Gotham: Ben McKenzie on where season 1 went wrong and why season 2 will be better

Gotham type TV Show network Fox genre Crime

Superhero

So far, what we know of Gotham‘s second season is this: It’s going to introduce a lot of new villains, and more importantly, it’s going to do away with the procedural element of the show, making the story arcs much more serialized. And hopefully, that can bring back some of the viewers that left the show in the latter half of season 1.

When talking about season 2, star Ben McKenzie made it clear that while he’s still very proud of the show they made last year, he thinks season 2 will be a bit closer to what fans want. “I think we made a mistake relatively early on in trying to introduce a villain and take care of that villain in one episode: catch them, send them to Arkham, do whatever,” McKenzie said. “That was just a mistake. We should’ve never done it.”

It also didn’t help the show’s case that fans had to endure a number of mini-hiatuses after Fox added 6 more episodes to the show’s first season in October of last year. “We were ordered for 16 [episodes]. We were going to have one break and come back and finish the rest of them in terms of the airing, and then we added six more, so we had to break again and then we had to come back again,” McKenzie said. “And it’s hard for the audience to follow that many changes in a series in terms of when it’s airing and when it’s not.”

More than anything, McKenzie realizes that audience members are always one click away from another great show. “It’s challenging right now,” he said. “There’s so much competition out there.”

Yet, with season 2 already underway, McKenzie feels really good about the direction the show is going. As he put it, “The audience really wants to understand who these people are and live with them, sit with them and enjoy them. Whether they’re evil or good, they are entertaining. So that’s what we’re doing in season 2. [It’s] really kick ass. I think it’s exactly what the fans want to see.”

Find out when Gotham premieres on Monday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.

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