This review was made possible by screeners of Episodes 1-6 of Gotham Knights provided by The CW for review purposes. Gotham Knights releases on The CW on March 14th. New Episodes available weekly on The CW a day after release
Many were a bit puzzled upon the announcement of this series, mostly that The CW has come as far as to be able to get their hands on characters so close to the Batfamily, but more so that the plot was nearly identical to that of the recently announced video game of the same name. While it is nothing special, Gotham Knights is not as terrible as the details of the series, and marketing may have led you to believe, but it is still full of bland characters, poor acting, and a paint-by-the-numbers murder mystery that you’ve seen before.
‘Riverdale’ Is Back!
If you liked Riverdale, well, sit yourself down for a heaping second helping as Archie Andrews has uprooted himself and moved to Gotham City! Let’s address the elephant in the room: Turner Hayes is bad, like bland and annoying and just flat out uninteresting. The character is Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, and Jason Todd all rolled up into a ball that had the charisma, angst, and charm vacuum sealed out. Yes, the “Bat Brat” original character is just your run-of-the-mill protagonist who lives in the shadows of the others who are somehow more interesting than him, but still, not good.
Speaking of the other characters, it’s all your favorites! Well, your favorites if you like your character adaptations in name only! That is what these characters are. Duela is probably the biggest misfire, if any Duela Dent fans out there were looking forward to the spontaneous and delusional Duela, she’s not home; I’m not even sure she lives on this street. Giving her a definite past and actual connection, the Joker kinda just sucked all the fun out of the character, no more mysterious background left for the mind to wonder, that’s kinda the series biggest issue, there’s no room to wonder.
Standouts Within The Ensemble
The standouts are Harper and Cullen Rowe, probably the most interesting of the bunch and the only two who are closest to their comic counterparts, also the only two who really seem to care. Tyler DiChiara and Fallon Smythe are pretty good and share some great sibling chemistry, and you can genuinely feel that they care deeply about each other and have been through a lot together.
Navia Robinson also does the best with what she is given to work with as Carrie Kelly, the Robin of the Dark Knight Returns storyline by Frank Miller, brought into the present day. Robinson has the tenacity and eagerness of Kelly, working alongside the bat after nagging him into letting her be his “little bird”. Unfortunately, she does not have her firecracker slingshot, so if you were just watching the series for that, sorry, you’re out of luck.
Get a Clue
Here’s the thing with the plot: it’s fine, it’s basic, and at times it is slightly interesting, but you’ve seen it before. In fact, a lot of DC Fans saw it last year with the release of Gotham Knights, a video game that followed a very similar premise, the death of Bruce Wayne, and the Court of Owls revealed to be pulling the strings of Gotham City. Unfortunately it just feels like some wiki’d some supporting characters from the Batman mythos and said “yeah, I can work with this” and produced a Tumblr grade fan fiction that genuinely feels like you’re watching the second season of Riverdale, where you can feel the show just teetering off the edge of “yeah, alright this is fine” to the bottom of the gorge that’s better known as “frying oil dumpster fire”.
The biggest problem is that this show could definitely have been good if it had ended up on literally any other platform or channel besides The CW. At times, it just feels like a last-ditch effort to grab what’s left and run for the hills before you know the end is near for the once heralded slate of DC series on the network.
Please send the Talon for my Head
The Court of Owls is here, everyone! In possibly their least threatening adaptation yet. This is where that “leaving no room to wonder” factor in again. The Court of Owls is supposed to be this big secret society that’s been running the show behind the granite and lime of Gotham city for over a century, and yet I didn’t feel that at all. Nothing was done to instil fear or make me care; they’re like that annoying kid in elementary school who stole the special eraser that you had on the end of your pencil, or a fly that won’t stop buzzing around your burger.
They’re infinitely more annoying than they are menacing. Even when you try to plug them into every corner and sprinkle them into some of your characters, you just don’t care; you almost see it coming. There’s just nothing special being done with them; the once great Court of Owls meets a grim fate in this series, and that’s not me spoiling anything. I just think they’d rather not be there than be there.
CW veteran Misha Collins makes his DC debut here as district attorney Harvey Dent, the famous pal of Bruce Wayne who’d eventually go on to meet his worse half. No, Harvey already has his worst half in a Moon Knight-like scenario where he just blacks out and gets up to some dastardly deeds. Nothing here screams “THAT’S HARVEY DENT,” again a character that is just that in name, with the character’s signature pre-acid-throwing-incident charm and charisma noticeably absent from this adaptation, only seen as a worrisome and drained lawyer who desperately needs a vacation.
At times, it feels wrong to judge a series solely based on the fact that it has a low budget; sometimes it’s just something out of the production’s control, but here is just laughable. When we meet Carrie Kelly she’s wearing a red leather jacket and a pair of goggles that look like they were purchased off eBay. Everyone else just looks like they raided the CW archives for the wardrobe. This just further adds to the previous statement, that this show felt like a quick and rushed grab at the IP that was soon to be ripped from their hands. In recent years, the CW has stepped up its quality when it comes to bringing these beloved DC characters to life, but here it’s just a YouTube fan film brought to life, I mean, just wait till you see the Mutant Gang.
‘Gotham Knights’ – Final Thoughts
Thank whoever you pray to that the end seems nigh for the era of DC at the CW. It’s long past due that this library of stories and characters is set free from the confines of network television and elevated under the watch of the new heads of DC Studios. Gotham Knights, as many knew, would be, isn’t very good, but could’ve been if any had cared a whole lot more. Unfortunately, Riverdale X Capeshit just didn’t pan out too well. Whoever thought it would should be forced to read every single appearance of each and every character adapted in this series.
Gotham Knights releases on The CW on March 14th, with New Episodes hitting the CW streaming service every Wednesday. Check out the trailer below:
The Review
'Gotham Knights'
Thank whoever you pray to that the end seems nigh for the era of DC at the CW. It's long past due that this library of stories and characters is set free from the confines of network television and elevated under the watch of the new heads of DC Studios. Gotham Knights, as many knew, would be, isn’t very good, but could’ve been if any had cared a whole lot more. Unfortunately, Riverdale X Capeshit just didn’t pan out too well. Whoever thought it would should be forced to read every single appearance of each and every character adapted in this series.
