Gotham will remain on the airwaves for the entirety of its first season, which just got a little bit longer. Fox has given a full-season order to the Warner Bros. TV-produced Batman prequel show, that will extend the original plan of 16 episodes to 22, making it the approximate standard length for most network television series. The show actually set a ratings record for the highest increase ever in the ‘L7’ ratings category for people who DVR the show and then watch over the next seven days.
The good news for Gotham fans is that this pretty much guarantees the show won’t get the Firefly treatment and will see its full season hit the Fox network. The bad news, which is strictly editorial on my part, is that this series already has a tough premise to stretch out and now they have to go even further to fill 22 episodes, which normally results in more filler content and monotonous procedural stories to fill the quota.
The show and its premise seem like a much a better fit for a shortened 13-episode season, much like Fox gave the first season of Sleepy Hollow. Fans and critics have already been a bit divided on the storytelling for the show, and I can only imagine a hefty order of 22 episodes is going to wear out a lot of viewer’s patience. Personally, I’ll be sticking around unless the quality drops drastically, but the season length does concern me.
Source: Deadline
Gotham airs Mondays at 8pm ET on Fox.