Gotham Ends with "The Beginning"

Ben McKenzie sporting a new mustache during the finale of the Fox series, 'Gotham.' McKenzie is known for his role as Jim Gordon, the valiant police captain turned commissioner.

Batman fans finally got everything they wanted... a "caterpillar mustache" on the upper lip of Commissioner Gordon, a monocle and puffy gut to go along with Penguin's limp, the continuation of Jeremiah Valeska's transition into the Joker, and a dark shadowy figure known for his cape and cowl returning home to Gotham City.

The hour long finale of 'Gotham,' which aired about a week ago on April 25, jumped the audience 10 years into the future. For a long time it has been speculated on whether 'Gotham' will transform into a show about the Batman, the famous comic crusader it is based upon, or perhaps lead to a spin off with most of the same cast, aside from the roles affected by aging. Well if the finale's title ("The Beginning...") tells us anything, it's that Fox hasn't ruled either of these options out. So what was this ten year look ahead, a preview of what is to come? Or was it a test run to see if viewers are actually interested? At the very least it served as a proper final curtain to a show that was highly entertaining for the most part (if you could get past the obvious flaws and character loops)... although I'd like to point out that in 'Gotham' nothing can ever be considered 100% dead and gone, and that includes the series.

Season 5 of 'Gotham' wrapped up the week before with a TV version of Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight Rises,' just replace Batman with Jim Gordon and friends. With the city quarantined and labeled a lost cause by the government, a former special ops friend of Gordon's emerges as Bane and vows to tear Gotham to rubble, so that he may rebuild it to glory. Only just like in the film, one of Ra's al Ghul's daughters is calling the shots (Nyssa rather than Talia which makes sense due to the age of Bruce Wayne). Tired plots like this and countless others throughout the last few seasons (most of which include characters like the Riddler, Penguin, Barbara Kean, Catwoman, the GCPD and many others teaming up only to stab each other in the backs over and over again), while comical and enjoyable, are the exact reason I actually hope the show doesn't come back. I think it has run it's course. It was an origin show at heart that did an incredible job of capturing the backgrounds of all of these famous Batman villains and heroes and bottling them into a lovable cast of characters. Sure most of them should have died, were resurrected by Dr. Strange at some point, or died multiple times over, but we loved these characters that were created so we didn't really care, did we? If you made it to the finale I'm guessing you learned to live with it like I did, and a large part of that is due to the actors and actresses of 'Gotham' who should all be very proud of their work.

Even so, I feel a Batman spin-off show would be very similar to this one, only replace kickass shoot-first punch-second Jim Gordon with the vigilante himself, minus the gun. Most of the famous criminals from the comics have made their way into the show from the mob families to the more unnatural creations. We have even witnessed Bruce in action plenty of times throughout the series already, whether teamed up with Alfred Pennyworth and Lucius Fox in roles like we've never seen them before, Selina Kyle, the feline vixen that Wayne comes to love, or Gordon and Bullock themselves. I just don't see how creative the writers and show-runners could get with another show based in Gotham City, even if it's a Catwoman series which has been rumored. I would actually be more interested in following David Mazouz's younger version of Bruce Wayne to Southeast Asia and see how he trains to become the bat. That show has yet to exist, although we do see glimpses in 'Batman Begins,' the original Nolan film. Unfortunately, you'd lose roles like Bullock, Alfred, Penguin, Valeska, and Gordon in the process (the five star performers of the show in my opinion, not to say the others were bad). Mazouz was actually one of the actors I enjoyed least if I'm being honest, so maybe a show based solely around him would be a mistake as well.

Looking down every path and option for Fox, I really think the best plan of action is to call it quits. So many shows never get the chance to do what they accomplished. For starters, they had a pretty clear story arc that they were able to properly convey and connect from beginning to end. It was done in a coherent manner, for the most part it made sense in a bizarre Gotham City sort of way, and all the main characters were accounted for in their own personal plot lines. The cherry on top was that they ended on their 100th episode of the series, a mark rarely met in network television. Am I sad to see 'Gotham' go? From the casual break-ins at the GCPD to the double and triple-crosses every week, of course I am, but I can always go back and watch my favorite episodes. Watching the finale last night, I would say I was more content than anything else. The show felt complete when Gordon looks to hand off the baton as guardian of Gotham, and Batman accepts willingly from a nearby rooftop. The words were never spoken, but it seemed both Jim and Bruce needed only a distant stare between old friends, silent yet stern... the Batman way.

Photo Credit: Metro