Gotham -- This Is How It All Began...

This is probably the only new show I've been looking forward to this year, but I forgot it was premiering Monday. So I was hoping Fox would re-air it, as you can't watch their shows online. And lucky for me they did.

The show opens with a young Cat Woman leaping from building top to building top as she makes it down to the street when she steals milk from a woman and a wallet from a man. She then flees as she feeds her cat and watches from her perch in a dark alley as Bruce Wayne and his parents walk down it. Suddenly a mugger steps in their path, and even though Mr. and Mrs. Wayne give him what he wants, he shoots them, anyway. He also looks about to shoot young Bruce Wayne, as well, but he can't seem to make himself kill a child and he flees.

Meanwhile young Jim Gordon manages to defuse a hostage situation in the Gotham Police Department when a perp grabs a cop threatening to kill her if he isn't given his pills. Unfortunately, Gordon's new partner, Harvey Bullock is not pleased by Gordon saving the day, as he wanted to shoot the guy down to solve the problem. Harvey is even less pleased when they get called to the scene of the Wayne homicide.

Harvey wants no part in investigating the deaths of such a rich and powerful couple, while Gordon promises a traumatized Bruce Wayne he will find out who killed his parents. However, when major crimes cops, Montoya and Allen show up wanting to take over the case and insult Harvey he changes his mind and decides to keep the case. However, he tries to get rid of Gordon as a partner but the boss won't let him.

Gordon meets local crime boss Fish Mooney who is a woman played by Jada Pinkett-Smith. For some reason she reminded me of Eartha Kitt's Cat Woman in the old Batman TV series. Harvey sends Gordon out to investigate a yelling in the alley while he has a private chat with Fish. Gordon finds one of Fish's employee's, Oswald [nicknamed The Penguin] beating on another man and puts a stop to it. When Gordon returns to Harvey he says it's time to leave, not telling Jim exactly what he and Fish talked about in private.

Gordon goes home to his fiancee Barbara Kean where they spend the evening together. Later, Gordon gets a call that they've found the perp who killed the Waynes. They go to arrest the man and the door is opened by his daughter, Ivy. Possibly a future Poison Ivy. When they finally meet their suspect, Mario Pepper, he makes a run for it and nearly kills Gordon, but Harvey shoots him, first.

Harvey and Gordon are lauded as the heroes that solved the Wayne murders. This apparently doesn't sit well with Oswald, as he goes to Montoya and Allen to say that Gordon and Harvey set-up an innocent man to take the fall for the crime. Montoya can't wait to peddle her butt over to Barbara's to tell her Jim is a crooked cop, but Barbara won't believe her. But one has to ask just what Montoya is. From her comments she seems like a jealous ex-lover trying to stop the object of her affection from marrying another.

When Barbara confronts Jim about what Montoya told him he sets out to find out what the truth is. When he goes to the Peppers to look through Mario's closet he discovers that Mario doesn't own the pair of shoes that Bruce Wayne described the mugger who murdered his parents wearing. That's when he goes over to confront Fish.

He accuses Fish of setting Pepper up and his accusation is true. However, he may not live another day to expose the truth to the world as Fish bops him on the head and has her men drag him off to a meat locker where he's hung upside down on a meat hook.

When Barbara goes to Harvey worried about Gordon, Harvey realizes what happened and goes to save him. He thinks Fish will go along with what he wants, but she orders him hung on a meat hook, as well, and both the cops killed.

Then she turns her sights on her disloyal employee, Oswald. She beats his leg with a stick, which gives him his penguin walk.

Lucky for them Falcone, who is Fish's boss and the man that owns the police department and city hall comes to their rescue. He says he did it because he knew Jim's father when he was DA of the town. But to earn his freedom Harvey tells Gordon he has to kill the Penguin.

This is where Gordon makes a mistake that's going to have long lasting repercussions way down the line. He tells Oswald to never return to Gotham as he fake shoots him and shoves him in the river instead. Some times you should do what you're told to do.

Afterwards, Gordon goes to Bruce and tells him the truth, but makes a new promise to him. He will never stop looking for the person who killed his parents and he's going to clean up the police department, but to do that he needs Bruce to remain silent about all he's told him. Bruce agrees and a pact is formed.

Meanwhile the Penguin comes ashore and spots a fisherman fishing. He slashes the man, claiming his first victim. Guess the repercussions for sparing Penguins life isn't so far down the line as I thought. They're happening right away. If Gordon has killed Penguin the fisherman would still be alive. And from previews it seems the fisherman is just going to be the first in a long line of victims.

I checked in on IMDB to see what people thought of Gotham and most seem to dislike it. I really enjoyed it. I'm not into all the super hero shows currently on. And I never really got into the Batman franchise. The few Batman movies I saw I can't say I'd want to see, again. When I think of the Penguin, I think of Burgess Meredith from the old Batman TV show and I will forever see Adam West as the only true Batman. Anyway, I liked it, but since it's on Fox and because I like it, it will probably be cancelled. But let's hope not.

One other super villain introduced was Ed Nygma who apparently works for the Gotham Police Department. Many are pegging him as The Joker, but I wondered if it's possible if he could be The Riddler instead, since it sounded like he was given Harvey and Gordon a riddle when giving them a report on the bullets that killed the Waynes.