Gotham Season 3: We Might Have to Wait for Cameron’s Return and the Joker….

 DCU, Joker, News, TV Shows  No Responses »
Sep 072016
 

MonaghangothamlargerThe INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES recently reported that thou the Joker’s laugh at the end of season 2 was indeed a proof that the “Joker idea” is not forgotten and that Cameron will be back it seems that the fans will not have a Joker until the mid-to-late part of season 3.  Well, hoping that they keep the high standards that the series has had in the writing, maybe it is going to be worth the wait.

Here is a copy of the original report by  CZARINA NICOLE ONG:

“Gotham” fans were confused when Cameron Monaghan’s Joker bit the dust sometime during Season 2, but they got their hopes up that the villain will make his way back to the show when they heard his laugh in the finale.

Executive producer Ken Woodruff told TV Guide that fans were right that they heard the Joker’s trademark laugh. However, Jerome Valeska (alter ego of the Joker) won’t be returning just yet.

“[The laugh] was really to keep [the Joker] alive, to keep Jerome and that threat of the Joker alive. We wanted to make sure fans don’t feel that we’re completely done with [the mythology of the Joker] because we are 100 percent, absolutely not,” he explained.

Woodruff added that it’s not something they’re going to explore right away when Season 3 starts, and they will only start to unravel the mystery of the Joker sometime in the middle of the season.

“We are absolutely planning in Season 3 – but primarily in the mid to second half of Season 3 – to delve back into the mythology of the Joker, and characters that may or may not be the Joker – but more likely characters that are an amalgamation of what we’ll come to know as the Joker,” Woodruff teased.

He said there will be an “underground” movement trying to fulfill the Joker’s legacy, and they hope to expand it should the show bag a fourth season.

Meanwhile, Woodruff told IGN that they have already introduced Harley Quinn in the past two seasons, and fans might have just missed her. “You may have already seen Harley as a person that you thought you had met and known for a long time. So we always reserve the right to sort of do that as well,” he said.

As for Ed Nygma (Cory Michael Smith), he will go “full-on Riddler” in Season 3. “I’m out of Arkham as a free man, not a fugitive, so I have this amazing opportunity for rebirth,” Smith told Briotainment.

And Harley already introduced but missed in the past two seasons?  Hmmm, what could that mean? Hopefully not that they want to make either Barbara Kean  (much talked about) or Leslie Thompkins as possible candidates.  Innovative as the idea might sound, I don’t think that it will go too well with the fans. We’ll see…only a few days left until the new season starts.

(Watch GOTHAM again this fall starting on September 19, at 8:00pm in FOX)

Can Jerome Return to Gotham?

 DC Universe, Interview, News, TV Shows, Uncategorized  No Responses »
Mar 162016
 

Gotham-TV-Show-Fox-LogoI have been following GOTHAM series in FOX network and have to tell you that it still has me hooked.  I love the series’ twist on characters that we thought could not be improved or reinvented.  They find new visions for the character development at every corner and with the advent of Hugo Strange to his project “Indian Hill” just makes the plot more interesting.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

We have seen that Dr. Hugo Strange is developing a program called “Indian Hills” to bring back “dead” criminals in an effort to develop an army that I feel has some similarities with the Talons army that was introduced in the pages of Batman by the COURT OF OWLS story arc by acclaimed comic book writer Scott Snyder. Another important clue from the series is the announced return of Theo Galavan to the series as Azrael (?), though the man was shot dead by Jim Gordon and finished beautiful by an umbrella shoved through his mouth courtesy of Oswald Cobblepot.  How could a dead man return to the world of the living?  With the help of Victor Fries serum of course.

Now, if Strange was able to get a hold of Galavan’s body, as he has done with other criminals (remember Firefly’s?) what if he was also able to get Jerome Valeska’s body from GCPD as well?  Very possible, since the maniac killed his father, there was no one to reclaim the body.  So…would Hugo have the ability to bring back a character that Jokerdom has described as the closest thing to the REAL Clown Prince of Crime?  Well, I found and interesting article that might be heading in that direction.  Here is the article found in SCENE CRUSH (January 13, 2016)…

Anyone following FOX’s Gotham (those brave souls) well-remembers the proto-Batman series’ quick introduction of almost-Joker figure Jerome, before Season 2 seemingly put a cap on the character in the most eye-rolling setup possible. Well, get ready to stretch that grin once more, as Ben McKenzie hints we’ve not seen the last of Cameron Monaghan’s cackling madman.

You’re warned of basic Gotham spoilers through Jerome’s arc from here on out, but where many presumed that that FOX DC drama have tipped too heavily toward the character’s Joker future, Season 2 outing “The Last Laugh” threw a wrench in that theory by killing off the Jerome character and insinuating his legacy as a “Joker Virus” on the city.

Anyone following FOX’s Gotham (those brave souls) well-remembers the proto-Batman series’ quick introduction of almost-Joker figure Jerome, before Season 2 seemingly put a cap on the character in the most eye-rolling setup possible. Well, get ready to stretch that grin once more, as Ben McKenzie hints we’ve not seen the last of Cameron Monaghan’s cackling madman.

…

MACKENZIE: “Not only can we [bring Jerome back], but we might. I can’t say definitively, but yes. I’ll put it this way: almost nobody that you’ve seen go away is dead. They are all able to come back.”

Granted, we left Gotham in 2015 on a deeper descent into the mysterious “Indian Hill” facility that already introduced a young Mr. Freeze (House of Cards star Nathan Darrow), and will soon embrace Bat-mythology even further in B.D. Wong’s Hugo Strange, so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility to resurrect Jerome somehow. Divisive though he may have been, there’s little argument Cameron Monaghan produced the strongest responses Gotham has seen yet, and the series itself isn’t in a place to ignore success.

(Original article: ‘Gotham’ Hints Proto-Joker Jerome Will Return for Last Laugh)

RIP Jerome Valeska…. When we ‘almost’ had a JOKER

 Editorials, Joker, Reviews, TV Shows  No Responses »
Oct 112015
 

GOTHAMJokerOK, I will admit I am not happy about the demise of the character of Jerome Valeska from the series GOTHAM, but in a sense I can see one reason why we could not have had him turn onto the Joker (much to my regret).  This is what I was thinking…

  1. Joker is an unknown.
    1. No one know who Joker is.  Part of his mystique was his anonymity, and that gave him power because in true nature…he could be anybody he wants to be and made it very easy to disappear into the multitude of people in the city.  When the police knows the identity of a criminal, it gives them a certain power over him, and normally it is a matter of time before he is arrested.  I would have to admit that in the Gothamverse having a Joker whose past is known (and it would have been easy to tie Jerome to Joker)  will in some way take away from the character. When Joker makes his final appearance in Gotham, he has to come out of nowhere, taking the city by surprise and embarking in a wave of sensational crimes like it has never seen before.  A kind of force of nature if you may call him that, that is primal, without ties to a past or a place.  Only then he can become the Joker that Batman deserves.

That said….

Certainly anarchy is a very powerful and liberating concept.  Joker took it and amplified it in Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT, and in a sense drives the concept of the character even in the comics but not everybody can be the Joker…only the Joker can be the Joker.

It is true that the idea of chaos and mayhem are just concepts, that anybody could embrace to become the ultimate maniac…but Jerome did it so well that is tremendously sad to see such a good actor like Cameron Monaghan that had given so much to the character only to go in such a quick, senseless way.  I would have preferred to see Jerome do one of those Joker escapes, where everybody thinks he’s dead only to return later with a vengeance…that in my opinion would have been more deserving of the performance.

The people at FOX have set the standards for their most famous homicidal maniac way up in the sky in my opinion.  The new and final Joker, whenever he arrives will have to take Jerome’s  ‘insanity virus’ and take it to the extreme.  Is that even possible?

Yes, the Joker is definitely above any definition of insanity and goes to any limits he has to go to get his point across, but GOTHAM is a show based in reality.  With the limitation of the media to root the characters in a ‘real environment’ how far can they take the Joker? Will they really find someone like Jerome out there?

I found the idea of people just going crazy killing people for fun, after seeing Jerome’s footage on the news a little farfetched.  It is not normal human behavior.  Just because you see someone killing on TV does not mean you’ll think it is fun and go out to try it yourself, but then , Gotham is a strange city.  Maybe there is an underlying low degree of madness in its citizens and they need an inspiration to take it to the highest levels of depravity.

I don’t know…maybe it is just me being a Jokerholic here and adoring Cameron’s performance in the series, but I am divided into deciding if KILLING Jerome was really the best outcome for the character…hope that FOX did not make a mistake here and let go an awesome character that could fill the future clown’s shoes.

For now…Thanks Cameron for an unforgettable performance.  Jerome will be missed, but you showed your caliber as an actor.  Best wishes in the future…

Please read what Cameron Monaghan has to say about his character on the show on TVLine HERE

Gotham Season 2 is Cooking…RAISE OF THE VILLAINS

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Aug 302015
 

Gotham-TV-Show-Fox-LogoWell, truth be told.

The first season of GOTHAM was kind of slow, and unusual.  First I’d say unusual because you see a world you know…GOTHAM CITY…without a Batman (at least yet) and the introduction of all this characters, from a total new and vast DC Universe (Gothamverse) that is  taking its time, with snippets of origin stories here and there that seemed to take forever.  It also did not help that midseason seemed disjointed when there was that hiatus while they added more episodes.

But…

At the same time, it was interesting.  Yes, this storytelling does not have the appeal of THE FLASH or ARROW, but it was successful enough to grab my attention for the whole season.  I personally wanted to see more Nigma becoming the ruthless criminal he is, Zsasz crumbling under his own manic obsession with self-mutilation, and what is on with Gordon’s first love Barbara…?  Is that the background that will explain why his [future] sob is so perturbed in the comics?  And a surprise newcomer was Fish, which I hope returns for next season, but in the meantime it is time to add some more chaos to Gotham and that is what Season 2 is bringing forth , just look at the preview and tell me you are interested…especially of seeing A LOT MORE JOKER????

Here you have it…ENJOY!!

GOTHAM: “Joker is not a single Villain, He’s an Ideology…”

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Jul 182015
 

Gotham-TV-Show-Fox-LogoHey…I kind of like that philosophy, and can’t wait to see what is going to happen in GOTHAM with Jerome and how he could become the well renowned Joker of Gotham City.

But Joker apart…the series is really good in all aspects of exploring the development of key characters from the Batman universe.  Can’t wait either what is going to be of the new king of Gotham…OSWALD COBBLEPOT.  And Nygma is slowly losing grips with reality… Quite engaging storytelling I tell you. Hope it does not lose its steam halfway through the season as it has happened with other good series in TV.

Gotham Creator Hints to the Joker in Season 2 Storylines

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Jul 182015
 

Gotham-TV-Show-Fox-Logo

“Gotham” creator Bruno Heller and stars Ben McKenzie and Robin Lord Taylor discussed season two, the Joker and more in an interview with IGN. The Joker has long been teased for the show and, following Cameron Monaghan’s latest Instagram clue, Heller weighed in on how the Joker will impact the second season.

“There’s definitely some curve balls; life is all about curve balls, and this show is about that,” Heller explained. “Cameron is coming back. He’s playing Jerome. The story we’re telling is absolutely the story of how the Joker came to be. More than that, I can’t tell you, because I’ve not yet formulated a clever J.J. Abrams type of way of telling you the truth but avoiding the spoiler.”

“Without getting into any of that, what I think it does — given that we’ve now read the first four scripts [of season two] and Jerome is definitely featured — I think for fans of Joker… are going to be very happy,” McKenzie added.

“It’s a storyline that plays out over the whole season. By the end of the season, all Joker fans will go, ‘Ahhh! What a brilliant, brilliant idea!'”Heller joked.

(Original report by Meagan Damore, for CBR. Watch video report HERE)

Jerome “Joker” Valeska Crashes Gotham Panel at SDCC

 DC Universe, Joker, News, Preview, TV Shows  No Responses »
Jul 152015
 

GOTHAMJokerFor those of you that could not make it to SDCC this year, the Gotham Panel, based on the popular TV show that depicts the origin of the Gotham characters in a very realistic way, updated fans on the future of the series, with input from the entire cast and staff of the show.  A surprise was to see Cameron Monaghan, “AKA Jerome Valeska and possible future Joker in the series crashing into the auditiorium at the end of the presentation and when “escorted” out of the auditorium by security Monaghan uttered in a menacing voice: “How high is your pain tolerance”

Here is a recording of the panel thanks to YouTube and Flicks and the City