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With the premiere of Gotham ending just over an hour ago on Fox, we’ve taken a moment to collect our thoughts on the new show’s pilot, and file them into some first impressions. We’ll be doing this every week here at From the Batcave, and following up every Tuesday as well with a more detailed look at/review of the episode. So without further ado, here are our feelings on episode 1 of Gotham:

• GREAT casting. We’ve definitely got some breakout stars here, with David Mazouz and Camren Bicondova killing it as Bruce and Selina, Donal Logue and Ben McKenzie bringing their A-game as Bullock and Gordon, and of course Robin Lord Taylor and Cory Michael Smith stealing their scenes as Penguin and Riddler– which brings me to…
• Riddler needs more screen time. Cory Michael Smith shines as the question-obsessed Edward Nygma, but he’s only on for about two minutes! I’m curious, by the way, as to how he’s tied to the GCPD right now, given that Bullock and Gordon go to him for evidence analysis…
• Joker reference #1. In promo materials for Gotham, showrunner Bruno Heller teased that we’d get a multitude of “what if?” moments with the man who will one day become the Joker, and we definitely got an obvious bone thrown to us here. After all, it’s certainly no accident that a pivotal scene in Fish Mooney’s happens to be watched over by a struggling stand-up comedian…
• What’s going on with Barbara and Montoya? The soon-to-be Mrs. Gordon and the MCU cop seem to have some history, and it certainly doesn’t seem good. Looks like a ticking time bomb for the rest of the season…
• Speaking of time bombs, ESSEN. For any of you who have read Year One, you know where this is going. Whether or not we’ll see sparks fly between Gordon and the GCPD captain, introduced in the pilot as she tells Bullock off, remains on the table.

That’s all we’ve got for this week (at least, as far as initial ideas go)– but check back tomorrow as we expand upon these points (and more) in our detailed Gotham S1E01 Full Review!

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