- Jessica Miglio/FOX
- Without a Batman, the cops (Donal Logue, Ben McKenzie) are Gotham’s “good guys.”
Are we so averse to the thought of seeing Ben Affleck’s lantern jaw under the iconic cowl that we’ve retconned Batman right out of the story? OK, that’s not exactly what’s happening on Fox’s Gotham, a new series by Bruno Heller (Rome, The Mentalist). But it is a Batman-less existence for the denizens of Gotham, a city where billionaires are gunned down in alleys, the police dance with the devil—er, mob—in the pale moonlight, and innocent children are orphaned. The premiere has one too many winking nods to devotees of the Dark Knight, but it’s mostly a fine introduction.
He also serves as a hint of what’s to come. Because, despite the lines being drawn, the kind of battle that’s stirring in Gotham isn’t going to be as clear-cut as bad guys versus good guys, especially since the supposed good guys (the police, and not just Harvey Bullock) have been working with the bad guys (the mob). Things are going to go from bad to worse—and we’re going to get a different type of guy working outside of the law.
