Gotham Knights

We're three episodes in and I didn't see a thread for this. What're everyone's thoughts on it? Personally I'm enjoying it. While it has its flaws I'm enjoying it so far. I think it does a good job of being run and relatively lighthearted (Compared to Batwoman anyways.) while still being serious. My favorite characters so far are Carrie, Stephanie, and Duela though mostly Carrie and I look forward to seeing the characters grow and develope.

Overall while not the best I'm having fun with it. What about you?

I still wonder why they created a new character to be Bruce's son, instead of having a pre-established one.

Is it to hide a plot twist?

It's more likely that they couldn't get the rights for any of them.

This series seems to be made up of original characters and characters no one else was using at the moment.

Dick, Tim and Jason are being used in Titans, so the powers that be could have vetoed them based on that. They seem to dislike multiple versions of the same character being done at the same time.

Except when they don't, like Grant Gustin and Ezra Miller playing Barry Allen at the same time... for some reason.

TV and Movies are different, they don't like two different versions of the same character on TV.

They actually do have rules about TV and movies not sharing characters... inconsistently. Ray Palmer's role in Arrow was originally written for Ted Kord, but they had to change it because of unspecified DCEU plans for him. Arrow was also building up the Suicide Squad, which just became an Aborted Arc when the movie went into production. And there have been all sorts of weird rules about whether or not TV shows were directly allowed to use Batman because of movies.

Edited by lbssb on Apr 3rd 2023 at 12:57:04 PM

And to add insult to injury, many of the characters that were banned because the movies "planned to use them" ended up being canceled projects.

Holy miraculous scenarios, Batman!

We got Reason #59,860 as to why there is a God:

Gotham Knights has been canceled after one single season.

The evil is defeated.

Gloating about a tv show you don't like being canceled, in the thread dedicated to that show, is pretty gross tbh.

...Sorry.

I was under the impression that we didn't like it due to its shoestring budget and its overuse of original characters.

Like, Turner Hayes could've easily been Jason or Tim, right?

Tv tropes is not a hive mind. There is no all-encompassing "we."

There wasn't much apparent interest, IIRC, but it was more lack of interest rather than actual hatred, if I read the room correctly.

As a fan of the show I'm not happy that it was cancelled. Yeah it's not the best and yes it's cheesey but it's pretty damn good which people would know if they ever actually gave it a fair chance.

I enjoyed it for what it was, and most importantly i thought it got better as the season progressed.

Considering that it had to make something out of the obscure parts of the Batman mythos Big Warner Discovery would let them have, Gotham Knights was a servicable teen drama. It apparently does well internationally on Max so maybe there's a chance.

Their take on Harvey Dent was interesting, though since it got cancelled in favor of renewing Superman and Lois, I have to say the better show won.

Okay, I did a retrospect on my initial posting and…yeah, I went over the line. And I'm sorry for assuming everyone else here was hating on it too.

In fact, I don't even think I was actively mad at it for existing in the first place. Ultimately, I think I was more disinterested than anything. (I guess it was the social media talking.) There just didn't seem to be anything to really grab my attention. For me, it was yet another Batman show without Batman. (You know, since multiverses are the new hotness, you'd think people would not be so opposed with having more than one interpretation of Bruce, Dick, Jason, and Tim occurring at the same time.)

To give the show some credit, I wasn't expecting it to have Carrie Kelley of all the established Robins, so that's something, right?

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Jun 13th 2023 at 9:18:17 AM

No Network to the Rescue this time, the showrunners released a statement stating they did try to save the show and try to move it elsewhere, but it's not happening.

Edited by MegaJ on Jun 14th 2023 at 4:48:18 AM

So what were the good things about this show.

Decent-enough Teen Drama with superheroes. Good queer representation.

It was about a group of lesser used teenage Gothamites, yeah?

Did it end on a decent note?

It's still airing, there's two episodes left before the season-turned-series finale.

1. A largely-LGBT cast, including one of DC's few transmasc characters.
2. The show explores Harvey Dent as an actual character rather than just Two-Face's alter-ego.
3. The show actually makes people care about lesser characters like Cullen Row and Duela Dent by tweaking their personalities, turning Cullen into a guy who's actually working to be his own person instead of just Harper's kid brother, and giving Duela a far more straightforward (and tragic) origin rather than just sticking to the tired old "nutty fangirl who thinks every supervillain is her dad" thing.

Edited by StrixObscuro on Jun 19th 2023 at 12:50:30 PM

As far as positives for me:

1. Yes, Harvey Dent is done well in this show. It's cool to see his descent into madness in live action after the cheesy turn in Batman Forever, the rush job in The Dark Knight, and whatever Gotham did. They actually bring in the abusive dad background (while also giving that a twist) and remember that his other self is supposed to be defense mechanism gone wrong. Also helps that I'm familiar with Misha Collins.

2. This is probably the best interpretation of the Court of Owls outside of comics. Yeah, they're still going to get beaten by a bunch of kids, but they do a better job replicating the designs and comic lore than everything else has.

3. Some of the show's cheesiness can be charming. There's the "deadname" line from the pilot, but I also liked the subplot of Duela and Carrie with the evil old lady. Felt like something from Gotham.