The James Gordon depicter realizes the initial procedural approach didn't work well with the combination of the erratic airing schedule, so the second season will be more serialized.
- Aug 21, 2015
AceShowbiz - As it's nearing the premiere of "Gotham" season 2, Benjamin McKenzie looks back to the first season and evaluates the show to find out where it went wrong. While he's still proud of the inaugural season, he admits that the show made a mistake with the combination of the initial procedural approach and the erratic airing schedule.
"I think we made a mistake relatively early on in trying to introduce a villain and take care of that villain in one episode: catch them, send them to Arkham, do whatever," he tells EW. "That was just a mistake. We should've never done it."
McKenzie adds that mini-hiatuses in season 1 made it hard for viewers to follow the schedule. "We were ordered for 16 [episodes]. We were going to have one break and come back and finish the rest of them in terms of the airing, and then we added six more, so we had to break again and then we had to come back again," he details. "And it's hard for the audience to follow that many changes in a series in terms of when it's airing and when it's not."
The show went more serialized toward the end of last season and the approach will also be applied in the upcoming second installment. Having already learned from the past mistake, McKenzie claims they know now what the audience wants.
"The audience really wants to understand who these people are and live with them, sit with them and enjoy them. Whether they're evil or good, they are entertaining," he says, "So that's what we're doing in season 2. [It's] really kick ass. I think it's exactly what the fans want to see."
"Gotham" returns Monday, September 21 at 8/7c on FOX. Michael Chiklis joins the cast as Captain Nathaniel Barnes, while James Frain, Jessica Lucas, Dustin Ybarra, Michelle Veintimilla and Leo Fitzpatrick will play season 2's villains Theo Galvan, his sister Tabitha a.k.a. Tigress, Robert Greenwood, Firefly and Joe Pike respectively.
