Will viewers tune in for a TV show that focuses on everything that is Batman, except the caped crusader himself? Apparently yes. FOX’s new DC Comics TV show, Gotham premiered last night, September 22, with eight million viewers and a 3.2 rating among adults 18-49 according to Entertainment Weekly. Will they keep coming back? That remains to be seen.

Gotham isn’t for the casual Joe; it is created with the comic book fan in mind. It continues the dark tone that is so prevalent with the more recent DC Comics movies and is a sharp contrast to the less serious, Agents of SHIELD TV show on ABC. It doesn’t have an origin story – the show is the origin story. If that isn’t your thing, you might want to skip it. However, the pilot gave a very intriguing performance that will probably hook those who saw it.

The pilot episode of Gotham is cram-packed with disturbed individuals who will become super-villains in the future and other characters. You might need a journal to take notes. Right out the gate, we see the Wayne family leaving a movie theater and get robbed in the middle of an alley. As is the traditional, both parents are shot, but young Bruce (David Mazouz) is sparred. This is when he meets Detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) who vows to find the one who killed Bruce’s parents.

Gordon is one of the few good guys in Gotham. The city’s police department merely tolerates the crime in the city and for the most part is in cahoots with mob kingpin Carmine Falcone (John Doman). Gordon’s own mentor, Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) is less than honest in his approach to keeping peace within the city, and Gordon struggles to walk the straight and narrow road of police work. At one point, he gives off the allusion of compromise in order to “fit in.”

Gotham is a dark place and somehow, you just know that it is going to get worse. Hoping to eventually take the place of Falcone is Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) who isn’t just a beauty who lets here men do her evil work for her. She literally fights her own battles.

In the first episode we are introduced to Barbara Kean (Erin Richards), Gordon’s finance, Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler (Sean Pertwee), Selina Kyle, the future Catwoman (Camren Bicondova), Oswald Cobblepot, the future Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), and Edward Nygma, the future Riddler (Cory Michael Smith) and others who may or may not turn out to become someone else!

If you are Bat-fan, you should definitely check it out. If you missed the first episode, you can see it for an “encore” showing this Friday, September 26 at 9:00 p.m. on Fox or view it now here. Regular episodes resume on Mondays at 8:00 p.m.