Gotham (Fox 2014, Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue)

Before there was Batman, there was GOTHAM. Everyone knows the name Commissioner Gordon. He is one of the crime world’s greatest foes, a man whose reputation is synonymous with law and order. But what is known of Gordon’s story and his rise from rookie detective to Police Commissioner? What did it take to navigate the multiple layers of corruption that secretly ruled Gotham City, the spawning ground of the world’s most iconic villains? And what circumstances created them – the larger-than-life personas who would become Catwoman, The Penguin, The Riddler, Two-Face and The Joker? GOTHAM is an origin story of the great DC Comics Super-Villains and vigilantes, revealing an entirely new chapter that has never been told.

Gotham follows one cop’s rise through a dangerously corrupt city teetering on the edge of evil, and chronicles the birth of one of the most popular super heroes of our time. Growing up in Gotham City’s surrounding suburbs, JAMES GORDON romanticized the city as a glamorous and exciting metropolis where his late father once served as a successful district attorney. Now, two weeks into his new job as a Gotham City detective and engaged to his beloved fiancée, BARBARA KEAN, Gordon is living his dream – even as he hopes to restore the city back to the pure version he remembers it was as a kid.

Brave, honest and ready to prove himself, the newly-minted detective is partnered with the brash, but shrewd police legend HARVEY BULLOCK, as the two stumble upon the city’s highest-profile case ever: the murder of local billionaires Thomas and Martha Wayne. At the scene of the crime, Gordon meets the sole survivor: the Waynes’ hauntingly intense 12-year-old son, BRUCE, toward whom the young detective feels an inexplicable kinship. Moved by the boy’s profound loss, Gordon vows to catch the killer.

As he navigates the often-underhanded politics of Gotham’s criminal justice system, Gordon will confront imposing gang boss FISH MOONEY, and many of the characters who will become some of fiction’s most renowned, enduring villains, including a teenaged SELINA KYLE/the future CATWOMAN and OSWALD COBBLEPOT/THE PENGUIN.

While the crime drama will follow Gordon’s turbulent and singular rise through the Gotham City police department, led by Police Captain SARAH ESSEN, it also will focus on the unlikely friendship Gordon forms with the young heir to the Wayne fortune, who is being raised by his unflappable butler, ALFRED. It is a friendship that will last them all of their lives, playing a crucial role in helping the young boy eventually become the crusader he’s destined to be.

production details
USA | Fox – Warner Bros. Television | x43 minutes | Broadcast from 22 September 2014

Executive Producer/Writer: Bruno Heller
Executive Producer/Director: Danny Cannon
Executive Producer: John Stephens

cast
Ben McKenzie as James Gordon
Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock
David Mazouz as Bruce Wayne
Zabryna Guevara as Sarah Essen
Sean Pertwee as Alfred Pennyworth
Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot / The Penguin
Erin Richards as Barbara Kean
Camren Bicondova as Selina “Cat” Kyle
Cory Michael Smith as Edward Nygma / The Riddler
Victoria Cartagena as Renee Montoya
Andrew Stewart-Jones as Crispus Allen
John Doman as Carmine Falcone
Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney
Morena Baccarin as Leslie ‘Lee’ Thompkins
James Frain as Theo Galavan / Azrael
Jessica Lucas as Tabitha Galavan / Tigress
Chris Chalk as Lucius Fox
Drew Powell as Butch Gilzean / Cyrus Gold / Solomon Grundy
Nicholas D’Agosto as Harvey Dent
Michael Chiklis as Nathaniel Barnes / The Executioner
Maggie Geha as Ivy ‘Pamela’ Pepper
Benedict Samuel as Jervis Tetch / Mad Hatter
Crystal Reed as Sofia Falcone
Alexander Siddig as Ra’s al Ghul