Even though I bought Gotham S1 on iTunes last month when it was on sale for $19, it’s still nice to get a glorious Blu-ray since it’s becoming more and more rare to get TV on Blu-ray. Luckily Warner Home Video still believes in my precious format. Gotham Season 1 hits the streets today.
TV Show Review
I recapped all of Season 1, so this review is based on the final episode. I’m assuming that you already watched it, if you are looking to buy this set. So spoilers!! I will say when you watch it in a couple of sittings on Blu-ray a lot of the show’s pitfalls don’t seem a big as they did initially, the show flows a lot better when you know where everything is heading. But all my original critisms from before still hold.
—————————————–
Gotham’s freshman season comes to a close in the only way it could – a meandering, mess of an episode that felt like it was all over the place. The show runners have no idea what they want Gotham to be. Is it a crime procedural that just happens to be set in pre-Batman Gotham? Is it truly a prequel to Batman? Is it really about all of Batman’s Villains? Is it trying to be The Sopranos? It suffered from trying to do too many things at once and being good at nothing.
At the beginning of the season I was mixed about this show, but the pieces were there to truly become something special, but as I watched my hope slowly faded. It went from being a show where every other episode lived up to it’s potential to an episode here and there to pretty much every episode being an utter waste of time.
The casting was mostly spot on and what kept me coming back every week despite some truly horrendous writing. Gotham made stars out of Robin Lord Taylor who played the Penguin perfectly as a cold calculating murderer perfectly, David Mazouz did a nice job as young Bruce Wayne – too bad he spent most of the season in his living room (more on this later) and Camren Bicondova was great as Kat. She literally didn’t speak for the first 3 or 4 episodes but she managed to grab my attention.
Ben McKenzie, will always be Kid Chino to me, was surprisingly great as a young incorruptible Jim Gordon and Donal Logue was fantastic as Gordon’s cynical partner Harvey Bullock. As the season went on he became a nice lighthearted balance to Gordon’s seriousness.
Unfortunately Fox adding additional episodes to Gotham’s original 18-episode order served no one. The producers admitted that they weren’t prepared and didn’t have a plan to extend the season. While the cast was mostly great, the storytelling became downright awful.
The season goes out full on crazy, but it’s also boring and made zero sense by the end of it. I won’t even get into the ridiculous “50 Shades of Gotham” trilogy that led into an awful mess of a finale. None of the character motivations made a lick of sense by the end.
This whole season was disjointed and schizophrenic, but the season finale was pretty consistent in it’s overall wretchedness. I honestly have no clue where this show can go in season two. The saving grace is, every loose end was tied up and there’s zero reason to tune in again next season.
Video Quality
I watched most of the Gotham’s first season via Fox’s online screeners – which really is a lousy way to watch TV, so revisiting on Blu-ray really was kind of a pleasure. The cinematography and set design work in this show really is at times quite beautiful and really shines in full HD quality. It really is sharper and clearer than Digital versions.
Extras
Digital Copy – It is pretty crappy that Warner HV still doesn’t like iTunes and only provides Digital copy codes for the Ultraviolet version which doesn’t include any of Blu-ray extras like on iTunes. I would feel cheated if I didn’t already purchase the iTunes copy. As it is, I still feel annoyed that I paid for the iTunes version.
I wish all companies were more forward thinking like Disney and had a program similar to DisneyAnywhere where your digital copy code unlocks the Video on most available platforms including UV and iTunes. I do give WHV props for including a digital copy code since most companies, notably ABC TV, rarely include them – that’s assuming you can even find the shows on Blu-ray.
Featurettes – There are several notable features including the 30 minute panel discussion from the 2014 SDCC, The 27 minute The Game of Cobblepot, a 3 part documentary that steps fans through how Gotham was created, designed and shot. Overall a pretty solid list of extras that will tell you everything you would want to know about how this show was conceived and produced. There are some episode specific deleted scenes and character profiles, but both are so short and insignificant that they aren’t worth talking about.
Conclusion
The season works better when you can watch it as a whole story, as opposed to piecemeal over 9 months. While $45 is a bit pricey the package is packed to the brim. Other than my gripe about the non-iTunes digital copy, this Blu-ray release is solid and any true fan of the series won’t be disappointed.
Grades
- TV Show – B-
- Extras – A- (would be an A if they included an iTunes Digital Copy as well)
- Audio/Video – A
Final Grade – B