Gotham returns to FOX tonight with the last four episodes of the season! While he had nothing to say about Jada Pinkett-Smith leaving the show after this season, Ben McKenzie, who stars as Det. Jim Gordon, gave up some tasty tidbits about the show’s upcoming dark story arc, and where Gotham is headed in Season 2 while speaking to a group of journalists recently.
On whether Gordon is conscious of becoming more and more morally ambiguous, or if he’s being sucked in unawares:
I think he’s being sucked in. I think he is aware on some level. But I think the overwhelming nature of Gotham tends to sort of beat you down, and even if you are aware on some level of what’s going on, you really are just focused on what’s right ahead of you, and you can’t really see the full picture; you’re just in it. So, I think he’s a little unaware.
On the new villain, The Ogre (played by Milo Ventimiglia):
The Ogre is a serial killer who seduces, kidnaps, tortures and kills women. In the never-ending pursuit for a partner, he finds these women, and they, let’s just say, don’t meet to his exacting standards. He’s a true psychopath, and he’s remained at large for years because he protects himself. Any cop who takes on his case, the Ogre targets the loved ones of that cop. He ends up—the cop will end up with his wife’s throat cut, his girlfriend dead, things like that. So, no cop touches it, and it’s basically just become the dirty little secret of the GCPD.
Jim, when he ends up in contact with the case, and he ends up in contact with it in an interesting way, he’s a hero; he can’t put it down. For him not to pursue the case would be to have the blood of future victims on his hands, so he’s put in a perilous position where he knows that the women in his life could be targets. It creates a strain on his relationship with Thompkins, and it will have dire consequences moving forward.
On how these final four episodes will propel us into Gotham‘s Season 2:
The arc takes us down an incredibly dark path, probably darkest of the season, and then after a sort of three-episode arc involving the Ogre, there is kind of an epic season finale that really pushes us strongly into a Season 2 that is extremely chaotic. The best way I can describe it without giving too much away is you’re really starting to see the downward spiral of Gotham as a city towards the ultimate anarchy that will manifest and result in all these masked vigilantes roaming the streets. You’re at the tipping point here on the season finale, and I think it’s going to kick us into Season 2 with a literal bang, almost.
On initial criticism of Gotham, particularly that this is “a Batman show without Batman”:
This show, in particular, has had an interesting first year. I’m very proud of it. It’s grown a lot, I believe, in the first year, and I think we’ve learned from some mistakes that we’ve made in the first year. I think after we made what I believe is a very strong pilot, we ended up on a detour where we became a little too procedural. We became a little too focused on the crime of the week. We were using villains that weren’t really from mythology, and that did a disservice to the mythology that we were trying to serve and to the fans.
We’ve adjusted. We’ve introduced villains with multi-episode arcs. They are from the mythology, by and large. A grandeur of Gotham is sort of more fully exposed. I think we’re learning, as you learn on the first year of a show. You can only really learn by making mistakes and correcting them.
I’m particularly relieved that the primary criticism of the show, the Batman show without Batman, at this point, I believe has been shown to be a bit of a misunderstood complaint. If one is really a fan of Batman and the world of Batman, I would think discovering how Batman came to be is a fascinating journey, discovering how all these villains came to be. So, I think at this point we’ve dodged that bullet for the most part, but we need to live up to the expectations of the fans, and we’ll try to do that.
I’ll admit it. I was one of those people who wasn’t crazy about Gotham when it first started. Those first couple of episodes were a bit cringe-inducing, and I was thisclose to giving up on the show. I’m glad I didn’t. Gotham has evolved, and become an intriguing, enthralling addition to the superhero television landscape. I’m thrilled there’s a Season Two, and I’m looking forward to the show’s return tonight!
Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
