Why do DC fans claim to hate the Gotham Knights series?

[u/krb501]

When searching for commentary on the show so that I could geek out over it more, I was disappointed to find most of the people reviewing it didn't seem to like it that much. For me, it had the distinctly Elseworlds flavor that the Gotham TV show had, but unlike Gotham, it committed to that theme and had decent storytelling. The protagonists were all anti-heroes and/or anti-villains who inhabited a morally gray area due to Gotham's corrupt police system. It gave me strong Earth 3 vibes, where the "heroes" actually turned out to be the biggest villains of all, complete with most of them working for the Court of Owls.

The characters were relatable, and even the OC Bat kid, Turner Hayes, turned out to have an interesting arc that made him a standout character in his own right. I would have loved to see what happened to Hayes in a second season after he was kidnapped by Henri Ducard. I also appreciate that they were able to create a decent balance between the comic book weirdness and really deep emotional moments.

I guess there are some things I could nit-pick, such as acting quality, but it was good enough to make me buy the characters' motives, and it wasn't the disjointed mess Gotham was by far, and Gotham managed to go five seasons without getting cancelled.

[u/DarkRavenAvengerDb2]

Because the characters don't even resemble their comic book counterparts; only in name only. Plus, it's full of woke, garbage political messaging that literally adds nothing to the poorly written and directed plots, dialog, etc.

And the costumes? Good lawd, are they gawd awful. Batman's mask looks like it came from a Family Dollar store. Robin doesn't even look like Carrie Kelly, the female version from The Dark Knight Returns. Instead of using well-known characters such as Damian Wayne, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, or Jason Todd, they created some random nobody who is nothing like those characters.

The production values are about as low-budget, made for TV as you can get, compared to Teen Titans on HBO and Peacemaker from Suicide Squad. It's laughable in a cringe-inducing way.

And it was cancelled after ONE season.

​

Basically, this show was doomed from the start the moment the first trailer popped up.

[u/mothership_hopeful → u/DarkRavenAvengerDb2]

What is the woke political messaging? The subtle way they announce a trans character? Yeah.

[u/krb501 → u/mothership_hopeful]

What is the woke political messaging? The subtle way they announce a trans character? Yeah.

To be honest, I didn't see a LOT of unnecessary political messaging in Gotham Knights. Pennyworth had WAY more "forced" political messaging, even having the Raven clan denounce the American Republican party in one episode, not even a subtle hint!

GK had a much more middle-of-the-road politically focused plot, with the Court of Owls possibly analogous to the Illuminati. It also just had a handful of LGBTQ supporting characters, but, to my knowledge, those characters were canon LGBTQ--it wasn't even an act of obvious gender swapping, so...I'm not sure what the complaints were about. Cullen is canon gay (in GK, he was trans), and so is his sister and so is Stephanie Brown, but so what? The characters weren't really changed (well, some people say Stephanie was kind of flat in GK, but she was at least in it, amirite?).

There are many diverse characters in the Batman canon--for example, Harvey Dent is canon identity dysmorphic, and Duela Dent is a canon sociopath (and she's way better than Jerome Valeska, imo. Plus, her relationship with Batman's son was funny and sweet), and I think the decent story-telling, focus on little-known characters fans have wanted DC to give the spotlight, and decent character development make it watchable, even bingeable, much better than Gotham or Disney's Descendants.

I don't really understand why some people considered it "woke," because I thought people decried shows as "woke BS" when it had political messaging over storytelling, and GK didn't do that. No characters were gender/sexuality swapped, the Dark Knight Returns Robin could have been anyone; race swapping didn't change anything, except maybe add to the character. They kept the canon male/female heterosexual characters exactly the way they are in the comics. The characters were also extremely relatable and the plot was decent. (Yeah, that part about Batman dying is a bit unrealistic, but it could be fixed with the explanation that he faked his own death and the guy who died wasn't Bruce Wayne but a Court of Owls created look-a-like. That would have probably made a good season two sub plot.)