‘Gotham’ Star Ben Mckenzie Discusses Season 2 And A Mood Change For James Gordon

Gotham has not been kind to Ben Mckenzie’s James Gordon throughout Season 1, as he was given the boot for a time. Other times, he was constantly under the thumb of some corrupt politician. Gotham Season 2 appears to be no different, and Mckenzie’s character has moved even lower down the ladder to a traffic cop. Despite his continual free fall, according to Entertainment Weekly, Gotham’s Ben Mckenzie seems to feel that Gordon will again rise above because he will always be the good guy.

“He’s always a good guy. He’s always a person who is aiming to restore law and order to a town on the verge of complete anarchy. It [has] to do with his absolute need, deep deep need to change things at whatever cost.”

However, in Gotham Season 2, Gordon will not be so downtrodden for long. Mckenzie explains that Gordon will not be alone in the fight, when Captain Nathaniel Barnes shows up at the Gotham Police Department.

“Michael Chiklis is coming in playing a character named Captain Barnes who is breathing fresh life into the near-wilting soul of Gordon, who’s becoming pretty beat up by not having anybody in his corner he can rely upon. Barnes is ideologically driven. He believes that broken-window theory — if a kid breaks a window, you have to punish that kid; there have to be consequences for every violation of the law no matter how small.”

Ben Mckenzie said that Michael Chilis’ Captain Barnes is a “kindred spirit” to Gordon, but unfortunately for Jim Gordon, this will not last until the end of Gotham Season 2. Barnes is said to become an enemy of Jim Gordon’s at some point, or as Ben Mckenzie puts it, “things will get more complicated later in the season.”

Mckenzie points out that despite the gloomy premises, we will see Jim Gordon smiling a lot more. However, the humor will be mainly dark humor.

“There’s a lot of humor in this season — dark humor mainly — but some lighter stuff. What’s great about breaking free of the procedural style is that when you get into the characterizations, we have great actors who are able to pull off these characters. We get to have fun with it and really embrace the larger than life aspects of Gotham and all of its bizarre citizens, and it’s fun.”

Gotham Season 2 is going to be quite weighty, with Penguin assuming the role of “king of Gotham,” Gordon under more pressure than before, and an explosion of Gotham villains. Not to mention, as the Inquisitr has reported, the story and season will be more of a continual story with fewer season breaks. It should make for interesting, and perhaps more cohesive viewing, for Gotham and Batman fans alike.

[Images via Creative Commons]