In this episode Gordon and Bullock
continue their attempts to bring down the serial killer known as 'The
Ogre'. Meanwhile Bruce and Selina work to bring down the evil lucking
within Wayne Enterprises and the Penguin receives an unwelcome
visitor at his club.
So 'Gotham' seems to have become a lot
darker in the last few episodes. The tone of the show has been a
constant issue throughout this first season, with it drifting between
dark horror and comedic nonsense with little concern for consistency.
The Adam West 'Batman' showed that the universe of Batman could be
more comedic. The Frank Miller take on Batman showed how gritty the
source material could become. 'Gotham' previously seemed fairly happy
to switch between these two states, depending on what the uneven
scripts required.
'Gotham' seems to have decided to go
down the grittier path, to an extreme level. 'Gotham' is not only
more consistently violent in these episodes but the violence feels
far more graphic. It is not merely the physical violence that has
increased, with two multiple stabbings in this episode alone, but
also the suggestion of violence.
Edward Nygma discovers that Kristen
Kringle is being physically abused by her boyfriend and the Penguin's
mother is threatened by Maroni. To go off topic for a second,
'Gotham' up till now has been reasonably even handed about the
victims in its universe, with both genders getting a bad time of it.
Having a two parter focussing on a serial killer of women, while
women are getting mistreated for the B plot seems particularly lazy.
I appreciate I should probably complain from a moral point of view
but 'Gotham' usually does better than this in terms of gender
representations (Barbara not withstanding), this reliance on damsels
in distress is really lazy storytelling.
This darker take of the show brings
with it the consistency I sought so desperately but I find myself
wishing for the show to be more like its idiotic old self. Firstly
because an unrelentingly dark universe isn't interesting and secondly
because 'Gotham' is not a good enough show to get away with really
dark storytelling. Possibly if the show had always been this dark it
would work better, but using characters developed in the jokey show,
dealing with serious situations really doesn't work well.
The sad thing is, the stupidity of the
show remains. Gordon spends the entire episode making moves to
protect Dr Thompkins from The Ogre. He has been told that those that
he cares about will be at risk but doesn't connect that maybe
Barbara, or even Selina will be in danger? I would hope that a
detective given that threat would protect everyone he even half cares
about but Gordon doesn't think that far ahead. He realises it in
time for the cliffhanger, as he always has to. It also seems weird
that they keep saying that they do not have a picture of The
Ogre...despite having a picture of him. I appreciate he had plastic
surgery after it was taken but his eyes/ears look the same, does photoshop not exist in
'Gotham'?
Maybe the police Sketch artists just have a
really good union or something?
 |
| Where's Cole Phelps when you need him? |
This cliffhanger has got to be one of
the most pointless the show has done. We see Barbara being abducted
by The Ogre a good ten minutes before Gordon realises, so it doesn't
really shock us. I guess it's a shock that he's that inept a cop but
that's hardly an endorsement for next week is it? “Tune in next week, same
bat time, same bat channel and see Gordon not eat paste as much!”
I've criticised this episode a fair bit
but it has a few really great scenes in it. The moments between
Oswald and his mother are genuinely sad. Maroni informs her of every
bad thing her son has done and he is unable to convince her of his
innocence. I really like these moments, even if they do somewhat fly
in the face of the earlier attempts to suggest that his mother is as
insanely violent as he is.
I am curious how this situation with
The Ogre will play out so 'Gotham' remains engaging I guess. As usual
this is entirely down to the quality of the cast and not the scripts.
Hopefully season 2 will be able to build on what season one has done,
I don't hold out a huge amount of hope for the final two episodes
however.
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