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In the past I’ve liked Gotham to the red headed step child of the DC universe. It’s the lone variant still on 20th Century Fox, with a majority of the major shoes in the last 6-7 years having been shuffled off to The CW, and more recently, put on to the DC streaming network for the lesser known works. Gotham kind of works on Fox though, as it is an outsider in more ways than studio development. While The CW and DC streaming service shows have fought to maintain there status as comic book canon, Gotham has completely thrown that mantle to the wind and firmly solidified itself as an “elseworlds” story, content to be a “what if” show. The series was originally supposed to be a Jim Gordon show before he became commissioner, kind of a prequel if you will, but as the series evolved and more Batman villains were introduced the show runners decided to turn it into an else worlds show lying completely outside of the realm of canon material.
Season 5 wasn’t really canceled (which is a shocker for Fox viewers), but rather scheduled for a 5th and final truncated season with only half the episodes of the normal 22 episode season arcs to complete the show. While Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) has been a novel character who has grown in scope over the last 4 years, he has become the focal point of this season, relegating Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) to the role of backup character. This year we’re focused on one thing and one thing only. The creation of Bruce Wayne into the Dark Knight that we all know and love.
We pick up right where season 4 ended, with Jerome Valeska’s twin brother Jeremiah (both played by Cameron Monaghan) blowing up the bridges around Gotham City, effectively cutting it off from the main land. Now the city is under partial control of the Gotham City leadership, while other parts are controlled by the super villains who are locked in the island with the good guys. I was a bit disappointed with how this turned out, as I was hoping for major power vying between mega villains like Mr. Freeze, Scarecrow, Firefly and Jeremiah (who actually will become the actual Joker), but instead only Jeremiah and Scarecrow’s actors stayed around for the fifth season, so we got gang wars with the Undead, Low Boyz, and Street Demonz. The stories with them work in reality, but I guess I was expecting some gargantuan power battle with the legendary super villains the series has unleashed over the years.
The series couldn’t get a hold of the rights to Harley Quinn, so Jeremiah’s right hand woman is someone they decided to call Ecco (Francesca Root-Dodson), but is effectively Harley Quinn in everything but name. Looking back at this season, she really portrayed the lunatic doctor to a T, almost beating out Margot Robbie’s interpretation of her, and allowing her to be much more evil and dark than the DC movies wanted Margot to be (they wanted the anti-hero Harley Quinn, while Gotham wanted the villainess version). Bane gets to make an appearance as well this season, but due to budget constraints his costume had the internet comparing him to Kabal from Mortal Kombat more than the brilliant Latin monster from the comics.
Rating:
Rated TV-14
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
• 3 Featurettes
- Gotham S5 : Best Moments of NY Comic Con 2018
- Gotham: A modern Mythology
- Gotham's Last Stand
• Deleted Scenes
Final Score:
The Series ends on really in episode 11, and then catapults us forward in time to when Bruce Wayne takes up the mantle of the Dark Knight, giving us a few moment glimpse of him in the costume, ala the final ending scene of Smallville. It’s a nice closer for the series, but feels a bit out of place, and makes me wish season 5 had been fleshed out a bit more. It’s still a solid entry into the 5 season series, but it was one of the weaker ones, and more along the quality levels of season 3 than the rest of them. Warner’s Blu-ray release is top notch once again, with great audio and video, and the typical smattering of extras to pad the 2 disc set out. While not AS highly recommended, Gotham: The Complete Fifth and Final Season is still recommended.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Ben McKenzie, David Mazouz, Donal Logue, Robin Lord Taylor
Created by: Bruno Heller
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Portuguese DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 504 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 9th, 2019
Recommendation: Recommended.