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Gotham Knights

Gotham Knights season 1

Credits

Cast

Network

Reviewer

Emily Tsiao

TV Series Review

With no Batman, who’s gonna solve the murder of Bruce Wayne?

Gotham’s hero is dead. Murdered, in fact. And now everyone knows that the city’s richest man was also its greatest vigilante—including Batman’s own adopted son, Turner Hayes.

Turner didn’t know, until now, why his dad was constantly absent, missing Turner’s fencing tournaments and largely parenting from afar. Dad was sneaking off each night to fight bad guys. But now that Bruce is dead, Turner may never know why his dad kept Batman a secret from him.

Here’s what Turner does know: He and three other teens were framed to take the fall for Wayne’s murder (even though Robin, Batman’s protégé, knows they aren’t guilty); At least part of Gotham’s police department is in on it; and the answer to the teens’ freedom (or, more likely, their deaths) lies within the mysterious Court of Owls.

And it’ll fall to those teens—two thieves-turned fugitives, Joker’s delusional daughter, a sidekick and Batman’s orphaned son—to solve Batman’s murder and save Gotham.

Bat Brats

The CW isn’t exactly known for producing lovely, feel-good, wholesome shows, and Gotham Knights is no exception.

First off, the show is bloody and violent. Heads are lobbed off, people are thrown through windows to their deaths and there’s a conspiracy to kill a bunch of teens. Granted, these kids can fend for themselves—most have martial skills of some sort—but it’s still pretty gruesome.

And when they aren’t fighting for their lives, these teens still have a lot going on. Characters are eager to “hook up.” At least two of Turner’s new comrades are members of the LGBT community. (We learn these that teens were abused by their father for this, and later, a cop is cruel to them for the same reason.) And Joker’s daughter, Duela, hates her late father for abandoning her and her mother to pursue Harley Quinn.

Language is mild but present. We see some bad behaviors (such as underage drinking and thievery) take place.

While Gotham Knights certainly peddles good triumphing over evil, it also excuses the violent methods and pettier crimes that take place in the process.

Episode Reviews

Mar. 14, 2023 – S1, Ep1: “Pilot”

When his father is murdered, Turner tries to solve the mystery while becoming a suspect himself.

A man’s head is cut off. We see the body of a man who was shot and thrown out a window of a tall building. Teenage criminals get into fistfights with each other and police officers. Several corrupt officers threaten to shoot these teens with guns, but they are stopped by a vigilante fighter using martial arts and bombs. (One man also gets a knife through his hand.) We hear that Turner’s parents were murdered just like Bruce Wayne’s. A man is tasered. A truck crashes, tossing around its occupants. Someone smashes a glass in anger. Kids fence at school. We hear a girl has been arrested for multiple counts of assault.

Harper, a thief who joins Turner’s team, says she was beaten by her father for being bisexual (which she also claims was hypocritical since he watched pornography featuring bisexual pairings). She says he also beat Cullen (her sibling who is trans and also part of the team) and their mother. A cop is scolded for trying to use Cullen’s birth name (and granted, he was using it to bully the teen).

Turner walks in on a teen couple heavily making out. A teen girl wears a revealing top. There’s some innuendo. We learn a girl was born and raised in Arkham Asylum (essentially a prison for Gotham’s craziest criminals), and that her dad abandoned her and her mom for another woman. (And there’s a rude comment made about the body type of the mistress.)

A boy hosts a party at his house (with underage drinking) to get back at his dad. An adult woman says she’ll allow Turner to break into his dad’s wine cellar but not to commit truancy. People lie. Police accept bribes. We hear about crimes of theft. Several thieves break into a building for a job only to realize they’ve been set up to take the blame for a murder. News reports show increased criminal activity after Batman’s death. A man puts his own career above helping innocent people stay out of jail. Someone is tactless to Turner about his dad’s death.

We hear several uses each of “d–n,” “d–k” and “h—.” God’s name is also abused twice.

A girl falsely pleads guilty to a crime to save her sibling. Another hacks into several banks to find proof of Turner’s innocence. Stephanie, Turner’s best friend, says she won’t help him become a vigilante. Robin assures Turner that his dad loved him more than anyone and was proud of him.

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Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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