New season talk type thread thing.

[spoodie]

The series mostly stays true to the book but they changed some minor things for TV. I thought it was better than the book, actually.

I get the impression the book served as some kind of proof of concept for the TV show, it read (or sounded, as I listened to the audiobook) like a teleplay. The show seems fine, a bit padded out, but the good bits make up for it.

[Mr. Johnson]

I get the impression the book served as some kind of proof of concept for the TV show, it read (or sounded, as I listened to the audiobook) like a teleplay. The show seems fine, a bit padded out, but the good bits make up for it.

The book started life as a tv series pitch by Del Toro but after being denied by studios he turned it into a book, written by Chuck Hogan.

[spoodie]

That explains it then.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

This week I have mostly been watching:

The blacklist
James Spader being a bad man, helping FBI. Rather a good example of the unexpected expert helping police type genre.

Also entertaining are:
Homeland

Those who kill (US)

House of Cards

[Roman Totale]

Blacklist is great, and Spader is excellent in it. I've just started watching Agents of Shield which I'm actually rather enjoying. Not sure why it got so much hate when it first aired. Supernatural continues, but I think they should have killed it off a while ago - no new ideas and nothing interesting happening.

Constantine is only two episodes in. I like it. It's not world shatteringly good, but it's not bad either. Two minor things about it that niggle me: 1) the accent - a Welshman trying to do Scouse. I'm sure to foreign ears it sounds fine, but there's just a certain "wrongness" to it. I reckon he should drop it and stick with natural accent (character still from Liverpool though); 2) he's a bit too clean - hair and trenchcoat are spotless. Needs grubbying up a bit.

Like I say, minor irks and I'm sure I'll stop noticing soon.

[Joose]

I've just started watching Agents of Shield which I'm actually rather enjoying. Not sure why it got so much hate when it first aired.

The first few episodes were a bit lame, it got steadily better as the season went on. I think part of the problem was expectation: people saw that Wheadon was involved and expected Buffy/Firefly but in the world of the Iron Man and Avengers films. Those are some damn high standards to live up to. I enjoy it well enough, but im under no illusions that it is anywhere near that good.

[Roman Totale]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV_QT9wUVwA[/media]

[Mr. Johnson]

I should probably finish watching the previous season first. I'm not in a hurry.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I am excite.

[Roman Totale]

I should probably finish watching the previous season first. I'm not in a hurry.

Archer Vice did not grip me like the other seasons did.

[Dog Pants]

[HereComesPete]

Any one watching Gotham?

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Yes.

[FatherJack]

Any one watching Gotham?

Yes.

Quite liking it but a bit confused as well. Thought Barbara was Gordon's daughter not girlfriend and why would a woman call herself 'Fish'? Is that prick coroner meant to be the Riddler? Bit crap that. Liking baby Catwoman, Penguin and (briefly) Poison Ivy though, baby Batman not so much.

[Mr. Johnson]

I didn't see the show, but in the Christopher Nolan films Barbara Gordon was Jim's wife. It thought it weird at the time but it didn't really surprise me that much as comics are weird.

[Joose]

Thought Barbara was Gordon's daughter not girlfriend

Both. Barbara the daughter was named after Barbara the wife. A practice which for some reason seems weird when its on the womans side of a family but perfectly ok when its on the blokes side.

Is that prick coroner meant to be the Riddler?

Yeah, but to be fair the Riddler is often portrayed as a prick. His usual motivation is the fact that he is smart, but thinks he is smarter than he actually is and constantly tries to prove that in his crimes. Hence his riddles tend to be garbage and his evil plans massively overthought. He often comes off as a bit of a manchild.

[FatherJack]

Barbara the daughter was named after Barbara the wife. A practice which for some reason seems weird when its on the womans side of a family but perfectly ok when its on the blokes side.

Yeah, I guess so, although it's always seemed pretty weird practice to me even on the male side. If not demonstrating a lack of imagination it is needlessly confusing when you try to address one of them when both are present.

[Joose]

If not demonstrating a lack of imagination it is needlessly confusing when you try to address one of them when both are present.

I think it might be a non-issue due to Barb Sr being dead. I dunno though; even by comics standards DC give no shits about continuity, so its a bit hard to nail down some characters storylines. In some stories she isn't dead. In some she is. DC seem to have the attitude that the story you are telling right now trumps all other considerations, including stories that came immediately before it or stories that are currently being told in other comics that allegedly share the same universe. And then, of course, we are talking about the TV series, not the comics, so all bets are off. Its already changed a bunch of things compared to *any* of the comics storylines, so who knows?

[FatherJack]

If not demonstrating a lack of imagination it is needlessly confusing when you try to address one of them when both are present.

I think it might be a non-issue due to Barb Sr being dead. I dunno though; even by comics standards DC give no shits about continuity, so its a bit hard to nail down some characters storylines. In some stories she isn't dead. In some she is. DC seem to have the attitude that the story you are telling right now trumps all other considerations, including stories that came immediately before it or stories that are currently being told in other comics that allegedly share the same universe. And then, of course, we are talking about the TV series, not the comics, so all bets are off. Its already changed a bunch of things compared to *any* of the comics storylines, so who knows?

I was talking generally IRL about the practice of naming kids after (effectively) yourself, but I might as well ask about something else that I've been wondering about wrt Gotham.

To say I hadn't been reading every comic since the 1940s would be an understatement, as I'm sure I've mentioned before all my comic character knowledge is derived from films, TV (especially animated) and games, but I'm interested as to where this particular TV series fits in. (Not that I'm particularly up on TV series either, I didn't know Arrow was a DC thing until I read The Flash was a spinoff of it, which kind of made me not want to watch it)

Not so much as to whether it's faithful, as you've already indicated it clearly isn't, but whether this time period has ever been covered before, either like it is now, or through flashbacks/memories of "current day" characters? Have they got the ages sort of right, or should catwoman/riddler be younger, the penguin older? Who else is likely to pop up given the timeframe? I read somewhere that Zsasz the first dude you take down in the Asylum game is in it.
From the stuff I've seen, it's filling in the bits that always got missed out before, young Bruce sees his parents killed, suddenly Batman! with maybe a training montage between.

[Joose]

To say I hadn't been reading every comic since the 1940s would be an understatement, as I'm sure I've mentioned before all my comic character knowledge is derived from films, TV (especially animated) and games, but I'm interested as to where this particular TV series fits in. (Not that I'm particularly up on TV series either, I didn't know Arrow was a DC thing until I read The Flash was a spinoff of it, which kind of made me not want to watch it)

Not so much as to whether it's faithful, as you've already indicated it clearly isn't, but whether this time period has ever been covered before, either like it is now, or through flashbacks/memories of "current day" characters? Have they got the ages sort of right, or should catwoman/riddler be younger, the penguin older? Who else is likely to pop up given the timeframe? I read somewhere that Zsasz the first dude you take down in the Asylum game is in it.
From the stuff I've seen, it's filling in the bits that always got missed out before, young Bruce sees his parents killed, suddenly Batman! with maybe a training montage between.

Its something that has been sort of covered before. Trouble is, like I say, DC are not so bothered about continuity, so the history of the DC world changes all the god damn time. Sometimes they make a big thing of it; if you read about the DC timeline you will hear terms like Crisis, Flashpoint and New 52, all of which are basically in universe excuses to have a reboot. Its a bit like what happened with the new Star Trek movies: technically its just a continuation of the storyline, but some big event happens that lets the authors rewrite history and update characters. Sometimes they don't make a big thing of it, its just that one comic storyline will say one thing and another says another contradictory thing. As a result, trying to say definitively what is and is not cannon is like nailing jelly to the wall, except with the added fun of various fanboys insisting that the jelly has been firmly attached to the wall all along.

Having said that, Batman Year One kind of covers this period, as does Batman Earth One (which is a bit of a cannon debatable, possible reboot, what the fuck is going on DC thing, so... god knows). In fact, if the writers of Gotham were not very much aware of Earth One I would be amazed, it has a lot of pretty similar moments.

Ages and things are roughly correct overall though (as near as its possible to say such things). Im surprised they seem to be saying that Catwoman might be a bit older than Bruce, but its not by much so.. yeah, ok. Im pretty sure Penguin has always been older than Batman, and Gordon is older than the lot of them. Certainly there is nothing on that front that massively diverges from the comics, anyway. Riddler worked for the GCPD in the Arkham games, but I dont know if thats the case in any of the comics.

As for who else could turn up... phew, you want a list? Loads of characters would be around in this time period, although some of them are much more likely to be included than others. For instance, I wouln't be surprised at all if Zsasz turns up, Mr Freeze is a possibility. Maybe Calendar Man and Black Mask. Theres some that I doubt will turn up as their well known fully fledged villain roles but could be referenced, like Two Face or Scarecrow. They seem to be going for a more grounded approach (like the Nolan films) so i would be surprised if the really weird ones like Clayface turn up. I will be amazed if they have Joker if there is no Batman, although they have already had a possible hint at him: its been said in a couple of comics that the Joker was a bad stand up comic before he got all chemical dip brain broken, and there was a stand up comic in one of the early episodes who did not seem to be doing well. All of those characters *could* be around in some form during the time the show is set though. Then theres groups that they could reference: League of Assassins were around for centuries and the less well known Court of Owls is as old as the city itself (I think, cant remember without checking. Certainly old though.)

I should probably point out that I am a few episodes behind, so some of what I have just said may have been done already. I was going to mention that Arkham Asylum reopening was probably going to be a big plot point but then noticed that the next episode I need to watch is called Arkham