‘Gotham’ season 2: Ben McKenzie on changes, more serialized nature

You really have to love it anytime that an actor you like is extremely honest about a project, and that is why we’re giving Ben McKenzie a massive salute at the moment. While there were a variety of great things that came out of the first season of “Gotham,” he’s also quick to own up to some of the mistakes. This sort of understanding of the work probably both helps him and the show understand what they need to do moving forward.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, McKenzie comments that the second season of the show is going to be far more serialized, and he feels that one of the bigger errors of the first season was trying to make it into something that followed a case-of-the-week format:

“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 … That was just a mistake. We should’ve never done it.”

One other fascinating subject that McKenzie brings up is that episode counts did create some other chaos for the show. Originally, the plan was to do 16 episodes that were broken up into two parts; however, this eventually changed and when Fox ordered six additional episodes, they had to come up with new ideas, twists, and turns at almost the last minute. In knowing beforehand how many stories that they have to tell, the writers can better map out what they want without having to make as many changes on the fly.

It seems as though there are a variety of cool things coming this season. Tigress is going to be a new villain, Michael Chiklis has a major role, and we’re going to see Gordon’s relationship with Leslie challenged in a way that it hasn’t been yet.

“Gotham” premieres on September 21; if you want to get some further TV news sent right over to you, be sure to sign up right here for our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)