When I first heard about a new Batman prequel TV show, I was simultaneously slightly skeptical and hoping for an awesome show that will blow me out of the water. I have been watching Gotham loyally since its premiere in September, and I must say, while I have been enjoying the show as a whole, it is full of missed opportunities. The biggest disappointment for me so far has been the female characters, and I want to focus on them in this post.
To its credit, Gotham does try to acknowledge women in positions of power. The captain of the Gotham Police Department's homicide squad (who is the main character's boss) is a woman. One of the most prominent mobsters in the city is a woman. The show also tries to depict strong female characters, including a formidable Major Crimes Unit detective and an independent-minded, street-smart homeless girl (the one and only Selina Kyle, a.k.a. future Catwoman) among the recurring characters. Yet, it falls short of developing these characters beyond the point of flatness and cliches.
First off is Fish Mooney, the mobster who owns a nightclub and plots to take over as the city's kingpin, the position which is currently occupied by her superior, Carmine Falcone. Fish is sadistic, manipulative, and vengeful. She tells lies about her past in a similar manner as Heath Ledger's rendition of the Joker in The Dark Knight trilogy ("Do you wanna know how I got these scars?"). She uses and discards people without any reservations and inflicts violence almost nonchalantly. She seems to have the hallmarks of an awesome villain, yet she falls short. Why? Her character lacks development. She has so much potential to be an interesting character, but still falls short. She only fulfills the appearance of being an interesting character (I mean, how many badass, black female villains on TV have there been...ever?) and remains the cliche of a violent, manipulative villain.
Next up on the list of female characters who fall short is Sarah Essen. In this version of the Batman saga, she is the Captain of Gotham PD's homicide squad and Jim Gordon's boss. She is a female authority figure who heads up a major section of a large police force. But so far, that's it. There has not been much insight into her character, and she seems to simply be a generic boss figure. Considering the gender imbalance in careers and career aspirations of female characters in popular media, normalizing the presence of a female boss in a traditionally male profession is a good thing. However, Essen's character should present an opportunity to further rounded and developed female characters who occupy positions of power. Gotham is a young enough series that it is entirely possible that Essen will become a more developed character with a bigger role in the future. So far though, there has only been disappointment in this regard.
Gotham has also disappointed me with the female characters who are not in positions of power. Female characters need not be powerful mobsters or police captains to be powerful, interesting, and well-developed. Selina Kyle certainly has that potential and was off to a good start at the beginning of the series, but then, she had to meet Bruce Wayne. By coming into contact with young Bruce and becoming his early love interest, Selina's character and story now risk being driven by Bruce rather than developing on their own terms. The story of Selina Kyle is one that deserves to be told on its own. As shown by Anne Hathaway's rendition, Selina Kyle does not need Bruce Wayne/Batman to have a mission, an agenda, and an independent story line. The creators of Gotham, suffering from a serious case of prequelitis, destroys the possibility of developing Selina into the character she deserves to be.
Of course, it is entirely possible that the flaw in Gotham's female characters is a result of the general flaw of the show as a whole. After all, there have been fair critiques of the show, mostly relating to how the show has yet to define itself. But it's just a bigger disappointment when a TV show has prominent female characters and still fails to develop them because women are already underrepresented and misrepresented in the popular media. Whether the women of Gotham are not well written because women are underrepresented on the writing staff like the rest of the TV/movie industry or because the writers are not that great in general, the series is still young and may yet recover from its shortcomings with regards to representation. After all, the hit TV show The Walking Dead did not become one of the most ethnically diverse series on TV overnight. I'm willing to deal with the prequelitis if only Gotham would put more into making their female characters better-written.
*Gotham returns on January 5th, 2015 at 8 pm on FOX.
