Gotham is a show trying to do a lot of things all at once. It is an origin story of sorts. Where it differs from the various tellings of Bruce Wayne witnessing the death of his parents and becoming Batman is the focus shifts on more of the other characters in the city.

There will be some minor spoilers for the episode.

One might wonder how could we have a TV show set in Bruce Wayne's city and not have the story center around him? This episode shows there are plenty of other characters to fill up the time slot. The very first shot gives us young Selina Kyle, already on the road to becoming the cat-burglar that will one day call herself Catwoman. We see she's an expert pickpocket and has a soft spot for stray cats.

Selina's introduction on the streets of Gotham City brings us to that pivotal scene everyone expects to see right away, the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne. It's a little unclear why the Waynes actually decided to turn into this dark alley that would forever change young Bruce's life. That can be overlooked as you wonder why Selina had to be there to witness the murders. Perhaps young Selina and young Bruce will have some sort of connection after this.

Ben McKenzie makes a big entrance as rookie James Gordon. We could question the functionality of the GCPD's precinct designs at this point or we could just focus on the character being built (perhaps it's just easy for the officers to have the jail cells so close to the detectives' desks). In the same scene, we're introduced to Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock. Bullock fans can be happy as we'll be seeing a lot of him since he's Gordon's partner. We'll also see later that Renee Montoya and Crispus Allen are also officers in Gotham, in another division.

There's a lot that works and a lot that will make you scratch your head. Seeing the aftermath of the Waynes murder is interesting. David Mazouz plays a good troubled young Bruce Wayne. You'll love Sean Pertwee's entrance and performance as Alfred. We just don't get to see enough of them here.

Where the show starts to get a little convoluted is the introduction of even more characters. Jada Pinkett Smith plays mobster Fish Mooney, who works in Carmine Falcone's territory. Oswald Cobblepot works as one of Fish's henchmen (he's actually holding an umbrella for her as she gives an employee a beatdown in the rain in the back alley). Edward Nigma even shows up as a forensic expert. We also see a little red-haired girl name Ivy Pepper when Bullock and Gordon pay visit to a suspect. I really hope we don't see the comedian seen at Fish's club again. I don't want to think any more about any possibilities with that guy.

All of the characters introduced have little traits, sayings, or actions that serve as Easter Eggs for Batman fans. It just felt like too much. We can assume (and hope) some of the downfalls are due to this being the pilot. These characters do need to be introduced right away. We see some good performances here. It's just unfortunate we also get some performances that are a little over the top. I'm still excited for the show to see where we'll get to explore next. Casual fans should be able to enjoy this but BATMAN readers might find themselves cringing a little at times. There is potential for this show to become more of what we want it to be.

I completely agree. The name drops and cameos felt forced. Just introduce them slowly, like Arrow or Smallville. We don't need every villain in 45 minutes.

I really enjoyed this pilot, hopefully the show continues to get better and better.

3/5 is about right. Not as good as Arrow but still better then Agents of SHIELD.

Agreed. I cringed a few times, some of the exposition and delivery was really bad. Also, I lost count at how many times Jim Gordon scoweled. The name drops became so annoying, they were trying to force so many characters as if the audience watching a show called GOTHAM didn't know they were watching a "Batman" show. I think the worst part about this episode was the Penguin. They name dropped Penguin 100 times, and then his final scene was random and made no sense (was he really that hungry?). It was a frustrating watch hopefully they don't keep doing that over the season. Subtle teases are good, but here they just kept throwing at your face "PENGUIN! PENGUIN! PENGUIN! AND IVY TOO!" it got really annoying

Arrow's pilot wasn't too hot either.

4/5 for me. I will say that the name dropping did feel forced though. I'm excited for next week though.

Well you have to understand that this is the pilot, they are usually bad and crowded because they have to state the plot to the people that decide if a show goes into production, due to the fact that they are impatient a$$holes who don't understand the concept of build up.

Also, in the interviews it was said that they are going to be c*ck teasing the Joker throughout the series.

I think 3/5 is spot on. It was good just not great. Felt very forced in some spots and really good in others.

Already way too much Bruce Wayne. The end of the episode with Bruce conquering his fear was a bit much. And the preview for next week's episode feels like this show is going to be young Batman in training. I hope the steer away from the Waynes and start investigating other crimes later on in the season. And please no more villains.

I didn't even know it was on tonight. Judging by the response, it seems like it's exactly what I was afraid it would be. I may just skip it all together.

@drellassassin: and all I'm saying is Arrow's was better.

It was a good pilot far from great.Like most pilots it will more then likely cause mix feelings among fans.Still to me it was good enough to warrant some interest in next weeks episode.

Thought this episode was meh, agree with this review. Too many people introduced, hopefully it gets better later on.

Most of my gripes come from being a comic book reader and nitpicking the hell out of the show...for instance I see absolutely no reason at all to change Poison Ivy's name. ..it changes nothing about the character other than her name and just feels like an arbitrary change...I really don't know how I feel Donal Logue just because I'm so used to seeing him in comedic roles that it's hard to see him in a serious role...the name drops and cameos were a little much as everyone else has already mentioned

I will give the show a few episodes though to see if it gets better...I do believe that it has potential but I am worried about it being on Fox

3 star? Say it ain't so. It hasn't come on for me yet, but I have high hopes

It was ok i guess. Felt way too packed with characters-these characters all feel very forceably connected. I liked bullock, bruce, and the last villain they showed. I couldn't stand nygma. But i agree with gman's spoiler block-I truly hope they don't do that.

The show was ok, I enjoyed most of it. Besides the forced name dropping which seems well covered here, I had trouble with the scene between Gordon and Bruce. It seems a noble gesture to offer your badge to a child, but it just came across as overly melodramatic and a bit ridiculous. Could've done without that, especially since Gordon had done nothing wrong and made no mistake. Perhaps if you have a show called Gotham you could spend that scene's time building the city as a character. And maybe not play all of your character cards the first show and slowly introduce characters throughout the season.

Same here

The only problem I had was the pilot was just so fast paced.

This review is really crappy, sorry to see. Wow and this is a fan base website. This was a pilot (keep it in mind)and it was just PLAIN AWESOME. Enough for newbies to be hooked and excellent for all of us comic geeks that can catch the Easter eggs w ease. This was an excellent first episode. Monday night tv history has been made!!!! Loved The Penguin, loved the Riddler cameo, loved Gordon, was not impressed with Alfred. Bullock is cool. Montoya was creepy. Selina pick pocketing was cool to watch. This was just TV and comicbook heaven combined.

Good enough to keep watching, not good enough to make me psyched for each new episode. There's potential, but there's a certain spark missing. And maybe it's just me, but I honestly just can't get into the casting choices for Alfred, Gordon, Montoya, or Bullock at this point. Bruce, Selina, Nygma, and Penguin are all good enough, but the others just aren't clicking with me. Hopefully that'll change in time.

I agree with the review as well. I'll be tuning in next week to see how it goes. I really don't want them to touch, or for that matter even mention, The Joker in this series. I feel it's inevitable though, and maybe(?) even started here.

With the way so many comic readers get bent out of shape over the slightest bit of even possible continuity issues, I fear this show is going to fuel a lot of rage.

@viin: Ehh, it was good and better then the first half season of Sheild but not better then the 2nd half.

@illmatic4177: The Shield? Yea that was a good show. Chikliss was the bomb.

Knew the show was going to be mediocre. Agents of Shield 2.0.

G-Man doesn't say that the show was bad but it wasn't just "PLAIN AWESOME" either....there were some problems that will hopefully not be so prevalent in the episodes to follow...there was definitely room for improvement

I think Pilots should be graded on a curve since they have to introduce multiple characters, relationships, ect. I give this a 4/5. I was really happy with the end result and look forward to a promising season.

I'd prefer if they shy away from Bruce and Alfred and focus on the characters of GCPD. There's really not much for Bruce and Alfred to do here without getting too deep into his transformation. I dont view this show as an origin for Batman, I view it as an origin for the CITY of Gotham, Some of it's villains, and mainly Commissioner Gordon.

I have to disagree with everyone that says the easter eggs felt forced, it was fine to me. Sure there were a lot of characters, but the focus was still on Jim and Harvey.

The only scene were I cringed was the murders of Thomas and Martha. That could have been better.

My one major grip is the character change to Sarah Essen. That's just flat out stupid, but everything else was really good.

I was bored during the the pilot, which is surprising since I love origin stories. I'll give it 5 episodes to see if I'll finish the season.

I really agree with your review of the first episode.

It seems good and has potential. My biggest problem is that they introduce every character within a single episode. I thought they were going to spread these characters out a bit more, a couple characters per episode. It just seems weird that ALL of these characters are in some way tied into the events of the Waynes murder.

The series feels as if it just has conspiracies everywhere.

We are of the same mind about "that character". I really don't want to see him again. That would be crossing the line..

Was not very impressed was expecting more, way to much name dropping , the show takes its self really seriously

The name drops felt forced. But I thought Gordon and Bullock were perfectly portrayed. Overall I did enjoy it more than I thought I would.

The pilot showed promise. I liked the performances from the cast, they kept me interested without any really dull moments, and I'm liking where it's going.

I just don't want there to be all of the rogues gallery being introduced. There's no reason Nygma should be there and the Pamela Isley or "Ivy Peppers" appearance was totally unnecessary. It didn't have to be Poison Ivy's father smh.

Feel like this is the next agents of shield. Taking a superhero concept with no super heroes

Kinda funny. A lot of the comic book sites are saying that it's good but not great, while regular reviews for I guess you can say non comic book readers are saying it's great and the comments show that many people agree. Make a long story short, I think comic fans can be a little over critical with things like this. I think the show will just do fine.

9.3/10 in the IMDb, that's great.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3749900/?ref_=nv_sr_1

90% of the reviews you'll find on sites like IMBD, Rotten Tomates or whatever are reviews of people who don't read comics. (that's probably generous btw, its probably 99%) Comic readers are a tiny minority.

On the other hand 90% of the people on this website do read comics.

We have a completely difference perspective when watching these shows.

I'd rather ask a comic reader what he thinks about a tv/movie than a non-comic reader. We're more likely to see eye to eye then someone who doesn't.

Its why I, do not give a crap about those varies site ratings.

Catwoman has the hots for a young Bruce Wayne?

Shouldn't Selina be younger?

One of Batmans main love interests will be an old hag.

All in all I liked the tone of Gotham city it looked and felt dark and I enjoyed the episode I'll definitely be checking out the next one. Too many characters as previously stated but it is a pilot

Really , it's just the first ep ?

visually, it's very impressive

not much story here yet and the biggest problem i had was that it was too dependent on dramatic name dropping

Worst show ever man. Really disappointed. Hope this gets cancelled

I mean like others said,it was just the pilot. Arrow's pilot wasn't great. And now Arrow is a huge success like I believe this show will turn out to be.

Neither were its first 8 episodes for that matter,they were actually crap.

The response has been great on other places.

It's a show about Batman,what do you expect?

Comic fans.

But Arrow can get away with pointless name drops and cameos,remember Grundy,the Black Hawks,Kate Spencer,Jean Loring etc.

@entropy_aegis: So true.

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm excited to none the less. Sounds like they want to get all the big names in early and I think there's two reasons: 1 is that it's Fox and they don't care about appeasing comic fans (as opposed to CW owned by Warner bros and more likely to stay closer at least to source material), which leads into 2 being that they want to use the big names and we'll known characters to get people returning for episode two.

I went into this episode very skeptical but I actually loved it. I'd have given it a strong 4 or even a 5. The only problem I had with it was the pacing. It definitely felt like they put two episodes worth of material into one. I think they just wanted to establish all of it as early as possible to hook the audience. It seems like Fox has a lot riding on this show succeeding. IMO, the performances were all fantastic and the visual aesthetic of the show was spot on. Can't wait for next week's episode already.

Or maybe because we actually read the comics, and expect quality material like we get in the comics since we actually know what were talking about IMO.

4/5 for me. Better than the pilots for Arrow, Agents Of Shield, and Constantine. About as good as The Flash's. Great casting and plot. I felt that the trailers may have given away too many scenes, though.

This was a solid pilot as pilots go, there is a lot they have to do and darn it I can see the show in there but its got all this lame batman tease crap surronding it. Ben McKenzie is fine and Donal Logue is always nice to have around.

Cheap Plug to User Review

Honestly, the pilot for AoS entertained me more than this. Hopefully it picks up in future episodes.

@micah: What I'm saying is that normal viewers aren't going to have the same gripes about a comic book show like comic book readers do. Normal viewers aren't going to complain about all the name drops because to them those are just names they don't associate them with Batman's normal villains. Comic book fans look for those kinds of things while normal viewers don't.