#i haven't poured my damn heart out for a tv show since the g/ee days and those were........something.......

[auiyoncesmind]

Look, I know I said I was going to have to take a break from this site to focus on school or whatever, but since Gotham’s final episode is on tonight, I felt as though I wanted to get all of this off my chest. This may or may not be pretty long, so all of my thoughts are under the cut.

Gotham is pretty much the reason why I joined the DC fandom in the first place. It may seem pretty hard to believe, but it’s most definitely true.

I was watching Shameless at the time (as I’m sure a lot of people who joined the fandom at the time were as well), and about a week or so before Cameron’s first episode came on, I saw vids/gifs of what he looked like on the show, and it looked creepy as shit to me (almost like I’m watching a live-action version of the goddamn Chucky doll or something), so then I was like, “okay, maybe I’ll catch this episode and see what’s going on.” Mind you, I didn’t know much about Gotham (the city or the show) at the time I started watching this episode; the most I knew about DC back then were some of the household names like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, etc. Then I found out that Selina, Oswald, and Edward were on the show, which was pretty interesting, but judging by the way the show looked in the first season, I thought it wasn’t going to be a thing that I was going to stick with long term.

Boy, I was so fucking wrong.

[Spoilers if you haven’t seen 1x16 I guess, though it’s been out for years so idk wtf you’re doing if you haven’t] I remember seeing Jim and Lee towards the beginning of the episode being all cute and stuff, and idk how, but Lee just became my favorite character from there, because she was just a huge ray of sunshine with lots of kindness in her heart and everything, and all she wanted was to do cute couple things with Jim or whatever, and she’s very smart/intelligent and all of that. I think about all of the screen time she’s had since then and wonder why people still hate on this woman, because she’s not right all the time, but she shouldn’t be burned at the stake compared to some of these other characters (literally the villains are running this town, so it’s crazy to even think about).

Anyways, my Lee Thompkins appreciation rant aside, they brought up Dick Grayson’s parents (the dude wasn’t even born yet in the universe, and I thought about Dick and Bruce meeting at some point later on, only to realize that it probably won’t even happen), Fish Mooney trying to escape that prison she was in for most of the episode, Jerome killing his mother, etc., and all of this made me wonder what happened next. Obviously, Cameron wasn’t in anymore episodes after that one, but I still wanted to check out the other stuff going on in Gotham because it seemed genuinely interesting at the time. Sometime during the hiatus between season 1 and season 2, I caught up with the entire show to check out the main plot of the first season, holding on to some of the highlights of the season (e.g. Edward going mad towards the end, Barbara getting hypnotized by The Ogre, Selina and Ivy hanging out in Barbara’s apartment, the whole mob plot, etc.) until the next one came on. By then, I was hyped for the show and tuned in for every episode, and it’s been that way ever since. I found myself loving more things about it that previous episodes didn’t have (e.g. Tabitha Galavan, Hugo Strange, the Maniacs breaking out of Gotham, more mad Edward Nygma, etc.), and it instantly became one of my top favorite shows.

Some of that joy and happiness may have gone away with new episodes, whether it be because of the writing or the lack of suspense or whatever with some of the plots or the lack of interest in others, but I still kept going because I learned more about the DC universe through that show than I ever would have expected. Every time I heard a name drop on the show or a reference to a comic book story that I was interested in, I would look up some of that stuff online and get more information on it. Gotham, in a way, got me into watching the DCEU as well, especially with all the fan edits I saw going around on here and on Vine when it was still active. Around the show’s second season, I found out that one of my favorite actresses (Viola Davis) was gonna be in Suicide Squad, which had some familiar characters in it that I recognized as I continued my journey with Gotham (namely Joker and Harley), so I ended up watching it in theaters. The movie came out at around such a difficult time for me. I had lost my great grandmother a couple of weeks before its official release, and while things didn’t get much better after watching that particular film (my mental health was so fucked up to the point where my GPA dropped significantly that fall), I appreciated what that film gave me, despite flaws in the script and the ways in which people were talking about it online.

That following year, Wonder Woman came out. I wasn’t sure what I expected, really, because I didn’t watch that many trailers at the time, so I went in with literally no expectations, yet I came out with it being one of my favorite solo comic book movies ever. Then I found out that she was gonna be in Justice League and ended up watching it, too (though I didn’t know too much about the behind-the-scenes stuff at the time; all I knew in relation to that was the Henry Cavill face debacle, and tbh, that was one of the things about that movie that made me cringe). And then after that, I watched Batman v Superman and Man of Steel on my own time before I started glancing over some other DC-related media. I even caught a couple of episodes of some other DCTV shows (e.g. Supergirl and The Flash). This is what I mean when I say that Gotham got me here in the first place, and honestly? I haven’t been more grateful. I’m typing all of this as I’m wearing one of the Shazam shirts that I got from my school, just reminiscing on all the experiences I have shared with so many wonderful people in the DC fandom, which wouldn’t have been possible had I not tuned into that one episode of Gotham in 2015. So to know that this show’s series finale is right around the corner is a bittersweet feeling — but mostly bitter, because it ended under unfortunate circumstances and that I’ll never see all of these cast members together again.

It didn’t hit me for weeks leading up to this moment, too. Like, I was upset that the show got cancelled, but I wasn’t very emotional or anything just yet. And then Camren made that one Twitter post saying that 5x11 was her last appearance on the show. I was literally out in public reading all of the heartfelt words she put into her post, and I remember feeling like I was gonna cry in front of everyone. It was slightly embarrassing because I hate crying in public, but if we’re being honest, I didn’t give a shit. I’ve spent so much time dedicating at least an hour a day to a show I’ll never get to see again after April 25th, and that shit hurts me, you know? I’m sure we’ve all felt something like that when one of our favorite shows ended (and you’re probably coming up with a list of names as we speak). No matter what the circumstances are, we’re all mourning the loss of a show that meant so much to us at one point in life or another. Once upon a time, I didn’t think Gotham would be one of those shows, and yet here we are, and I am forever grateful for what the writers, the directors, the cast, and the rest of the crew has given its small little nest of DC/Batman fans.

With that being said, I want to thank everyone who was directly involved with this show and put hours upon hours of labor into creating something unique and interesting for new comic book fans. I want to thank the writers and directors for bringing so many wonderful DC characters to life. I want to thank all of the supporting / guest cast members, regardless of how much screentime you had while you were on this show. I want to thank Chris Chalk, Morena Baccarin, Jessica Lucas, Erin Richards, Cameron Monaghan, Sean Pertwee, Donal Logue, Robin Lord Taylor, Cory Michael Smith, Camren Bicondova, Ben McKenzie, David Mazouz, etc. for being probably one of the best TV show main casts a fan could ever ask for, as well as some of my favorite portrayals of your respective characters. I want to thank all of the wonderful people whom I’ve met on this wonderful journey throughout the past five seasons. Overall, I want to thank this show for everything it’s introduced me to within the DC universe. Your legacy within the DCTV universe will not be forgotten.

#userclaudia #gotham (fox) #anyways these are all of my thoughts #i can't really stay online much this week but like i said i wanted to get this off my chest before the show ends #i haven't poured my damn heart out for a tv show since the g/ee days and those were........something....... #jaelyn.txt