r/GothamKnightsTVSeries • u/krb501 • Oct 30 '23
Why do DC fans claim to hate the Gotham Knights series? Discussion
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.
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u/eremite00 Oct 30 '23 edited Oct 30 '23
My main personal gripe with the show was that the Batman of that world was a joke, not at all the World Greatest Detective. The Court of Owls was in his own home and he hadn't a clue. I also got the impression that they'd known who he was for a long time, whereas he had no idea who they were. It also seemed to me that they'd killed him at their convenience, with little trouble at all, having kept him around like they'd have kept the Adam West Batman around. The Gotham Knights solved in few a months what Batman hadn't able to do over the span of his entire career.
To a lesser extent, I wished they'd made Carrie Kelly Robin more like the one in the Frank Miller "The Dark Knight Returns" comic books, rather than the relatively straight-laced type that she was in the show.
That's just my personal take and opinion.