New Gotham Teaser Makes the Show’s Premise Clear

When you’re making a television series about Batman, you really don’t need to do very much selling; people generally already know what to expect from any story that follows the caped crusader. Fox’s upcoming series Gotham, however, is not about Batman. Sure, young Bruce Wayne makes some appearances, but the dark knight will not be showing up at all (at least not for a long while, and then-presumably-only briefly). The show’s premise is just that: before Batman. This latest teaser would seem to serve one purpose: clarifying that premise for anyone who may have still been unclear.

Coming in at just 32 seconds, the teaser manages to succinctly accomplish its goal. Anyone who, after seeing this, is still expecting Gotham to feature Batman is simply not paying attention. What the series will feature, on the other hand, is a litany of Batman’s rogues gallery before they were the villains we know and before anyone in a cowl had a chance to strike the fear of darkness into them. This series is about Detectives Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock doing their best to clean up a Gotham that doesn’t even know it’ll soon need Batman, and that’s the premise that has been winning this series rave reviews from those who have already seen it, that’s the premise that has me eagerly anticipating the series, and that’s the premise that should have you hooked, too.

Check out the teaser below:

Gotham, starring Ben McKenzie as Jim Gordon, Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock, Jada Pinkett Smith as Fish Mooney, and a series of young actors and actresses as the series’ villains, will begin airing at 8pm Monday nights on Fox, this fall.