Just yesterday, fans of Gotham found reason to breathe a sigh of relief when it was finally revealed that the Batman prequel series will return for its fifth and final season on Thursday, January 3rd. Given that, it won’t be much longer before we see Shane West debut as Bane and whatever other goodies the producers have in store.
Of course, I’ve seen many lament over the episode tally consisting of only ten chapters in recent months, but my attitude regarding the situation has been “ten are better than none.” Don’t forget, this show was renewed by the skin of its teeth, as it narrowly found its way off the chopping block.
Well, as it turns out, the network increased the episode count to a total of twelve, so the writers will be afforded slightly more breathing room. Not only that, but this development assures the season finale will wind up being the 100th episode overall, therefore the series qualifies for syndication.
Right now, I imagine the creative minds behind Gotham found a way to stretch out the story before being forced to call it a day, though this is something that should’ve been done from the get-go. I mean, falling just short of the 100-episode milestone was something that baffled us all, as one would imagine the suits in charge love the notion of years – maybe decades – of syndication. Really, you never know what’s going to be on deep cable forty years from now.
Of course, there’s no way of telling when Gotham reruns will become a regular thing, but you always have the option of reliving the journey via Blu-ray and DVD. Either way, it’ll forever remain a thrilling alternate exploration of the Dark Knight’s beginnings, at least in my view.