Casting Call: DC television villains

Following my round up of the various heroes set to appear on DC series this coming season, here's the current info on the many villains being introduced. This may be updated soon - I've been hoping to see casting news regarding Mr. Freeze, Flamingo, Non and Red Tornado.

Caspar Crump
Vandal Savage (Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow)

One of DC Comics' most persistant and deadly villains, Vandal Savage was born Vandar Adg around 50,000 BC, becoming immortal when he later encountered an irradiated meteorite. Over the millennia, he has been known as Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Jack the Ripper, Vlad the Impaler, Blackbeard and various other violent individuals from well known history. He might even be Cain, and thus the first murderer in historical record. The similarly powered Immortal Man and Resurrection Man are his longest serving foes, but over the years he's faced pretty much every major DC hero (and Captain Kirk). His parallel world alter egos have been even more pernicious, and he has been encountered in various points in the timeline by time travelling heroes. With enhanced strength, speed and endurance, he's a formidable foe, but the real threat is from his tactical genius and his lust for power. Oh, and he's Grendel's dad.

Savage has made several animated appearances over the years, and some very similar characters have been featured in live action series (one time Superman Dean Cain played Curtis Knox in Smallville, a character who was intended to be Savage until this was changed due to rights issues). His upcoming appearance is thus his official live action debut. He's set to be the Big Bad of Legends of Tomorrow, the superteam brought together purely to fight him. Described as having "the greatest army ever assembled," his reign of terror throughout history means they'll be using time travel to battle him. Caspar Crump is a Danish actor, little known in the English-speaking world, will appear in all three live action Arrowverse series. I've never seen him act, but god he looks perfect.

JR Bourne
Jeremy Tell/Double Down (Arrow)

A fairly recent addition to the Flash's rogue's gallery, Double Down is a con artist, a compulsive gambler and a murderer, who uses a powered-up deck of cards that is bonded to his very skin. JR Bourne can be recognised from various genre appearances including Stargate SG-1, Josie and the Pussycats and Teen Wolf. This is the character's first live action appearance, and while he's set to debut in the third episode of Arrow's next season, I would not be surprised to see him return to face his traditional foe, the Flash.

Alexander Calvert
Lonnie Machin/Anarky (Arrow)

Created by the prolific Alan Grant, Anarky is one of Batman's most popular foes, so much that he got his own spin-off series in the nineties. Lonnie Machin was a child prodigy who grew up to use his considerable gifts to further his anarchist, anti-statist activism. Little more than a kid when he first appeared, Anarky is a mirror to the Dark Knight, a vigilante fighting not criminals, but the whole structure of modern society. More an antihero than an all out villain, Anarky is the latest of many Batman-linked villains to be adapted for Arrow (a character he has rarely met in the comics). Although he's been used as the main antagonist for the animated series Beware the Batman and the game Arkham Origins (voiced by Wallace Langham and Matthew Mercer respectively), this will be his first live action apperance. Alexander Calvert has had loads of junior roles on TV.

Adam Copeland
Albert Rothstein/Atom Smasher (The Flash)

From a family of superheroes and villains, Albert Rothstein has been both in the course of his comics career. An experimental procedure by his grandfather, the villain Cyclotron, gave him the ability to control his molecular structure. As a hero, he's also gone by the name Nuklon, and has served in the JLA and JSA for a time. He has, however, gone rogue on occasion, and can be a dangerous foe. In the first season of The Flash, Alber Rothstein is seen on a list of the people who were killed in the particle accelerator accident that gave that series' metahumans their powers. Clearly, he survived, and is set to return as a villain, with the intent of killing the Flash. Given that even such scoundrels as Captain Cold and Heatwave have been brought into the Legends of Tomorrow superteam, I think it's safe to say Rothstein will eventually turn to the side of the angels.

Chris Browning
Ben Krull/Reactron (Supergirl)

A persistant enemy of Supergirl (and her alt-world equivalent, Power Girl), Ben Krull is a Viet Nam vet, who went nuts and massacred a village of people. Serving with him was Joshua Clay, later known as the hero Tempest, who used his energy powers to blast Krull down. This had the side effect of granting Krull radiaoctive powers, which he later used in his villainous career. He's been part of the Suicide Squad and the radiation-themed team the Nuclear Legion, but more often works alone. Lately, he has been given a Kryptonite heart, which naturally makes him a particularly dangerous foe for Kryptonian heroes like Supergirl. He's set to appear in the third episode of the Supergirl series, played by Chris Browning, one of those actors who's been in everything over the years, usually in tough guy roles.

Brit Morgan
Leslie/Livewire (Supergirl)

Livewire is a villainess introduced in the 1990s animated Superman series, before being incorporated into comics continuity, not unlike the more famous Harley Quinn in the Batman series. Voiced then by Lori Petty, the live action version of the character is to be played by Brit Morgan, who has comicbook adaptation experience from The Middleman, but is better known for her role as Debbie in True Blood. Working for the same media company as Kara, Leslie is sure to cause problems both in everyday life and in her supervillain guise. Leslie is converted into pure electrical energy, with corresponding electromagnetic powers. She most recently showed up to menace Batgirl.

Justice Leak
Hellgrammite (Supergirl)

Another Superman villain to be repurposed for the Supergirl series, Hellgrammite was, initially, Roderick Rose (also known as Robert Dobson), an entomologist who experimented with insect DNA, transforming himself into a powerful insectoid creature. As well as the expected insect-y superpowers, such as super-strength, the ability to leap great distances and an inpenetrable exoskeleton, he also had the unpleasant tendency to infect others, transforming them into his larvae. (A hellgrammite is, in the real world, the larva of the dobsonfly.) The Supergirl version is going to be reimagined as more straightforward alien villain, played by Justice Leak, whose name is perfect for a supervillain in itself. He's appeared in several indie films, and is best known for the movie The Great Debaters.

James Frain
Theo Galavan (Gotham)

James Frain has experience in a comicbook universe: he was rather brilliant as Leet Brannis in Marvel's Agent Carter. The English actor has also appeared in True Blood, The White Queen, True Detective, Oprhan Black and Grimm, but is perhaps most recognised for his role in The Tudors. He's playing a new character to the mythos. Theo Galavan is a powerful business, whose altruism hides "a centuries old vendetta." He and his sister (see below) are set to cause chaos in Gotham, leading to various villains taking on their characters.

Jessica Lucas
Tabitha Galavan/Tigress (Gotham)

As with so many DC heroes and villains, the Tigress persona has been shared by several characters, going right back to Action Comics #1 in 1938. However, the Gotham character sounds like she's based on the most recent Tigress, Artemis Crock, who has made it to the New 52 continuity and appeared in several animated outings. Some versions of the character have Wolverine-like animal abilities, including superhuman strength, an enhanced sense of smell and enhanced stamina, but the modern version is simply a highly trained combatant and marksman. Her skill with a bow and arrow is phenomenal (an earlier Tigress became the villain known as Huntress, another identity taken by various individuals, one of whom appeared in Arrow).

Tabitha Galavan is said to be the sister of the aforementioned Theo, and acts as his lead enforcer. Jessica Lucas has appeared previously in Cloverfield, Evil Dead, She's the Man and Melrose Place.



Leo Fitzpatrick
Joe Pike (Gotham)

Joe Pike is set to be a fairly major pest to Gordon and Bullock in the coming season, over the course of several episodes. He's described as the leader of a gang of arsonists, and doesn't have any explicit links to any comicbook villains (yet). Several fans have suggested he's going to become Firefly, a pyrotechnic villain from the Batman comics (in which his identity was one Ted Carson). There's also a reasonably obscure Wildstorm villain named Pike, who DC have the rights to, but it's unlikely he has anything to do with this. Leo Fitzpatrick found fame as Johnny Weeks in The Wire.

Casting Call: DC television heroes

While Marvel are doing great things on the big screen (we can forgive them for Fantastic Four, that was Fox's doing), it's DC that are making the most of television. While we're getting bits and pieces of news regarding Marvel's network and Netflix series, there's been a flood of info regarding new characters in the DC-based series on CBS, Fox and the CW. Explicitly, Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Vixen are set in the same world, while a crossover with Supergirl has been ruled out. Gotham, being essentially unrelated and on a different network group entirely, is not going to cross over any time soon, so at some point we're probably going to get different versions of the same characters appearing in each universe. There's enough new info that I had to break it up somehow, so here are the good guys beign introduced in Arrow season four, The Flash season two, Gotham season two, and the first series of Legends of Tomorrow, Vixen and Supergirl. Constantine's been cancelled.

Keiynan Lonsdale
Wally West/Kid Flash (The Flash)

The first character known as Kid Flash, and the third to become the Flash, Wally West is a boy who receives the powers of the speedsters in a replication of the accident that granted them to Barry Allen. He first appeared, as Kid Flash, in 1959, became a major member of the Teen Titans, and became the Flash in 1986, following Barry's death in the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Prior to this, Barry acts as his mentor and idol, although with Barry being somewhat younger in the TV series than in most interpretations, this might be a little different. In the comics, Wally is the nephew of Iris West, but considering that there has been no indication of Iris having any brothers or sisters in the series, and again considering the similarities in ages, this will most likely be tweaked (I suspect he'll become a cousin). The original version of Wally was white, just like all the other Flashes; the version recently introduced in the New 52 shake-up is mixed race, white on Iris's side of the family. Considering the ethnicity of Iris actress Candice Patton and Jess Martin, who plays her father Joe, it's no surprise that an actor of colour has been cast as Wally. There's bound to be someone kicking off about this somewhere. Keiynan Lonsdale is a pretty new actor, but has been seen on the big screen in Divergant.

Terry Sears
Jay Garrick (The Flash)

And another Flash! Jay Garrick is the original Flash from the Golden Age of comics, who debuted way back in 1940 in Flash Comics #1. In the last moments of the season one Flash finale, Garrick's trademark hardhat tmbled out of the wormhole that was soon to threaten the world, cliffhanger fashion. The first Flash met the second in the 1961 storyline "Flash of Two Worlds." which established that the Silver Age and Golden Age heroes existed in parallel worlds (Earth-One and Earth-Two, respectively). Barry Allen lived in Central City, while Garrick inhabited its Earth-Two equivalent, Keystone City. Eventually, both versions of Earth were combined, with Central and Keystone becoming sister cities (this seems to be the case on the TV series, since Eddie Thawn transferred from Keystone to Central City).

The showrunners have released promotional artwork based on the cover of the classic comic that featured "Flash of Two Worlds." so it's safe to say that Earth-Two will be introduced in the new season. This story originated the Multiverse in DC comics, a concept which caught on throughout the medium. We could be seeing all sorts of parallel versions of characters cropping up after this. Teddy Sears is best known for roles in the drama series Raising the Bar and Masters of Sex. This is the second time the character of Jay Garrick has appeared in live action; he was played by Billy Mitchell in an episode of Smallville.

Arthur Darvill
Rip Hunter (Legends of Tomorrow)

A member of the temporal agents known as the Time Masters, Rip Hunter is the holder of the most unnecessarily butch name in comics. So far on TV, we've had a brief mention of him by the villainous Eobard Thawne in the Flash finale, and the trailer for Legends of Tomorrow, in which it looks like he is partly responsible for getting the various characters to form their superhero team. An often manipulative character, Hunter acts to protect the timelines. Considering that, due to the aforementioned Multiverse, there are multiple versions of him travelling through time, this cna get complicated. His father is later revealed to be the time travelling hero Booster Gold, although this character is apparently off limits for the TV productions (there are hints he's being reserved for future cinematic treatment). The TV version of Rip Hunter is played by Arthur Darvill, best known worldwide as Rory Williams, companion to Matt Smith's Doctor Who. However, judging by the trailer, he'll be playing him more like David Tennant's incarnation.

Megalyn Echikunwoke

Mari McCabe/Vixen (Vixen)

Mari McCabe is a young African woman who inherits a magical totem from her father, that had been passed down her family over the centuries. Originally given to the legendary hero Tantu by the Spider God Anansi, the totem gives Mari the abilities of various animals. She moves to America and becomes a model, because she's fricking hot. She also, along with Barry Allen, becomes a member of the Justice League.

Starting in a couple of weeks, the CW will begin streaming an animated Vixen series on their website. This is part of the main Arrowverse, with Grant Gustin and Steve Ammell making voice appearances as the Flash and Arrow respectively. Echikunwoke will probably turn up in at least one of the lvie actions series at some point. Vixen has never previously appeared in a live action series, but Gina Torres voiced her in numerous episodes of the animated series Justice League Unlimited.

Falk Hentschel
Carter Hall/Hawkman (Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow)

I'll be honest, I don't know much abotu Hawkman, and what I do know confuses the hell out of me. Some times he's a man named Carter Hall, sometimes he's an alien named Katar Hol. It involves numerous reboots of DC's continuity, plus various deaths and reincarnations. This guy has suffered from retcons severely over the years. In the TV version, at least, he's a gent named Carter Hall, who is a reincarnation on an Egyptian prince, who is searching for the reincarnation of his soulmate (see below). He's expected to first appear in The Flash before crossing over to its sister series. Falk Hentschel is a German dancer and actor, who has, among other things, previously appeared in Marvel's Agents of SHIELD as Marco Scarlotti, aka Blacklash. Michael Shanks previously played a version of Hawkman on Smallville, and various iterations of the character have appeared in animated series over the years.

Ciara Renee
Kendra Saunders (Legends of Tomorrow)

Kendra is the latest reincarnation of an ancient warrior, and Hawkman's aforementioned solumate. Described in press releases as "a young woman who is just beginning to elarn she ahs been repeatedly reincarnated over the centuries. When provoked, her ancient warrior persona manifests itself, with wings that grow out of her back." While the trailer pegs her as "a girl with wings and a past lives complex." She can totes fly. There's clearly going to be a much heavier focus on mystical characters than in previous seasons in the Arrowverse. Ciara Renee has previously been a theatre actor, and made an appearance, very briefly, as Kendra in the finale of The Flash. The character was played by Sahar Biniaz on Smallville and voiced by Maria Canals Barrera in both Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.





Echo Kellum
Curtis Holt/Mister Terrific (Arrow)

Named for the comicbook character Michael Holt, Curtis Holt is the Arrowverse iteration of Mister Terrific. In fact the second man to take that name in the DC universe, Michael Holt modelled himself after the original, Terry Sloane, who appeared in Sensation Comics. A childhood prodigy and an adult genius, Holt is described as the most intelligent memeber of the Justice Society of America. As well as being physically formidable, Holt is invisible to technology and has created devices called T-spheres, which perform a variety of functions. His strict scientific outlook and atheism has often left him at odds with Hawkman and other supernatural characters, so it's interesting how Curtis Holt will interact with the various characters in Arrow. Echo Kellum has previously been seen in various American sitcoms that I have never heard of.

Shantel VanSanten
Patty Spivot (The Flash)

A long-time supporting character in the Flash comics, Patty was Barry's lab partner and sometime love interest. The New 52 continuity actually has them in a relationship, so expect there to be some love triangle stuff going on between Barry, Iris and Patty. Some versions of continuity and Elseworlds-type stories have given her speedster powers too, calling her Ms. Flash or Hot Pursuit. In the series she is set to be Joe West's new partner, replacing the lost Eddie Thawne, so this could set up quite an interesting dynamic. Shantel VanSanten has mostly been in teen dramas and horrors including One Tree Hill, The Final Destination and the lead role in Something Wicked, but now she's thirty she probably has to start playing grown-ups.

Jenna Dewan-Tatum
Lucy Lane (Supergirl)

The younger sister of Lois Lane, introducing Lucy into Supergirl makes the links to Superman even stronger. Like several of the characters on this list, she goes right back to the beginnings of the Silver Age, and has been in and out of comics ever since. She's often been romantically paired with Jimmy Olsen, and is his ex-girlfriend in the new series, so we can expect more love triangle stuff between the two of them and Kara. As with many of the characters in this series (including Hank Henshaw=Cyborg Superman, Winn Schott=Toyman, etc) Lucy has the potential to become a superpowered character in the future. In the comics she was one of several characters over the years to become known as Superwoman, in her case due to a containment suit that granted her Kryptonian attributes. A dancer by training, Jenna Dewan-Tatum has lately been in dramas such as American Horror Story. Her husband is Channing Tatum, who will soon be Gambit for Fox. Luc Lane was previously played by Peyton List in Smallville, and by cutie Maureen Teefy in the classic 1984 Supergirl movie.

Natalie Alyn Lind
Silver St. Cloud (Gotham)

A long-time love interest for Bruce Wayne in the comics, Silver St. Cloud even worked out that he was Batman. Of course, in Gotham we're catching both characters at a much younger age, but I think we'll be seeing a pre-teen romance going on here. Natalie Alyn Lind already has a fair bit of acting experience, having appeared in various series including One Tree Hill, Criminal Minds and The Wizards of Waverley Place. To the bes tof my knowledge this will be the character's first live action appearance.

Matt Ryan
John Constantine/Hellblazer (Arrow)

Bit of a cheat - this isn't new casting at all. However, the Arrow showrunners have confirmed that Matt Ryan will be returning to the role of Constantine following the cancellation of his own series after one season (which is a blow, because that became rather excellent by the end). He is set to appear in a season four episode entitled "Haunted." Presumably, this means the broadcast series of Constantine is part of the Arrowverse, although it could just be a case of cribbing the best actors like new Flash did with nineties Flash. Given the new focus on magical and mystical elements in the various series, we might see further appearances by Constantine down the line.

Updates will be appended as they're announced. Supergirl is also set to include the hero Red Tornado, as yet uncast.

2014 Telefantasy review-y rambles

Sleepy Hollow

This series shouldn't work. Washington Irving's classics "Rip van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" are mashed up into what's basically Adam Adamant Lives redone for a modern audience. Yet it works, because it finds the balance between the ludicrousness of the premise and the drama of the approach. It takes itself just seriously enough, and it certainly helps that the writing on the show is top notch. So Orci and Kurtzman can make some good stuff when they work on it. Sleepy Hollow manages to be genuinely funny and properly scary at times. It also doesn't hurt that Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie, as Ichabod Crane and his new ally Abby Mills, as well as being fine actors with some excellent chemistry, are both utterly gorgeous. You've also got Orlando Jones Captain Irving (nice touch there), and he's always a class act (personally, I could see him as the Doctor, but I'm always on the lookout). Then there's John Cho - John moviestar Cho - making guest appearances as a monster, along with John Noble, with his Vincent Price tones, as a semiregular and later regular cast member.

The recurring fish-out-of-water jokes regarding Crane adjusting to the modern world should become boring quickly, but they genuinely work, partly due to some actual originality on the approach and mostly due to some subtle comic skills from Mison. I wonder about the decision to have Crane portrayed as a Briton who switched sides during the American Revolutionary War. In fact, Crane is very little like the original version in the short story, who was a superstitious and selfish character as opposed to Mison's upright and, at first, skeptical hero. But this is a very loose adaptation of those original works, using the basic idea mixed in with Christian apocalyptic mythology and Goetic demonology to great effect. Plus some cracking monsters and a healthy dose of TV-friendly gore, of course. Looking forward to when I can stream season two without paying a premium.

Marvel's Agents of SHIELD

A huge improvement on the first season, picking up on the climactic events of those final crucial weeks and carrying on without dropping the pace. I still think Skye is a boring character, so basing the bulk of the ongoing story around her doesn't quite work for me; thankfully, the wider mystery has been enough to keep my interest, particularly with Clark Gregg and Kyle MacLachlan
giving such strong performances as her two father figures. The broader team has also improved, with May becoming a more relatable character without losing her edge, both Fitz and Simmons given some very strong material that has expanded their characters and Ward becoming a sinister background figure. The new team members were slow to come together, but the whole team feels really cohesive now, with Hunter and Mockingbird having genuinely good chemistry. Plus Fitz and Mac's bromance (or maybe romance) is just the sweetest thing. Only Trip has been badly served, and it's no surprise to lose him at the end.

There's far more integration of the comics material this year, but not to the degree that it's impenetrable for casual fans or non-comics readers. I'm pretty steeped in Marvel, so I can smile when I recognise the identity of Skye and her father, but they're obscure characters and the vital dialogue is pretty easy to miss. For anyone who doesn't know who Calvin Zabo and Daisy Johnson are - ie, the majority of the audience - it really doesn't matter. Seeding the Inhumans into the series is a good move on Marvel's part, I feel. They're a weird concept, so drip-feeding information years ahead of the planned movie not only gives viewers plenty of time to come up to speed, it's a good testing ground for concepts that might not work in the film. It also ties the show to the movies in such a way that they don't have to lag behind, as they did with Thor: The Dark World and The Winter Soldier.

Gotham

After a shaky start, this has really built up to be something special. For a while it was very much a case of baddie-of-the-week, who's-that-villain, but it's important to remember that it's a rare series that hits its stride immediately. The generic material was in the foreground while more important elements were being set up in the background, and with episode seven "The Penguin's Umbrella" the series suddenly became a must-watch. Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald remains the best thing in this by a country mile, but all the cast have come into their own as their characters have been refined. Well, except Jada Pinkett Smith's eye-rollingly tiresome Fish Mooney, who is due for a killing off. The ongoing cold war between the Falcone and Maroni organisations is genuinely gripping viewing now, and the series is standing on its own feet more than we'd expected from the early episodes' reliance on recognisable character cameos. Being less into DC than Marvel, I do sometimes wonder if I'm missing important references, but for the most part, I'm recognising characters than are genuinely important. Anthony Carrigna as Victor Zsazs was really rather excellent. Even the initially underwhelming Bruce/Alfred relationship has become a high point. This is becoming something quite interesting. I'm also loving the race, gender and sexuality mix here, which is notable for being almost unmentioned in the series itself.

Constantine

I'm even less knowledgeable about Hellblazer, mostly knowing Constantine from his appearances in other titles such as Sandman. My flatmate, however, is a huge fan, and this has won her over. Again, the pilot was highly flawed, but this is working really well now it's found its feet. To clear something up, this hasn't been cancelled, it just hasn't been renewed, and I think it's unlikely they'll let the intitial thirteen episodes run without renewing it for at least a full season. Matt Ryan is pretty good as Constantine, even if he's a bit too clean and his accent wanders all over the shop, but he's got a good side of bastardly to him. Angelica Celaya is phenomenally watchable as Zed, sharing great chemistry with Ryan. Some people have unfavourably compared this with Supernatural, and while that's fair enough, calling it a rip-off is wrong; Supernatural took its cues from Hellblazer. The mythology is already building up to something very interesting here, and the series is a lot gorier than I expected it to be. Not too much, just enough to give it an edge of genuine threat. Another series which has become something to really look forward to.

REVIEW: Gotham, episode one

Firstly, I realise that you're on episode six or something in the States. I'm in England, I had to wait for the pilot to air on Channel 5 last night. So for many of you, this is already out of date and thus probably quite irrelevant. Also, although I've been mostly steering clear of spoilers, there's a general consensus that I've picked up on that this series has started to improve as it's gone on. So I bear this in mind.

So... yeah. This has potential. As pilots go, this isn't bad, but it isn't terribly inspiring either. Nonetheless, I'm one of the few who is genuinely sold on the central idea of the series. There are dozens of superhero properties out there right now, and decades worth of screen takes on Batman. If they're going to do another one, it has to do something that's a bit different to what we've seen before. And while there's been a glut of prequels and remakes in recent years, sometimes they are a good idea. Sometimes there is a story to tell. I never would have said anyone was clamouring to hear the story of how Jim Gordon started out in Gotham City, but once it was suggested... well, I was intrigued. 

This first episode has its flaws. God, does it have flaws. The dialogue is frequently so cliched as to be risible. The plot doesn't so much resolve as just stop when Falcone walks in, and while I understand that it's setting things up for the long game, as an episode in itself it feels neither self-contained nor the first part of a serial. I love the idea of setting up various villainous characters in their early guises, but this really hammers it in. It's just about acceptable when the crooks sneer at Oswald and call him Penguin, and he screeches that he doesn't like to be called that. But the Ed Nygma as a riddling coroner, that just doesn't work. Ivy Pepper, presented as being the future Poison Ivy (did not enough people recognise the name Pamela Isley?), is too young to really stand a chance of coming into her villainy, so I'm guessing she's just a cute Easter egg. The pickpocketing Selina Kyle might work though, and I like the idea that she was witness to the Waynes' shooting. But really, there is such a thing as too much at once. If that comedian does turn out to be the Joker (which I doubt he will, but just in case) well, that's really going to be too much thrown into this first episode.

Still, there's a lot to like. There's a retro, prohibitionist vibe going alongside the mobile phones and contemporary trappings, and while in any other setting this would be sloppy, it works here. Gotham inhabits its own tilted time zone, not quite modern and not quite antiquated, which is exactly how it should be. I like Ben McKenzie. He hasn't convinced me as Jim Gordon yet, and he's going to have a hard time selling it to everyone who's seen Gary Oldman make his turn at the part definitive. Still, he has a gallant charm and I can see him working once he's more used to the role. Fish Mooney, played by Jada Pinkett Smith, is a good addition to the set-up, and shows that with a few original characters to interact with the DC archetypes, there's interesting ground to cover. The gender and race balance is refreshingly mixed. Robin Lord Taylor is excellent as Oswald, all twitchy nerviness barely covering his restrained brutality. He's a little man who wants to be a bruiser, and he's by far the best thing about this.

Some of the casting lets it down though. Sean Pertwee is badly miscast as Alfred, cockneying it up way too much. He also looks and sounds so much like his dad these days that it just looks to me like the Doctor shouting at Bruce Wayne, but that's by the by. I'm very pleased to see Harvey Bullock finally get some decent live-action screen time, but I'm not convinced by Donal Logue in the role. He's not big enough, hard enough or imposing enough for Bullock. He should be a bull of a man; it's in the name. Admittedly I'm influenced by the animated version of the character, but that's because it worked. I can't buy Bullock in this.

Still, I want this to work, and I think it can. It needs to be able to tell it's own stories, without relying on nostalgia for the established characters. I'm eager to see how the relationship between Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon develops, how Gordon stands a chance in a city where pretty much everyone seems to be on the side of the mob, and  what the future holds for Mssr. Cobblepot. I'm convinced this series can succeed, but it needs work.