Oh really, Bruno Heller, showrunner of the hit Fox television show/Sisyphean punishment simulator Gotham? Superheroes don’t work well on TV? Do go on.


Bruno Heller’s comments were made yesterday at the Edinburgh Television Festival. And hoo boy, ladies and gents, they are something. Let’s break this down, play by play:

I don’t think superheroes work very well on TV. Probably because of the costume thing.


I mean, see above, but also this is very rich for a television show about pillaging as many comic book characters as it can, no matter how little sense it makes, and then hitting them with an idiot bat until they only vaguely resemble the source material they’re lifted from.

Also, we’re in a world where Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Daredevil, and more exist.

TV is about real people and faces, and not so much about magic and the supernatural things.

Gotham’s next season is transforming its kid Poison Ivy into an adult Poison Ivy overnight thanks to “an encounter with a monster.”

[Gotham] has to be both a crime procedural and a mythic, epic, grand comic book saga. It’s a tricky combination, because you have to keep it real and unreal at the same time.


While I think there is a reasonable argument to be made that Gotham is not succeeding at being either a crime procedural or a mythic, epic, grand comic book saga, I will not contest the fact that Gotham is very much capable of keeping it very unreal.

The comic book constituency has become so large and visible with the whole Comic-Con thing that it is very easy to assume that the audience is purely comic book enthusiasts. But I operate the show on the basis that it is a mistake to just go there.


THEN WHY IS EVERY OTHER CHARACTER A BATMAN VILLAIN YEARS BEFORE BATMAN HAS BECOME BATMAN, BRUNO HELLER.

What we are trying to do is always give little Easter eggs, little gifts every episode to the real cognoscenti, but you don’t need to know more than the basic Batman myth.


High quality easter eggs like “every other character is a Batman villain years before Batman has become Batman.” I give up.

[THR]