There has been some debate on whether Fox's Gotham takes place in the past or the present or both, so one of the show's producers has decided to clarify.

Leslie Thompkins & More Significant Characters Coming to Gotham?

Answering a fan's question about why Gotham features older cars in addition to modern cell phones, TVLine revealed a quote from Bruno Heller, one of the showrunners of Gotham.

"It's a mash-up, to use the modern phrase... a kind of timeless world," Heller revealed. "It's yesterday, it's today and it's tomorrow all at the same time, because that's the world that dreams live in."

In this way, Gotham appears to be blending the various incarnations of Batman depicted in film and television. They have embraced the campy style used in the '60s TV series Batman in the series, especially the scenes with Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith). Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns also employed a fun sensibility mixed with darkness, though Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever and Batman & Robin most certainly amped up the camp.

Things got a whole lot grittier when Christopher Nolan stepped in. The Dark Knight trilogy, which comprised of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, featured an even darker tone than Burton's movies, foregoing campiness for realism. Fox's Gotham has used this serious tone in the police procedural elements of the show.

The next episode of Gotham airs Monday at Fox. The episode, titled Viper, features Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and Bullock (Donal Logue) searching "for the source of a new street drug that causes euphoria then death. Meanwhile, Oswald Cobblepot [Robin Lord Taylor] works his way deeper into Maroni's (guest-star David Zayas) inner circle and Fish Mooney continues to plot against Falcone [John Doman]."

Gotham airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

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Gotham, Television, Fox