Gotham started out with an ambitious goal: to tell tales of Gotham without Batman at the center. More precisely, it’s goal was to show the city of Gotham in the time before he existed as we know him. It was supposed to follow Jim Gordan before he became Commissioner Gordan.

Some think it didn’t do a good enough job in not being about Batman, that it was more of a pre-origin story to Batman. They aren’t entirely right. While there are alludes to Batman throughout the series, the main focus is kept on Gordan and the villains of Batman.

One has to remember that any story told with Gotham as it’s setting is going to have some aspect of Batman in it. After all, it was what the writers of Batmancreated the city for. Even in the comics, where Gotham was the setting without Batman being the focus, there was still a bit of him in the background.

One also has to remember that the show explored the origins of villains that Batman would face once he became the hero we know him as today. That means there has to be some sort of interaction between Batman (a.k.a Bruce Wayne) so that he is aware of them. Combine this with the Wayne family being one of the most prominent families in Gotham, so Bruce being the survivor of his parents’ murder would understandably be thrust in the public eye. This also makes sense as it doesn’t happen all at once or in any other unusual way.

The Gothamfinale shows how if the show were to get extended into more seasons it would either become like Batman the comic book, go down the road of being like the comic book Gotham Central, or even possibly Batman: Streets of Gotham. In any of those scenarios, Gotham would still have had multiple points of view, which is a major part of what made the show so great.

That aspect of the show is what tied it so closely to what many refer to as the first major motion picture of Batman. While the Dark Knight movies helped improve Batman’s image after George Clooney’ portrayal had taken the character off track, they also did a good job of modernizing Batman as a whole. However, they fall short of Gotham with their lack of letting the viewer see better into the villains’ worldview even as they gave us multiple views of the heroes in them.

In its final two seasons, Gotham had an average of 2.5 million viewers while over all five seasons it maintained a Tomator rating between 74% and 94%, with their highest Tomator scores coming in the final two seasons at 81% and 94%.

D.C. Comics has struggled in the movie department since as far back as right after Batman Forever. If they want to fix that they need to turn to their television department, which has been extremely successful. Gotham is a prime example of how D. C. Comics can spin the show into Batman: Streets of Gotham by continuing to do what they have basically been doing already. While planning for that, they are primed for a reboot of Batmanas a series by itself, which would be successful if it is kept in the spirit of the 1989 movie while maintaining multiple worldviews and  the modernization from both Gotham and the Dark Knight movie series.

It could lead to a massive D. C. Comics rise at the box office. It could lead to the rebooting of the D. C. universe once more.

What the future holds for Gothamremains to be seen. Aside from the reshowing of the 1989 version of the movie Batmanin celebration of the 80^thanniversary of the creation of Batman, the only plan announced is a take on Batwoman. Even after those, I will be looking to the skies in search of the Bat Signal.