McKenzie received a generally positive critical reception for his portrayal of the character, appearing in every episode of the series, and the novel Gotham: City of Monsters, set in-between the events of the second and third seasons.
Gordon is introduced as a homicide detective and Iraq War veteran of the U.S. Army who has recently been transferred to Gotham City, where he lives with his fiancée, Barbara Kean.
In return, Falcone asks Gordon to kill Oswald "Penguin" Cobblepot, Mooney's underling who had informed her of the GCPD.
[1] After Gordon's gun is used to kill Dick Lovecraft, a corrupt billionaire, Mayor Aubrey James reassigns him to Arkham Asylum as a guard.
[2] Gordon is later reinstated as a homicide detective by Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb after he captures a serial killer who had escaped from Arkham during a prison riot.
[4] At the end of the season, he discovers that Barbara is in fact a murderer, and begins a relationship with Arkham physician Leslie "Lee" Thompkins.
After saving Bruce, Penguin convinces Gordon of the strong possibility that Theo Galavan will escape justice after terrorizing the city.
[10] He is later framed for the murder of corrupt cop Carl Pinkley by GCPD forensics technician Edward Nygma, and he breaks his engagement to Lee, who subsequently miscarries their child.
[11] Gordon rejects an offer to return to GCPD, determined to solve the Wayne murders as a form of redemption for killing Galavan.
After apprehending Strange, Gordon leaves Bullock in charge of the GCPD and goes off to find Lee, only to discover she has moved on to a new lover, Mario Calvi, the son of Carmine Falcone.
Gordon works to hunt down a resurrected Fish Mooney in order to collect Cobblepot's bounty, although this act puts others' lives at risk.
[16] After rethinking his life and rejoining the GCPD, Gordon discovers that his late father was a member of the Court of Owls, a secret society that has controlled crime in Gotham for centuries, and he joins it in order to bring it down from the inside.
Simultaneously, Gordon is also forced to help find an antidote for Tetch's virus as it infects dozens of people, including himself, Lee, and GCPD Captain Nathaniel Barnes.
[18] Months later, Gordon watches with growing frustration as Cobblepot pledges to control the city's crime by issuing "licenses" allowing criminals to break the law as long as they agree to his "standards".
He restores public confidence in the police by saving Bruce from Jonathan Crane and going after a masked serial killer calling himself Professor Pyg, who is killing corrupt GCPD officers.
However, Jeremiah – after being dosed with Crane's gas and driven insane – soon threatens Gotham City as well, with help from Ra's al Ghul.
To that end, he negotiates for better living conditions with government official Theresa Walker – unaware that she is really Ra's al Ghul's daughter Nyssa, orchestrating a plan to destroy the city to avenge her father's death.
That night, the same figure a vigilante dressed as a bat, who is secretly Bruce apprehends Cobblepot and Nygma, and appears before Gordon and Bullock after they summon him with a signal.
In September 2013, it was reported that Fox was developing a TV series centred on James Gordon's early days as a police detective and the origin stories of various Batman villains.