To celebrate the return of Gotham - seriously US TV is so weird, one season is like the length of 3 or 4 combined but they don't even have Christmas specials! - here is the 30 Day Fandom Challenge. Consolidated into one post, because that's how I roll.
Day #1. First Encounter With This Series
Anthony has made me watch all the DCTV. Unlike Flash, Arrow, etc, I actually got into this one because it didn't take itself too seriously. It's so over the top and melodramatic, but it just revels in it.
Day #2. The Moment That Made You Fall in Love with this Series
Probably about the time Ed Nygma was introduced as the ME's assistant. I'm a huge sucker for police procedurals and murder mysteries, and 'kooky forensic pathologist' is my absolute favourite character trope.
Day #3. Favourite Female Character
Camren Bicondova as Selina Kyle, the future Catwoman. She's very cool!
Day #4. Favourite Male Character
It has to be the Penguin. He's a great character - evil and scheming, but still kind of tragic. You feel sorry for him even when he's murdering some innocent bystander for a sandwich, and that's a pretty difficult feat to pull off.
Day #5. Favourite Romance
It was Jim Gordon / Penguin but I switched ship for Jim / Harvey. ♡
Seriously, Bullock is either desperately in love with Jim or that masochistic streak they gave him in the tie-in novel is so wide he lives for Jim trampling all over him.
Day #6. Favourite Quote
"I never lose sleep over my enemies. It's my friends that keep me awake." - Falcone.
Day #7. Best Plot Twist
Gotham isn't really very subtle about what it's doing, so this is a difficult question to answer. I'm hoping it will turn out Isabella's existence was more complicated than random doppelganger of the ex Ed murdered, but time will tell.
Day #8. Least Favourite Romance
The literally neverending saga of Jim Gordon and Lee Thompkins. They just need to get together or get over it, seriously.
Day #9. Funniest Moment
I dunno, but it probably involved Victor Zsasz.
Day #10. Saddest Moment
Penguin's mum getting killed in front of him. :(
Day #11. Something You Wish Hadn’t Happened
Ed turning to the dark side. It had to happen, I know, but I wish he had fought it longer. That would have made for interesting TV.
Day #12. Something You Wished Would Happen But Never Did
Kind of like the previous point, it's more that I wish we had seen more of something. Namely Jim's time in Blackgate. Being a cop in prison is never easy, and mostly I would love to have seen it break Jim down over a few episodes rather than the few minutes of screen time it actually got before Harvey busted him out of there.
Day #13. Favourite Location
The Sirens, Barbara's nightclub is very swank with lots of deco styling. I hope Penguin is taking notes for the Iceberg Lounge.
Day #14. Favourite Villain
Fish Mooney is my fave villain in the show. Jada Pinkett Smith is always awesome, and the character is way more hardcore than most of Gotham's villains. There's no way you'd catch her crying over an unrequited crush.
Day #15. Predictions for the Future
It all depends whether they get renewed for a fourth season, really, but... the introduction of Babs (Batgirl) and / or Jim Jnr. Come on, Jim, you ain't getting any younger! Or, Jim could meet the real love of his life:
Day #16. Best Fandom Promo
I loved the Cobblepot for Mayor posters! Penguin got fake tanned, teeth whitened, and pancake foundationed to within an inch of his life.
Day #17. The Character You Love To Hate
Sal Maroni. He was a great character and reminded me a lot of Tony Soprano, playing the fool then flipping the tables in a moment and becoming your worst nightmare.
Day #18. The Top Three Things on Your To-Do List if You Suddenly Found Yourself in the Series
1. Talk to the GCPD about remodelling the station. Villain shoot outs in the bullpen? This is why the front desk doesn't (shouldn't) give easy public access to the rest of the building, duh.
2. Ridding the city of mutant reanimated corpses is always going to be a vote winner, but it's hardly a comprehensive manifesto. I want to see Mayor Pengy put to task over Gotham's real problems; even Jim Gordon goes around littering the city's sidewalks.
3. Talk about what Gotham really needs... Not a hero but some better regulated forensic psychiatric services. Let's say in 15 years time Batman has 99 problems, funneling some more cash into this could solve 94 of those right now. (The rest are just what you get when you wear your y-fronts over your tights, fyi.)
Day #19. What Is Your Fandom Talking About Right Now?
The Penguin falling in love with Riddler.
Penguin was heavily coded as gay right from the beginning but I had doubts they would ever raise it from the subextual to the actual. I'm glad they took the plunge though, and 'Nygmobblepot' - what a name! - is proving every bit as dysfunctional as you might imagine.
Day #20. A Moment That Made You Question Whether You Would Continue Watching…
When Alfred - of all people - punched Selina. Batman has been through so many iterations you can't really argue anything is less canonical than anything else but, still. I maintain that no version of Alfred would be cool with punching a fourteen-year-old girl in the face. Ugh.
Day #21. Your Favourite Episode
S1:E15 'The Scarecrow'. Dr Gerald Crane has been working on a serum which will cure people of their fears. Unfortunately he is also batshit and doesn't care who dies along the journey - he injects his own son with a huge dose towards the end of the episode, leaving him to endless hallucinations of terrifying scarecrows. (Worzel Gummidge on steroids, peeps.) Seriously though, it's actually quite scary.
The episode also features Ed being an adorable geek, some father figure - son bonding between Bruce and Alfred, Fish acting like a badass, Jim freaking out about Lee's propensity for PDAs, and the Penguin being hopelessly transparent in love...
Day #22. The Character You’d Want as a Drinking Buddy
Harvey Bullock, of course. I mean, if there's anything Bullock is good at, it's drinking.
Day #23. The Best Fandom Merchandise
Diamond Select do a range of 1/10 scale action figures. The actor likenesses aren't the best - read more about that in my GCPD miniatures post - but they're not totally off the mark either and do come with some cool backdrop accessories. Barbara's Arkham entrance sign was a thing of beauty, immediately stolen by my Mezco Joker, and I still need to pick up a Hugo Strange for his cool chair.
Day #24. The Character You Find Most Relatable
Jim Gordon, I guess. He's the good guy, the main character, and the one you're supposed to be relating to, after all. He's also a glass half empty kind of guy. If something isn't going to make you miserable, Jim Gordon doesn't think it's worth doing.
Not quite as sure why everyone in the show finds that so irresistable though...
Day #25. Favourite Object / Prop
Uniforms. Perhaps I just answered my last question.
Day #26. Favourite Costume
Late S1 Penguin had it going on. The crossover tie is clearly due a comeback.
Also, Lee's wedding dress was very pretty in the mid season three finale:
Day #27. Rec a Fanvid
Some really cool editing in this vid by Studio Sagittarius - their summary is: 'What happens when a psychopath falls in love with you and won't take no for an answer? Nothing good.'
Day #28. Favourite Plot Climax
Butch and Penguin killing Galavan (again) with a rocket launcher was kind of a highlight...
Day #29. Favourite Screencap
Look, the Mad Hatter made himself a hat! <3
Day #30. Will Anything Ever Replace this Series for You?
I'll move on to the next shiny thing eventually, I'm sure, but it won't replace it in my ~heart!
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