"Gotham", the TV series that focuses on a pre-Batman Gotham City, recently aired it's second episode on Fox and while watching, I began to think about how I'd handle this series. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to share my vision. I decided to take a few minutes and form a quick pitch of sorts, so please, read on and let me know what you think.
Before we begin, I should give you a bit of information about how my version of Gotham would work. The primary difference would be the villains. Unlike the current series, we would NOT focus on characters like Penguin and Selina Kyle (at least not yet). Instead, we'd begin the series with two primary focuses/storylines...
GORDON AND THE G.C.P.D.
The primary focus of the series would be Detective Jim Gordon. At the start of season one, Gordon would have just received a promotion to detective. Along with his promotion comes a change of venue as he and his fiancee Barbara move to the city of Gotham.
Gordon knows Gotham is basically a giant sewer and views this as a challenge. He plans to clean up the streets and clean out the police department. He's paired up with Bullock and the two men take on a series of cases involving high ranking members of the mafia who have all been found decapitated.
Gordon digs in deep and forms a theory that someone is targeting the mafia leaders in an attempt to disassemble the groups. "Cut off the head of the snake and the body dies" he says. He theorizes this may all be some sick form of vigilante justice. An attempt to rid the city of organized crime.
Bullock encourages Gordon to turn over the case, but Gordon refuses and begins to grow suspicious of Bullock. We reveal that Bullock is being blackmailed by a mysterious source (who is heavily implied to be the person responsible for the murders). Bullock owes money to a lot of bad people. These people have been letting him slide since he's a cop, but this mysterious source claims that if Bullock doesn't cooperate, his badge won't be able to help him.
Since Gordon won't turn over the cases, Bullock is told to sabotage them and begins doing whatever he can to slow down the case from planting/destroying evidence to "silencing" witness. This causes tension between Bullock and Gordon and causes Internal Affairs to launch an investigation into Bullock's activities.
THE WAYNES AND THE FALCONES
The secondary focus of season one would be Thomas Wayne. Unlike Gotham, I wouldn't kill off Thomas and Martha in episode one. I'd save that for later. Instead, I'd do what no other live-action Batman story has done. I'd focus on them. I'd build up their family, their relationship and then, I'd tear it down. Rip everything away. I feel, once you know Bruce's relationship with his parents, it'll be that more important when it's taken from him.
Season one would deal with Thomas Wayne, head of Wayne Enterprises and chairman of the Wayne Foundation, as he struggles to deal with pressure from local crime boss Carmine Falcone. Falcone believes he can use Thomas' status, power and prominence in Gotham to his advantage.
Thomas spends the majority of the season struggling with what to do. He has no desire to help the Falcones as he blames them for all the city's issues, but he fears that refusing to help could endanger his wife, Martha, and their fifteen year old son, Bruce.
Throughout the season we'd build up Thomas' role as a family man. He cares about his family more than anything and strongly believes his son, Bruce, will someday change the world. He constantly reminds Bruce to do the right thing, no matter what. Though Thomas often gives Bruce this advice, he doesn't seem to be listening to himself, as he continues to ponder what to do about the Falcones.
One day at school, Bruce witnesses another kid being bullied and steps in. He ends up getting his ass kicked. When his father questions him about it, Bruce claims he got involved because it was the right thing to do. He claims it's what Thomas would have done. This affects Thomas. He realizes what he has to do and refuses to help the Falcones.
SEASON ONE FINALE
Season one would wrap with a final episode in which Gordon is approached by internal affairs and asked to help with their investigation. They want him to wear a wire around Bullock and inform on him. Gordon agrees, but only because he sense that Bullock is working against him in the investigation and wants to know why. At this point, it's less about doing the right thing and more about solving the case, no matter what. The only way for Gordon to do that is to find out what Bullock knows.
Bullock meets with the mysterious source, who we reveal is Black Mask. Black Mask has been killing off high ranking members of various mafia families in an attempt to cause a disruption in leadership, so that he can step in and unite the families. He believes that if all the families are operating under one leader, he can use their combined power to take over Gotham.
After Thomas refuses to help the Falcones, Carmines tells one of his men to get rid of him. Later that night, Thomas, Martha and Bruce wander into an alley after watching a movie and Carmine's man pulls a gun. He kills Thomas for refusing and, as Thomas bleeds out, the man kills Martha. He flees before killing Bruce. We hold on Bruce as he collapses to his knees then slowly pull out as he begins to scream, cutting to black.
WHY I CHANGED BRUCE'S AGE
I'm sure this will be asked about a couple times, so I'll just explain now. Gotham has been playing fast and loose with the character ages for the most part, so I thought it'd be interesting to recast Bruce Wayne and have him be a few years old. This was mainly done to add the potential for Kick-Ass style vigilante work in later season. I figured by making him a teenager, we could explore a sort of ProtoBatman.
SEASON TWO AND ONWARD
My goal with season two would be to follow Gordon as he continues to investigate the Black Mask murders and Bullock. We'd follow Bruce Wayne as he begins taking steps to become Batman, possibly even engaging in acts of early vigilantism that usually fail. We'd also follow Black Mask's storyline, which would consist of him attempting to over take the crime families, only for them to find out what happens and turn on him, creating a massive gang war in Gotham.
This might all be a bit rough. After all, I'm writing this at 9:30 at night with very limit experience with pitching and article writing. Either way, hopefully someone gets a kick out of this. Lemme know what you think in the comment and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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