A recent draft of the pilot episode of Gotham somehow got into the clutches of i09, wherein the series’ connection to the Batman universe is apparently exploited.
Crime procedural dramas do not quite fit my fancy. Gotham, however, was a bit of exception simply because of its connection to the Batman universe. To be honest, I was apprehensive about it. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., though crafted by the hands of Joss Whedon (In Whedon, we trust.) simply didn’t do it for me. Gotham seemed like it was going to be more dramatic, which is not something I think I’d enjoy. Then, Kevin Smith and Paul Dini came up with a very intriguing premise that might’ve had an influence on Gotham, when suddenly Gotham started looking to cast a young Bruce Wayne. That helped to raise my spirits a fair amount and I’ve remained relatively optimistic since then.
Gotham has gone full-speed ahead on casting news, giving us Ben McKenzie as Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock in Donal Logue, Sean 
Pertwee as Alfred, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot, and Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney. Interesting cast list. I remained optimistic, until i09 got their hands on a draft of a script for the pilot.
If we were to trust i09 and this turns out to be the real script for the pilot, then I’m going to throw a SPOILER WARNING right here. So turn away now, if you want to hold out for the premiere.
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Alright, I warned ya.
Well, like I said, i09 somehow got their hands on what could possibly be the script for the pilot and they tore it to shreds. It seems the first part of the episode has veteran cop, Harvey Bullock showing a young, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Jim Gordon around Gotham City. This incarnation has Bullock as more so charming and slightly rough around the edges than the tough and hard-as-nails cop that we know, while Gordon apparently appears stupid… or rather overly naive.
According to io9, it seems that the pilot attempts overcompensate for its lack of Batman by taking the audience onto a very overly explanatory tour of Batman rogue’s gallery, bombarding the viewers with Batman references, hammering it into the heads of the obviously ignorant audience.
Rather than attempt to summarize details of what seems like an inevitable disappointment, I’ll just post the rest of the details that i09 revealed:
• Here’s the proto-villains introduced in the pilot: A 14-year-old Catwoman, already cat-burglaring and associating with cats; the Riddler, who is working for the GCPD as a coroner and who tries to present all pertinent case information as riddles; the Penguin, a mid-level thug, who as mentioned earlier is repeatedly referred to as looking like a penguin.
• Additionally, Gordon and Bullock enter a run-down apartment where a little girl named Ivy lives with her shitty parents and, according to the script, a lot of houseplants. Could this perhaps be Poison Ivy? Well, in the comics, Poison Ivy’s real name is Pamela Isley. Is Gotham giving us a clever feint here? Probably not.
• There’s also a comedian telling jokes in gangster Fish Mooney’s club, jokes straight out of Reader’s Digest circa 1942. Mooney laughs hysterically, and, just in case those feelings were somehow opaque to the audiences, she tells the comedian she likes him. A lot. Repeatedly.
• Major Crimes detective Renee Montoya used to date Gordon’s fiancée, because LESBIANS. And for bonus points, Bullock even calls her a dyke. Fun!
• Alfred appears to have a crazy cockney accent, and I swear to god this is real dialogue from the script:
ALFRED: Oi! Master Bruce! Stop playing silly buggers! Get your bloody arse down off there!
• One more line for the road from Gordon’s fiancée:
BARBARA (blithely): Jim, you are the cleverest, bravest, goodest man in Gotham.
Well, there you have it. I tried to be as objective as possible, more so taking i09’s words more than anything, but it’s tough when you’re reading an incredibly negative review of a script that has some pretty obvious flaws that even the most tolerant fans will likely not enjoy.
Regardless, I’m still likely to give it a try as I’m sure I’ll really enjoy catching a glimpse of live-action interpretations of some of my favorite villains. I will try to remain neutral until some footage is revealed.
Let me stress that this has not been confirmed in any way. There’s really no way we can know for sure if this is the real script or a draft that will be revised heavily before it goes in front of camera. Or that we can even trust i09, for that matter. So at this point, please associate salt with i09.
Source – i09
Adam Poncharoensub is a blogger, movie critic, and Born-Again Batman fan. When he’s not chained to his desk writing, being whipped by his muse, he likes to spend his days spreading the gospel of the Dark Knight in the treacherous suburbs of Miami or working under Dropping Loads Productions, where he co-hosts a comedy podcast and produces sketches.
