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REVIEW BY MICHELLE LEUNG
The series debut was so lame and so full of holes I had trouble in how to tackle a review without ripping apart the entire 45 minutes of the pilot episode.
The show starts with the premise that Batman was found killed, thrown from Wayne Tower’s penthouse offices and found dead, crushed by the fall on the street, some fifty floors down. Gotham Police initially apprehend a group of delinquent teenagers, one of whom has a calling card to infamy by being Harley Quinn’s and The Joker’s child, Duella, who hates her connection to the Joker and thinks he played games with her psychotically deranged mother, once a psychologist at Arkham Asylum who treated some of the most reprehensible, monstrous criminals put there by Batman himself including Scarecrow and The Riddler – a criminally insane lot.
The smoking gun initially points to the three teenage delinquents and then the money trail, payments to ostensibly kill Bruce, lead to his own adopted son, Turner Hayes, the last in a series of adoptions that saw Batman bring into his family Dick Grayson (Robin # 1 and later Nightwing, leader of The Titans), Jason Todd who was Robin # 2 and later became The Red Hood), then Tim Drake (Robin # 3) and finally the youngest Damian Wayne (Robin #4) whose grandfather is the megalomaniac Modern Day Emperor Ming knock-off Ras Al Ghul himself – one of Batman’s most bitter and most formidable of enemies.
So this show trots in an unknown new adopted son (fear not he is not Robin #5) although as the show unfurls its awkward creaky unbelievably spun plot, the viewer keeps wondering where are the fabled seven from the Justice League? Their leader, the brains and master strategist of the Justice League just bit the dust but none of them shows up at any point or not even at his funeral. Odd but we already knew this series is skating on thin ice.
And where are the four Robins and The Titans? Damn, no show either for some peculiar reason.
But the biggest piece of “horseshit” (to quote officer Conklin from the series Reacher) is who would be spectacularly insane enough to attempt to throw Batman from his penthouse and not end up dead themselves. What assassin would succeed when he has defeated the very top of assassins that had Oliver Queen in circles as the Green Arrow. Batman has on countless occasions been targeted by the Ras Al Ghul band of merry men and invariably has taken it back to the source resulting in numerous instances in which he kills Al Ghul only for him to be brought back to life courtesy of the Lazarus Pit.And it is safe to say he has also put down the top-notch “never miss their prey” assassins such as Deathstroke. So who would be able to waltz into his lair in Wayne Tower and pitch Batman over through the window, a man who is so physically superior he has gone more than once toe to toe with superhuman villains and heroes, including Superman. Batman’s physique and agility are the stuff of legends and his martial arts prowess would make Bruce Lee look like chump change. So would be able to throw him like he was some office boy, while the office itself bears no signs of a fight or struggle.
Either his friend and the cops are all corrupt or on some kind of mass hypnosis to ignore the signs, having discovered the body of Bruce Wayne wearing the Batman cowl.
So five minutes into the pilot, all the cops and indeed the entire world via news reports incessantly broadcast the death of Batman revealed as Bruce Wayne, you have to wonder how come none of the investigators and detectives do not pick up the scent of major plot holes or major foul play.
The easiest thing to arrive to, with everyone including the public, is that Bruce Wayne could not have been killed like a normal person. Was he killed somewhere else and his body was dumped from the penthouse to make it look like a casual murder by an assailant who pitched him over from the top floor? But then why would the murderer spray paint the glass with “YOUR BAT IS DEAD”? If the murderer does his best to reveal that Bruce is the Batman, who would fall for the notion that Batman was just thrown out of his penthouse floor? Are you kidding me? Batman is not a hero police dude, he is a SUPERHERO, with physical abilities that allow him to seem like he can fly or walk on water. He is up there with the most powerful of beings including Superman and Wonder Woman ( the incarnation of Zeus, a GOD) and Batman can go toe to toe with them at any time. The opening premise stands out as beyond putridly deranged and deficient amongst the entirety of ill-conceived and all-time hokey premises in the hall of shame for comic book materials.
But we’re not done yet, let’s examine the second most unbelievable trove of hoowey in a single 45-minute viewing.
So let’s assume somehow that Bruce Wayne was poisoned and thus was unable to fight like Batman would, or was incapacitated somehow. The second big gaping plot hole is how detectives and the DA Harvey Dent are mentally operating at 0.1% of normal police intellect. And where is Commissioner Gordon or his daughter, Batgirl? Ooops now that’s one more character that is usually part of the umbrella forming Batman Incorporated that is constantly protecting Gotham from foul writing. Of course it fits, foul writing, foul acting, foul action (chuckling) it’s The Court of Owls.
| “The Famous Five and Nancy Drew,
where are you?”Pierre Maertin, Senior Editor How would the Police immediately jump, along with the public, to the conclusion that his adopted son was behind his murder? Batman has fought some of biggest criminals on this planet and in other parts of the galaxy, he has enemies like no other. And the public knows it, even within the fictional setup of this series, the public knows Batman has saved Gotham from insanely dangerous criminals, some of whom are criminal masterminds who were beyond the capacity of the police to unravel, hence stepped into action the World’s GREATEST SLEUTH, THE WORLD’S GREATEST MYSTERY SOLVER. Batman has often been portrayed as possibly the Greatest Sherlock Holmes ever, with the most ingenious mind the world has ever seen. Superman constantly defers to him and Superman possesses a Kryptonian’s intellect (superhuman mental abilities). Batman’s super brains have been challenged by his enemies who have often plotted for years to bring him down.
How could the writers of this show give the audience a police department and DA who suspect the thinnest of distractions and false flags pointing at his adopted son and the delinquent teens? (shrugging shoulders) “The Famous Five and Nancy Drew, where are you?”What this show sets up for the viewer is that a normal billionaire was thrown out of his penthouse office and died on the pavement with a Batman mask on but he is killed like any regular executive some thug or street gang member just threw out the window.
And then the cops come in, knowing the victim is one of the top superheroes on the planet, yet treat a set of highly visible cookie crumbs that leads to some teenagers and his son as if this is a bona fide trail in the investigation of a Joe Blow run-of-the-mill Jeff Bezos.
Meanwhile reporters from a cesspool city like Gotham that is the wellspring of some of the most resourceful super criminals of the world fall into the most vapid line of speculation possible not once suspecting there could be super villains at play and that the cookie crumbs are fake or fabricated?? I mean Magnum PI had far less to deal with and always managed to get the local Oahu Police Chief to play ball with his insights.
The plot is beyond stupid, dull and oblivious to its own source materials, the premise is so flawed it makes you cringe but so is some of the acting from the leads. Gotham Knights is a dreadful, almost amateur level production that screams bad community theater on video, or fan production with studio props from leftover previous Dark Knight and Batman productions.
The pilot plays like a high brow version of Beverly Hills 90210 with cool gadgets that come with their own references like “Batman”, “Batcave” “Alfred the Butler” but the show is still very much a bunch of kids from Beverly Hills 90210 who are now gonna play cat and mouse escapades games with their city and their police department.
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