Gotham Knights (2023) User Reviews

Almost impressive how this show throws away everything good

[abirzenith · 4/10 · 15 September 2023]

I initially thought about writing a far more detailed review about this show, maybe talk about how it failed to deliver for both comic fans and fans of the game . However after watching the entire show, I cam to the conclusion that this show does NOT DESERVE that much effort.

All you need to know is that this show sports some of the worst dialogue deliveries in TV show history and the acting and direction is almost on part in the worst way possible. This is an insult to everything Batman, Gotham Knights and the Gotham City universe is supposed to be, it is a waste of resources and it will be a waste of your time if you give it a chance, you can do much better. There are plenty of shows out there that will respect your attention and intelligence a lot more.

Not to bad

[frankscordo-73340 · 5/10 · 22 March 2023]

I honestly quite enjoyed the first two episodes of this show. The first 20 minutes of the 1st episode was pretty crappy but it built up. The second episode was great and I actually rlly like the characters. This show would've been amazing as it's own show not as some Batman spin off. My main issue is the writers not bringing in characters from the original comics. In this show they slap the same names on characters and call it a day, and this is why most CW shows fail because they refuse to be faithful to the original. But it's still worth a watch if u can get past these random characters. I like how they deal with characters for example not every character u should trust. It's gruesome and gory and has a pretty good story line especially for a show that completely disregarded the original. I do think people go into CW shows with a bad mind set but please give it a watch and decide for yourselves.

Passable.. but "cheap"....

[NullUnit · 4/10 · 18 March 2023]

Amazed by all the high star reviews here. Did they see the same show I did???

Without the established lore of Batman there'd be no show here. EVERYTHING is 100% relying on the mythos that is the Batman to carry EVERYTHING.

So far, there has only been the premiere, but I gotta say.. it's VERY lackluster. If one were to remove all the callbacks to past characters, there's no show here. Remove the "bat" from the picture and you've got 1 rich kid, and 4 "other side of the tracks" kids, and 1 kid somewhere in the middle. The rich kid attends a Prep school.. so he MUST be 16-17 years old(?). That gets extrapolated to the rest of the kids.. so teenagers.... Not young adults.... teenagers. I think, in part, the writers do not want the audience to realize the actual age range here.

The fact that Wayne took in yet ANOTHER lost boy.. well.. it's getting kind of creepy just at face value. Did he intentionally go looking for "lost boys" to take in??? Once sure. Twice possibly.... but 3 or 4 times? There's some other motive.

What really sat poorly with me was "Cruella" - Who names their kid that??? And she "grew up" in Arkham Asylum???? They have a day care at an insane asylum??? Housing for families?? Seriously??

I would really need to spoil some things to explain more, but I won't.

Over all I'm being generous with 4 stars. The acting is merely passable, not great. The story COULD be intriguing IF they stop relying on the "lore" so much and flesh out actual individual characters that are NOT merely kiddy-clones of their parents. I find it so ludicrous when writers create "children" that are nothing more than exact replicas of the original characters (parents). We all know that sure.. children grow up to the identical clones in BOTH profession and personality of their parents.. right?

The "color washing" to desaturate everything except reds and purples bothered me as well. CLEARLY everything has been muted to be grey and woeful... but the pops of red and purple don't REALLY mean anything. If it doesn't LOOK like reality, the "suspension of disbelief" factor tends to slip away rather rapidly - why EVERYTHING needs to be desaturated doesn't seem to make any sense.

....meh.. perhaps written for tweens....

More deserving of pity than of hate.

[Darwinskid · 18 March 2023]

20 years ago, something like a Gotham Knights probably would have a bigger audience and be better received. Back then, something like Smallville was considered the high point for a live-action television series based on / inspired by a superhero / comic book property. However, it is not the year 2003 it is the year 2023 and something like a Gotham Knights just doesn't cut it anymore.

After the impressive stunt choreography, staging, and blocking in Marvel's Daredevil, the method of forcing the camera to shake and cut quickly in an action sequence just fails to deliver the same impact and comes across as cheap and ineffective. With superhero / comic based television like The Boys, The Umbrella Academy, Legion, and most of Marvel Studios' output on Disney+ presenting visuals that are on occasion worthy of the big screen, seeing a low budget affair set in an iconic location like Gotham City focusing on Batman's space in the DC Universe is just not going to amaze any eyes. And, with there being already plenty of live-action versions of Batman in recent memory, and with interconnectivity between feature film and television universe becoming more of a thing with Marvel Studios and Star Wars leading the charge and DC planning to follow in the same footsteps, a series centered around Batman with no Batman in it and having no ties to anything larger does anything but intrigue.

I will be honest, I didn't really have any hope for this series as soon as I had read about it when it was announced, and the trailers and other promotional material didn't change my mind, and after seeing the premiere out of curiosity and with nothing else to do in the evening, my thoughts are exactly what I had anticipated what it would be. It isn't good, it offers nothing new to the marketplace, but to make matters worse, it is just very dull. Why should I, a life-long fan of the Batman character, spend time with a series where he is not present and even a presence, hasn't even done battle with Two-Face (Who is still Harvey Dent in this series) and most of the story is centered around an adoptive son of his that doesn't originate from the comic book mythology? Why create a "Turner Hayes" when you have characters like Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne to choose from? The rest of the Knights are actually from the comic books, however, they're really the characters in-name-only and definitely watered down. It feels like the people involved never read the source material and went by information on Wikipedia. Most of the acting is fine, but there is only so much they can do with such material.

Still, I can't bring myself to hate it, because I pity it more. I pity the creators who thought this kind of approach would still get substantial viewership, I pity the executives who greenlit this program believing it could be a crowd-pleasing success, and I pity that this is yet another smear on Batman's history in culture.

If the best praise you have online is Supernatural fans showing excitement for Misha Collins just being in a new show, you're not doing very right, I'm just saying.

Another cw failure

[gothicdoometal · 1/10 · 18 March 2023]

This show is the epitome of how CW ammased a huge debt by producing garbage like this.

It's a classic cw teen show formula with brainless plot, cringe dialogue and teenage millenials angst issues. The only difference is that cw is also dragging the ip of batman to the mud along with the show which is not surprising given the amount of ips cw have destroyed we're used to it by now.

I don't think people were expecting much from this and after the pilot they still managed to dissapoint us. Cause what people wanted from a barman show was ofc CWs insight into teenage problems and talentless writing.

Much better than I thought it would be

[hunterthrasher · 7/10 · 23 March 2023]

Let me just say that I went into the show with very low expectations. I had heard all of the negative buzz surrounding the show, and really was expecting to hate it like everyone else but surprisingly Gotham Knights actually is pretty good. Now don't get me wrong the show definitely has the typical flaws of a CW show some cringy dialogue and acting and the lower budget with the costumes. However, at the same time, it also is a little bit darker than your typical CW show. I mean, in the very first episode, we see a guy get his head chopped off and they showed it, which I never would have expected The CW of all places to show something like that.

The characters I also liked in the series Turner Hayes may not be the best protagonist as you really feel like they just wanted to use Dick Grayson but weren't able to, but he's a decent protagonist and I think he has potential. I also surprisingly liked all three of the villain kid characters, especially the jokers daughter, who I expected to be the biggest cringiest of them all, and she's actually the most interesting and complex character. I also thought it was really cool that we got to see Stephanie Brown in the series as I believe it was her first live action appearance, and it was so cool getting to see that for the first time. And so far I think they have done a good job with the court of owls. I think the talon was done good in the last episode, and I like the mystery they are building there with them.

Overall, I got to say I was pleasantly surprised with Gotham Knights. I actually think that more people should go into the show with an open mind and give it a chance it's not the greatest DC show out there but I think that this show has a lot of potential, and I'm excited to watch the rest of the season.

Garbage

[bornagain710-331-212635 · 3/10 · 18 March 2023]

This totally screws up the Batman time line! Harvey Dent was Two Face not after Batman 'died'.

This is a joke! Joker's daughter? Dumb dumb dumb. Where is Gordon? Alfred dead too! What a load of fiction.

Not part of any Batman chronicles I ever heard of!

They should have read the history or at least watched the movies.?

Again they totally screwed up the story line.

Next they will dig up Mr Freeze, Joker, Riddler and God knows who else. There is no saving this story. End it now! Boo hoo!.

Writers should read the old stories before trying to write a new one that doesn't fit anything. What a load of hooey!

Give it a chance!

[smjansen · 8/10 · 16 March 2023]

Honestly, my initial interest mainly was because of Misha Collins. I was happy to see him on screen again and him being so excited for this show.

After watching the pilot I think the show needs to be judged on what it brought to the table instead of only 'what it should be according to the comics/DC snobs/give it a name'. I think that pilots are quite hard to shoot. Everything is new, sets, crew, actors that aren't that familiar with each other (yet).

Was it the best pilot I've ever seen? No. Was it the worst? Certainly not. I am curious to see where it is going to lead us and how they are going to approach the inevitable descend into madness of Harvey Dent. I'm also curious to see how the youngsters are going to navigate this whole pickle they are in.

Waiting patiently for next week.

Don't be fooled by the ratings!

[john-4399 · 7/10 · 22 March 2023]

There seems to be some kind of hate campaign against the CW! Sure, some of their content has not been the greatest BUT they have made some really good series.

Consequently, I find some of the really low ratings quite curious. Interestingly, those not invested in darkening the CW name have given this quite high scores - there seems to be little in the middle.

It is also odd that a series might be rubbished so early in its run. Come on folks - give it a chance!

For me, it is certainly not as good as Superman & Lois - yet. But I felt it was a reasonable start. So it's a different slant looking at the time after Batman. Surely that gives it a relatively clean slate and lots of potential?

The acting is nothing like as bad as some reviewers would have you believe. In particular, I felt Olivia Rose Keegan as Duela and Anna Lore as Stephanie Brown were standout newcomers. There's lots of action, the story pulls you in and the sfx are credible enough.

I shall certainly continue to watch it to see how it progresses. Hopefully, all the CW haters will actually go away and stop giving dumb reviews without foundation and let "normal" reviewers assess this properly on its own merit!

Another CW bland and unrealistic superhero drama

[sovmatt · 2/10 · 15 March 2023]

Gotham Knights is what you'd get if you took Batman, and removed everything everyone enjoyed about it. The acting is sub-par with atrocious choreography you'd expect from the low budget hero TV shows (Cops draw guns then run towards the "heroes" to get disarmed etc)

Ofcourse, everything that made people fall in love with batman has been removed, and instead we follow a group of random teens/young adults because that's literally the only formula that these cheap superhero TV shows know to follow. Does no character justice whatsoever and seems to somehow be set in a time when Batman was famous, yet before he did anything to make himself famous.

Ignoring all these inconsistencies and boring tropes that we've seen 100's of times, there really isn't anything else here. I've seen better stories and choreography from children yet here we are, doing the exact same superhero drama series that we've seen hundreds of times but THIS one is different because CW said it was.

It's really worth watching

[sandraverhoff · 10/10 · 15 March 2023]

Actually, I was surprised how good that pilot was. Although many reviews were mostly bad. I didn't want to watch the series at all, but I'm glad I did. The young cast did a really good job. Olivia Rose Keegan is great as Duela! Just wow!!! It's fun to watch her. She embodies her role very well. The story at the beginning is quite hasty and fast but it was known that Batman is being murdered and they now have to go in search of perpetrators. The Bat Cave was awesome, love it! Great locations, good music and sound effects. I'll watch for sure the next Episodes! In the hope that it will continue just as exciting.

Better than i'd thought it'd be

[TheRealNygmobblepots · 7/10 · 16 March 2023]

Listen I know that CW isn't exactly good with making their DC shows but this one is actually pretty decent. I'm a big time Supernatural fan and i'd be lying if I said I didn't want to watch this cause of Misha and so far in the first episode alone he's done a very good job at portraying Harvey Dent and I can't wait to see his transformation into Two-Face. I enjoyed watching the kids and how they interacted with eachother and I hope that the chemistry continues. I also really love the diversity of the cast and the characters. This show isn't the greatest but I like it and I really recommend it. Whether you're a DC fan, a CW fan, or a Supernatural fan just wanting to watch this cause Misha is in it, I think you should watch it.

LAUGHABLE

[jegd-847-631407 · 1/10 · 16 March 2023]

I* gave this show a chance because of Misha Collins. I loved him in Supernatural. I think he's a genuinely nice person and I really wanted to see him acting again. Unfortunately The CW has talentless nitwits running the show. Hey let's make a show where the most interesting character is dead from the beginning. Let's focus on disposable dull characters that no one has ever heard of. Let's make-up a new character and just say Batman adopted him... Dick Grayson who? Jason Todd who? Damien Wayne who? There's literally 6 or 7 existing characters who played Robin, but I think fans will simply adore our lifeless Turner Hayes character. You know what guys,m we should make this really "dark". You mean like spooky or noir-like? No, just use dark backgrounds & clothes, it'll be a hoot. I can not watch one more of these stupid CW shows targeting young adults. It's as if the CW thinks young adults are absolutely dumb, because the writing form this series is laughable. Gotham City finally learns who Batman is and yet no one cares. The police certainly don't care, they don't even bother investigating this further. Bruce Wayne was a most wanted vigilante in Gotham for years and yet GCPD Detectives go "Oh he was Batman? Okay." and grab another coffee. Seriously? They apprehend the suspects for the murder of Bruce Wayne, throw them all in a cell together and call it an night. What world do these writers live in? They generated a combination of bland dialogue and lifeless characterizations. I'm calling it. This is the last DC series we will ever see on the CW ever again. They ruin everything they touch.

This is garbage

[alleykirstie · 1/10 · 16 March 2023]

The big question surrounding the pilot episode is "Who killed Bruce Wayne?". But most of us DC fans are wondering who are these people? The only one I know is Harvey Dent. Where is Alfred? When did Bruce Wayne adopt a kid named Turner Hayes? Who is Bluebird? Who is Spoiler? Who is the brother that doesn't have a code name? Since when did Joker have a daughter? Who is the CW marketing this too? The writing alone is flaccid and uninteresting. They write a hacker into the mix without any knowledge of computers. The hacker types really fast on a keyboard to make magic happen. It's so cliche and ridiculous. The world discovers who Batman is and not one cop goes to Wayne Manor to search it? Who green-lit this garbage? Terrible acting, boring people, trope diversity, and no real storyline. It's become a staple for the CW. Hard pass on this one. Don't bother, it's unwatchable.

Gotham 'Yikes'

[craneno · 3/10 · 15 March 2023]

This review is going to be a bit of a mess - much like this show.

It's not good. The acting is lacklustre. The tone is all over the place. The story could be intriguing but gets bogged down in teeny-bopper melodrama, as my dad would say.

I don't want to include spoilers because if you want to watch this show, you should go in with no expectations. Seriously, don't have ANY expectations with this show.

I LOVE DC properties but this show just ain't it. The main character was created for the show; which, sometimes works, like Chloe in 'Smallville' but it seems bonkers to do it for your main protagonist, because the pilot does little to make you care about him.

The diversity in characters and actors is great, I just don't know if that will make up for terrible writing and bland delivery.

It shouldn't go past it's first season.

not bad for a pilot

[felixnkubi · 7/10 · 15 March 2023]

I can't lie, I was kind of impressed! The plot actually looks tangible, I can't get over the fact that people actually think a bunch of kids killed the batman, the way everyone in gotham just accepted it was way too unrealistic for me but again it's fiction so who cares! The joker daughter seems by far the favourite so far for me, I laughed when I saw robin, wtf! The show is lucky I enjoyed the plot, if not I would have dropped it, and the fight scenes in meh! Guessing a lot of budget didn't go into that, the cast looks great tho, I will keep watching which I was not expecting.

I remember clowning the show when I watched the trailer, but somehow it has me hooked! Let's see how it goes for me.

Why just why

[gogol13 · 2/10 · 18 March 2023]

The characters are not even DC characters they were made up for this show. They took Gossip Girl Buffy the Vampire Hunter and Saved by the Bell and try to figure out how can we take these properties make a show and make it as cringy and as awful as we can. Voila we have it Gotham Knights. And of course seeing that this is Gotham we cannot have any characters people expect to see in the show. And we're just far enough from DC Cannon we can write horrible episodes but we can always say it's part of the DC Universe. With no surprise same guys that worked on bat woman. I wonder who leave the show after the first season.

Very interesting premise

[danielaainza · 9/10 · 15 March 2023]

This feels different than other superhero shows, and the actors look great so far, especially the Joker's daughter, she steals every scene she's in and I'm very interested to see what path her character takes. On that note, the season trailer got me really intrigued about Harvey Dent, we all know the villain in various adaptations, but I like that he starts off as the heart of the show and maybe this season we'll get to see a dark turn, and I'm 100% sure Misha Collins will do justice to the character as he always puts everything into his performances. Very interested to see where the show goes. Great so far!

Good plot, decent acting (for kids)

[tomcuturic · 7/10 · 26 March 2023]

I'll try to keep this short and simple. I was expecting it to be a dumbster fire. I wasn't. The plot is actually good.. there are just a few things that I need to get used to. Seeing Castiel/Misha as Harvey Dent is one. It doesn't help that Harvey and Castiel usually wear a similar attire. The other thing is the cast. They are very young. If they were 4 of 5 years older it would have fit better. It's hard to believe at times that they could do any real physical damage to others. Gotham doesn't have any superheroes with supernatural powers so physical strength is important, as is experience. The acting is decent. Cringey at times but generally good. The cast is likeable.

one of the dumbest shows i have ever seen.

[jdfolkerts · 1/10 · 27 March 2023]

To believe these 3 morons could kill batman who fought the likes of Bane, Superman and the joker is moronic. Next lets force the kid to back to school within a day after his dad was killed. Lets just drop the 3 murders in the same room as Batman's kid. So who ever is writing this trash for CW needs to go back to batwoman. We only need one crap superhero show at a time. None of the characters are believable. Sure the jokers daughter is doing well with the trash they have given her but it is still trash. Lets have teenage kids with no lawyers talking to the police. Unless you like being tortured avoid this show.

Might bring me back to DC

[maxgetsemailsometimes · 10/10 · 15 March 2023]

I gave up my equal opportunity views of Marvel vs DC a few tv shows and superman movies ago. Aquaman clinched that opinion for me. This show might just crack the glass on that box, though. Natalie Abrams has taken the source material, the inch that networks allowed, and ran a whole mile with it.

Ignore the bad reviews. There's a lot of people out there from the Supernatural fandom with a hate on for Misha Collins who want to tank the show before it even gets off the ground, but haven't even watched the show. Give this one a chance, you'll be very pleasantly surprised. Collins' Dent is brilliant, and the cast of young adults that he's working with hold up against his tenured acting skills.

I was expecting it to be absolute trash... but it's not?

[Mister_Ocean · 6/10 · 2 April 2023]

So I was expecting this show to be absolute trash, but then I watched it and I'm kinda... hooked?

Not hooked on the melodramatic bs teenage drama you can expect from most CW shows, of course. That is here, and it is indeed the worst part of this series.

The mystery of Bruce's death: how he died, why he died, and IF he even really died, that is the most compelling part of this show.

And the fact that this series brings to live-action a group of Batman villains that comic readers have been dying to see jump from the page to the screen is another exciting factor.

We finally get a Court of Owls story and a Talon that is uncompromisingly comic book accurate.

I was expecting it to be pretty tame when it came to the action scenes, but we see Talon just cutting people's heads off, and then Fed-exing it straight to GCPD.

Of course, it's not John Wick level of fight choreography and direction. It's closer to Taken in that regard; the hundred cuts and shaky cam kind of fight scenes.

So if you're expecting that, you'll be disappointed.

But if you're like me, and you were expecting this series to be complete garbage, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised that this show is... not bad.

Man this just awful

[tanishaabdulrahman · 1/10 · 27 April 2023]

Seriously why couldn't they just adapted it from original video game that would have been better whatever this awful mess.

First, biggest mistake why would you kill off one of most iconic characters in DC comics you can't kill Batman off if you was going to do it don't do it most stupidest way you do it off screen.

Second, you make up a random character who is supposed to be Batman son hes not even in batman comics why haven't you used Dick Grayson? Jason Todd? Damion Wayne? Any of pervious Robins but no you didn't you give us Turner Raynes who isn't even original character its made up man hes so unlikeable all he does have so much self pity and complains so much dude your father is batman and you didn't know. How does that make any sense?

Third, this feels like pathetic fan fiction its mixed with Riverdale and Disney descendants Jokers daughter? She not interesting she annoying with daddy issues. I dont like female Robin all of the characters suck they are all one dimensional.

This is horrible story, terrible characters and this shouldn't have been made at all avoid this show your better off watching TV show Gotham way better show than Gotham knights.

ROFL...

[mwshockley · 1/10 · 3 April 2023]

I was super excited when I saw this show. Pretty solid opening. I was even more excited when I saw Misha Collins. Super excited about a different take on the story line. I was getting in to it when we hit the interrogation room.

Why don't you braniacs try introducing your agenda in an organic way instead of with a scoop shovel. Another waste of your money and my time. Very disappointed.

How much money are you going to flush down the toilet in your pursuit of converting every last person in to a zombie. You might actually get somewhere if you hired writers with talent rather than the ones that check all your boxes.