest to him, and the rise of the monsters that would threaten The Batman's city for years to come. Although the drama follows Gordon's turbulent and singular career, it also forges an unlikely connection between the lawman and an initially very young Bruce Wayne, with Jim's mentorship revealing itself to be an increasingly crucial element in the mythology of Gotham City and its once and future midnight vigilante.

Gotham stars Ben McKenzie as James Gordon, Donal Logue as Gordon's semi-corrupt partner Harvey Bullock, David Mazouz as young Bruce Wayne, Erin Richards as Gordon's fiancee Barbara Kean, Zabryna Guevara as GCPD Captain Sarah Essen, the always excellent Sean Pertwee as a very assertive version of Alfred Pennyworth, Robin Lord Taylor as chief baddie Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin, Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma aka The Riddler, Camren Bicondova as a teenage Selina Kyle aka the future Catwoman, Maggie Geha as Ivy Pepper/Poison Ivy, John Doman as mobster Carmine Falcone, a hammin-it-up Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney, Chris Chalk as Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman in the Christopher Nolan Bat-verse), the ever-delightful Anthony Carrigan as knife-man Victor Zsasz, Morena Baccarin as therapist Leslie Thompkins, Nicholas D'Agosto as Harvey Dent, James Frain as Azrael, Jessica Lucas as Tigress, Drew Powell as Solomon Grundy, Michael Chiklis as The Executioner, Benedict Samuel as The Mad Hatter, Crystal Reed as Sofia Falcone, Alexander Siddig as Ras al Ghul, and an assortment of faces, familiar and unfamiliar, as other denizens and villains prowling the streets of Gotham City.

Click here to read my 2015 review of Gotham: The Complete First Season, in which I genuinely say, "Can the series recover? Absolutely. The first season isn't without its charms or memorable moments. Will it recover? Season Two is almost here. Only time will tell." So how do Seasons Two through Five fare? Even with the benefit of nine years since I first tackled Gotham's early episodes? Eh... sadly, it all plays about the same as Season One. Ups, downs, wibbles, wobbles, unforgettable rises and depth-defying plummets; this is a series practically defined by bold ideas that, at least in execution, are great one episode and awful the next. Twisting lore and creating new versions of old villains seems to prioritized above good storytelling and dialogue. More distracting is the fact that the show can't quite seem to choose a singular tone, juking from one to the next. Broad, clownish camp is followed by dark drama, which itself might be followed by anything from the grotesque to mind-numbingly comedic. Gotham is ever in search of its voice and forever lost in the forest of genres through which it so clumsily tromps. Often there's little rhyme or reason, and you can hear the writer's room practically whispering, "you know what would be cool?" Answered by a clamoring of "yeah's" without much in the way of critical thought.

It works, sort of, until these plotlines of varying tenor, tone and style come crashing together, colliding spectacularly at times, but more often leaving beloved characters torn to pieces with haphazard cause. Even Gordon fades further and further into the background of an exponentially colorful cast of sub-heroes and fiends, until his story -- the story that launched the series -- feels less and less important, absorbed in the shadow of sillier and sillier villains. The arrival of The Joker doesn't even right the show's wrongs, causing confusion and toying with whether the Clown Prince we're watching develop on screen is the future King of Crime or just another psycho who will one day inspire the true yin to Batman's yang. How to save Gotham then? Apparently putting it out to pasture. While five seasons is nothing to shake a batarang at, we're talking network TV here, which has always proven itself more than eager to run a series into the ground, well past its prime. Cancellation is often a mercy killing, and Gotham is put down with a nearly halved fifth season of just twelve episodes, allowing for a conclusion but sparing us further diminishing returns.

Ultimately, it's decent fun, if you can stand the inconsistencies and disjointedness. Those itching for a wild take on Batman that tries to cram the cheese of the original 1960s television show together with the darkness of Christopher Nolan's inspired takes on the icons of Gotham (sprinkling in a not so tiny dash of Tim Burton for flavor) will at least enjoy watching what weird and wonderful craziness the series indulges in next. Alas, those looking for a dense, dystopian origin story rife with crime and vigilante justice will be left disappointed in a Gotham City that's more failed stand-up comedian turned bank robber than mild-mannered sociopath turned vindictive ice-cold killer.

Gotham: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

If you've hopped to this section expecting bad news, keep scrolling. For all its faults, all five seasons of Gotham's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentations look great, with only a few quibbles worth mentioning. As you've probably become accustomed to with Warner's 4-disc television season releases (with 5-6 episodes per disc), and as the eagle-eyed among you will certainly notice, each of Gotham's seasons have instances of slight (the slightest) macroblocking and banding, typically when night descends, the moon shines bright, and the show is at its darkest. That's not to say it's remotely similar to HD broadcast quality, but small encoding issues still slip through quality control. Crush also occasionally rears its head, though whether its attributed to the series' at-times stark contrast leveling or something more sinister is unclear. Otherwise, there's little to complain about across 18 discs of Gotham. Colors are punchy, vibrant and perfectly villainous when called upon, delighting in the greens, purples and extreme hues of the city's criminals and vicious creatures. Black levels are as rich and sumptuous as comicbook ink, while still allowing for a good deal of detail in the shadows. Edges are consistently crisp; sharp as one of Zsasz's knives. Fine textures are exacting and revealing, with no ungainly noise or softness to speak of. And delineation, as mentioned, never falters. Gotham: The Complete Series may not offer high definition perfection, but it comes close, more than justifying its price point.

Gotham: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All of that sets the stage for Gotham's solid, perhaps even excellent DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Like its first Blu-ray release, all five seasons included in The Complete Series box set features carefully prioritized dialogue, intelligible and believably grounded soundscapes, and plenty of immersive soundfield elements; enough that the series is far more absorbing sonically than thematically. LFE output is nice and strong, particularly when guns are drawn or the action punches up (thank you, later seasons), and rear speaker activity is always assertive and engaging, crafting exciting set pieces out of otherwise generic environments and locations. The experience is reliably enveloping from start to 100th episode finish, with involving directionality and smooth pans that bring the bustling city streets, dangerous alleyways and abandoned warehouses of Gotham to life. No issues here.

Gotham: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Gotham's five seasons include an assortment of deleted scenes, production and character featurettes (that range from short to decently comprehensive), gag reels, and other bits and goodies. You won't find any commentaries or significant documentaries, but so it goes. The following is a breakdown of the extras spread across The Complete Series' 18 discs:

• Season One: Deleted Scenes (HD)

• Season One: Gotham Invented (HD, 31 minutes) - Three-part featurette, divided into "Building Our Gotham," "Paving the Way for the Caped Crusader," and "The Fractured Villains of Gotham."

• Season One: Designing the Fiction (HD, 20 minutes) - Gotham's production design.

• Season One: The Legend Reborn (HD, 21 minutes) - Deconstructing the Pilot.

• Season One: The Game of Cobblepot (HD, 26 minutes) - Oswald's climb to the top.

• Season One: DC Comics Night at Comic-Con (HD, 30 minutes)

• Season One: Character Profiles (HD, 15 minutes)

• Gag Reel (HD, 5 minutes)

• Season Two: Aftermath (HD, 5 minutes) - A short selection of interviews with the cast.

• Season Two: A Look Back (HD, 3 minutes) - More quick-hit interviews.

• Season Two: Character & Subplot Intros (HD, 5 minutes) - Father's Office, Maniax Jerome, Strike Force, He Who Laughs Last, and The King/The Penguin's Rise.

• Season Two: New Days, Dark Knights (HD, 2 minutes) - Jim Gordon's dark side.

• Season Two: A Look Ahead (HD, 3 minutes) - Mid-season mini interviews.

• Season Two: 2015 Comic-Con Panel (HD, 16 minutes)

• Season Two: Gotham by Noir Light (HD, 26 minutes) - Gotham's connection to noir filmmaking.

• Season Two: Batman's Greatest Ally (HD, 20 minutes) - A deep dive into Alfred.

• Season Two: The Tale of Victor Fries (HD, 10 minutes) - Into the heart of ice with Mr. Freeze.

• Season Three: Deleted Scenes (HD)

• Season Three: Madness Rising (HD, 10 minutes) - The new villains of Gotham.

• Season Three: 2016 Comic-Con Panel (HD, 28 minutes)

• Season Three: Ben McKenzie's Directorial Debut (HD, 2 minutes) - Kinda self-explanatory.

• Season Three: The Court of Owls (HD, 12 minutes) - Its history and machinations.

• Season Four: Deleted Scenes (HD)

• Season Four: Solomon Grundy (HD, 13 minutes) - The (de)evolution of Grundy comes to fruition.

• Season Four: The Sirens Take Gotham (HD, 13 minutes) - Kean, Kyle and Galavan rise!

• Season Four: The Best of DCTV's Comic-Con Panels at San Diego 2017 (HD, 58 minutes)

• Season Five: Deleted Scenes (HD)

• Season Five: Best Moments at NY Comic-Con 2018 (HD, 20 minutes)

• Season Five: A Modern Mythology (HD, 16 minutes) - Bruce's friends and foes.

• Season Five: Gotham's Last Stand (HD, 1 minute) - The final battle.

• Season Five: Modes of Persuasion (HD, 38 minutes) - Gotham's villains unite.

Gotham: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Over its five seasons, Gotham does more to douse its flames than fan its fires. It's a veritable parade of hits and misses that will work for those who enjoy the strained balance of tones and characters but fail for those looking for a more consistent rise of the Dark Knight. If Season One doesn't work for you, might as well bail early. But if it holds your attention, or even wins your heart, stick it out and see where you land. Thankfully, Warner's 18-disc Blu-ray release is a strong one, with excellent video and audio presentations. The special features often leave a lot to be desired, but there's still plenty of content to keep true fans busy.