Piece of the Puzzle: Gotham S1 E7 - Penguin's Umbrella

In which I review the most recent episode of Gotham.

Since the Penguin's dramatic coming out to the people of Gotham as being decidedly alive, hostilities between the Maroni and Falcone crime families have escalated to the breaking point.  Falcone takes out Maroni's gun running, Maroni takes out Falcone's drug operations.  If Fish gets her way, the streets of Gotham will erupt in open war over her precious little Penguin.  Fearing for his and Barbara's life, Gordan takes one defiant last stand against the criminals of Gotham, executing warrants on the mayor, Falcone, Maroni and all of their close associates.

The die is cast.  The pieces in Gotham's back-and-forth game between law and disorder have been laid bare for all to see.  And, sadly, everything's just a little less interesting as a result.  Falcone chose Gordan to kill the snitching Penguin - who he was reasonably certain wouldn't murder a man on his authority - so that Penguin could insert himself as a double agent in Maroni's organization: feeding Falcone invaluable information and guiding Maroni to making increasingly unfavorable business decisions.  Knowing all along that Fish was conspiring against him within his own organization, he allowed her to continue her disloyal scheming until he could quietly take her legs out from under her.

So there you have it.  Penguin - although still an ambitious third party who won't be satisfied until he's single-handedly running all of Gotham - is a Falcone-employed informant.  Maroni is increasingly a non-entity in Gotham's underworld politics.  Fish is a known traitor who only has the pretence of importance at this stage of the game.  Gordan, along with his newfound MCU allies, remains an uncompromising bastion of truth, justice and the American way.

Even the episode's title is a misnomer: a metaphor referring to the Penguin's spheres of influence, rather than a herald for his iconic weaponized rain gear.  For all of its promise of drawing a line in the sand and progressing the ongoing conspiracy between the mob, the police and Wayne Enterprises, nothing all that essential really happened. It ultimately feels like the series simply reset to square one: Penguin being awesomely Penguin, Gordan indebted to Falcone, Bullock entrenching himself in the moral low ground and Fish's strategic impotence prominently displayed.

That's not to say that Penguin's Umbrella was a bad episode.  It was entertaining, the female characters range from good too passably written and the Penguin satisfyingly returns to form as the character that the series' plot hinges upon.  It's just to say that the only lasting implications for the series happened during episode one and were told through flashback.  I can only hope that this marks an end to Gotham's failed attempts to keep Penguin's actions covert and stand as the death knell to Fish's supposed importance on the show (as any reasonable crime lord would have her at the bottom of the river now that her ambitions have come to light).

Despite the episode's definite lack of importance, it was a good episode for all of the reasons listed above.  Barbara Kean, although thoroughly misguided in doing so, found herself outside of her domestic sphere, actively participating in the plot and doing what she - not Gordan - thought was the best course of action (even if it did ultimately result in her being a damsel in distress to disarm Gordan during his moment of triumph).  I give the episode a 7.5 out of 10.

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Piece of the Puzzle: Gotham S1 E6 - Spirit of the Goat

In which I review the most recent episode of Gotham.

Things have only gotten weirder in Gotham since last week's outbreak of Viper.  After a decades old case from Bullock's past spawns a supposed copycat killer, he's forced to dredge up aspects of his past that he hadn't dealt with for a long time.  Meanwhile, Gordan and Barbara patch things up between them, and Montoya finally gets the evidence that she needs to pin Gordan for Penguin's presumed murder.

This is hands down the best episode of the series thus far: better than Pilot, better than Selina Kyle, better than Viper.    It's dark, atmospheric, has a great villain and, above all, is well-written.  It plumbs the depths of Bullock's past, exploring how GCPD's "White Knight" became the misanthropic "bad cop" that he is today, and this version of the character is both more nuanced and more interesting than what we have been lead to believe in the previous five episodes.

Most shocking of all, however, is that Spirit of the Goat actually treats its female characters as people, rather than plot devices: shoring up what has easily been the worst feature of the show since it debuted.  Although I'm sure that Fish Mooney is just as lackluster as ever, she thankfully didn't appear this week.  Cat finally intersected with Bruce (something that I've called since the second episode).  While it was admittedly just a tentative interaction (a prowling Cat nicking something valuable while Bruce sleeps on the couch), I can't help but think that they're setting up their more substantive future interactions which are bound to be entertaining to watch.

And although Montoya's vendetta against Gordan and Bullock was ultimately undermined by the Penguin's decision to dramatically come out to the police at the end of the episode, it doesn't carry with it the air of incompetence that her previous attempts were riddled with.  She found a witness that confirmed her theory (a dock-side homeless man who likely wouldn't hold up to excessive scrutiny) secured a warrant for Gordan and Bullock's arrest and secured them as prisoners.  She has proven to matter to the show, even if she is seemingly stuck as an easily dispatched obstacle: driving the plot forward in a meaningful way (there'll be no hiding from Falcone, or Fish, now for Cobblepot).

And, finally, the episode's puppeteering villain, Dr. Marks, drives home not only this episode's measured and nuanced treatment of women, but of the psychological need for a Batman that the series has been intimating since The Balloonman.  The good doctor hypnotises borderline psychopaths into believing that they have been possessed by an anthropomorphic deity and compels them to kill the firstborn children of Gotham as a form of social therapy for the city itself.  She reasons that "deep down, everybody wants to eat the rich."  She is intelligent, capable and gets results in a way that Mooney could never hope to: the female equivalent of last week's Viper peddler.

My only complaints for Spirit of the Goat are twofold.  The first is that for as well written as all of the previously disappointing characters are now, Penguin seems to be stumbling in that regard.  So much depends on his continued secrecy, which his rapid upward mobility in the Maroni crime family, culminating in his dramatic appearance at the end of the episode, completely unravels.  I understand that he feels like he owes and can trust Gordan, but he could hardly have known about his arrest that immediately preceded Penguin's arrival, nor could he have been so stupid as to think that coming out to the city was at all in his interest.

The second is that nothing substantive was done with Bruce this episode.  Yes, they're obviously teasing the potential friendship between him and Cat for later in the series.  I get that.  I'm with that program.  To have an episode where Gotham's ultra rich first borns are being ritualistically sacrificed and NOT include the most visible rich kid on the series among those lined up for the slaughter seems like a grievous misstep.  I know that I've generally called for less Bruce, but this was the perfect opportunity to feature him, and they settled on passing.

Despite my few grievances, this episode is exactly what Gotham should be.  I'm hoping that they finally found their way after meandering listlessly through their first five episodes, because this was the show that I wanted to see since day one.  This is the show that will keep me around past the first season.  Overall, I give the episode an 8.5 out of 10.

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Piece of the Puzzle - Gotham S1 E5 - Viper

In which I review the most recent episode of Gotham.

After last week's decision about the fate of Akrham, the Maroni crime family has been hoping to act on their newfound momentum against Falcone, and now they have a weapon perfect for the task: Penguin.  His connections within the Falcone organization gives him access to everything, including the vaults of their casino.  Meanwhile, a new drug, known only as Viper, has begun hitting the streets of Gotham.  It grants its users superhuman strength and the certainty of a gruesome death.  But when Gordan and Bullock find out that the distributor has a political agenda, they realize that everybody - including the young Bruce Wayne - are at risk.

This is easily the best episode of the series thus far, beating out even the incredibly well-rendered Selina Kyle.  Not only is the plot itself incredibly entertaining - watching short-lived metahumans riot in the streets, rob gas stations for milk and cheese and marvel at their own magnificence - but the episode features several loose plot strands coming together in extremely satisfying ways.

Fish Mooney's plan to train a white trash wanna-be singer into an assassin against Falcone finally bears fruit: marking the first time one of Fish's plans has substantively gotten off of the ground.  While she still reeks of over-sexualized writing and campy execution, it's hard to argue with her results: transforming trashy eye-candy into a cultured sophisticate in a much darker take on My Fair Lady.  Additionally, Bruce's research into Wayne Enterprise's under-handed dealings - especially how two crime families could become such big players in a city renovation project spear-headed by his parents - pays off in a big way.  As it turns out, Wayne Enterprises is the OsCorp of Gotham - the font from which all manner of super-powered villainy is sure to erupt in episodes to come.

While I am actually excited for what they started to do with Fish Mooney's character, I can't help but think it suffers from taking her two steps forward, one step back.  Viper brings her completely out of her club: pitting her against Falcone's other crime bosses on neutral territory - trading barbs with her peers in his organization, providing the first, tentative look into why she rose to her position in the first place.  The fact that her latest scheme against her boss actually appears to be well planned and executed gave me hope that we'd see her as something other than sexualized scenery with the thin pretense of progressing the over-arching plot.

The step back, of course, occurred when it came out that she was, in fact, only pretending to fend off the misogynist advances of one of Falcone's other mob bosses.  They are lovers, embroiled in the same coup d'etat against their superior.  Still, even some progress with Fish is better than none.  Perhaps in time we will see the same competant Fish Mooney that the writers evidently do.

The poor writing of the episode was actually reserved for Penguin, of all characters.  Although he's been intelligently stalking Gotham's criminal world up until now, he took an insane gamble on Maroni sparing his life when he told them that he had 1) been lying to him since the day that they met and 2) was a fairly high-ranking member of Falcone's organization until recently.  The fact that his scheme paid off in the end actually doesn't matter: he took stupid, obvious risks that immediately backfired on him, leaving him within a hair's bredth of having his face sliced off in Maroni's kitchens.  And, given that his continued existence is owed to going unnoticed in the city, his incredibly visible position as manager in a known hangout of Falcone's main competator - coupled with the use of his previously well-known alias - seems to have all the ear-marks of a terribly thought-out plan that will inevitably fail, sooner rather than later.

While Viper is certainly a step in the right direction for the series, it is not without its aforementioned issues.  Additionally, the show needs to quickly figure out what it wants to do with both Selina Kyle and Barbara Kean, two characters that have shown a lot of promise in past episodes, but have failed to do anything with that.  Overall, I give the episode a high 7.5 out of 10.

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Piece of the Puzzle: Gotham S1 E4 - Arkham

In which I review the latest episode of Gotham.

After thwarting the vigilantism of the diabolically-named Balloonman, Gordan is confronted by the prodigal son of Gotham: Oswald Cobblepot - a man whose continued existence threatens the life of himself and his fiance.  But when Cobblepot offers to feed Gordan information on the inner workings of Gotham's underworld, the potential rewards are simply too good to pass up.  Meanwhile, an assassin who's been targeting city officials threatens to cause a mob war as the the city decides what to make of the decrepit Arkham Asylum.

At the rate that Gotham's corrupt officials are being taken out, there won't be any need for a Batman by the time its first season comes to a close.  Not only did the last two episodes kill off a police chief, two city councilmen and an aid, but also featured a nearly-successful attempt on the mayor's life.  This escalation in high-profile assassinations parallels the seeries' hastening pace after its post-pilot lull.  Penguin's exile from Gotham and rise within the Maroni crime family were so superficially brief that he should have started his career as the Maroni's equivalent of Fish Mooney: a mid-level crime boss and mob enforcer that functions as the on-the-ground representative of his organization.

After realizing last week that Gotham's female characters inexcusably pale against its competition, I find myself conflicted about Arkham's handling of the same.  On the one hand, Fish continues to be by far the worst written character on the series, seemingly incapable of being anything other than a ravenous nymphomaniac.  While her plan is more cognizant than usual - hiring a singer who can seduce and kill Carmine Falcone - it's how the writers choose to portray that plan that's ultimately troublesome: coyly asking her would-be assassins if they liked men or women, then instructing them to seduce her as if she were a man.  Her obvious, shuddering pleasure when a white trash singer in fishnet stockings jerkily makes out with her calls into question if it's Falcone's lust or her own that ultimately informs her plan.

On the other hand, Barbara Kean actually had a few moments this week that actually resembled genuine character development.  When Montoya's previous suggestion that Gordan may not be the good cop that he appears to be on the surface - specifically telling her to ask him about Oswald Cobblepot - she brazenly defended him and refused to bring the subject up to him.  But when the Penguin mysteriously shows up on their doorstep and his rudely thrown out by an obviously rattled Gordan, she broaches the subject with him, forcing him to choose between a life with her or a life with his secrets.  When he chooses the latter, she walks out on him.  Although this sequence of events seems incredibly rushed in the forty-five minutes that it was allowed, we see her as more than a romantic object that's a simple given in Gordan's life for the first time in the series.  She makes a decision based on her own self-interest, forces a conflict by pursuing it, then acts on that in a realistic manner.  We even see her outside of her apartment for the first time!

While this hardly makes up for the show's portrayal of lesbianism as a moral failing and a breach of trust (considering that her relationship with Montoya preceded her relationship with Gordan) - let alone for the quality of writing set aside for Fish and Montoya - it is a step in the right direction for the women of Gotham.  I have my concerns about where Barbara's character arc will lead - probably to a relapse into drug use and a rebound relationship with Montoya - but it does afford her a narrative that's not submissive to her fiance's.

While my opinion on Gotham continues to be conflicted, Arkham is a step in the right direction.  I am eager to see what Barbara Kean is going to do in her post-Gordan life, which is not something that I would have ever said about her life with him.  I give the episode a 7 out of 10.

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Piece of the Puzzle: Gotham S1 E3 - The Balloonman

In which I review the latest episode of Gotham.

After last week's child trafficking case, 'Cat' has been helping Gordan with his investigation of the Wayne murders.  His sleuthing is interrupted, though, when a vigilante that the press name the Balloonman begins executing Gotham's corrupt elite by handcuffing them to weather balloons and releasing them into the atmosphere.  Convinced that justice only exists with law and order, Gordan sets out to stop the Balloonman before he can kill another public official.

The Balloonman strikes again.

The Balloonman is further proof that Gotham has finally found its footing as a series.  Bullock and Gordan have finally eased into their begrudging good cop / bad cop partnership: a union that works precisely because Bullock can get the information that Gordan can't and Gordan can keep Bullock from crossing that crucial line between upholding the law and taking it into his own hands.  I don't think that Cat's short lived turn as Gordan's star witness has quite come to an end yet, and her escape frees her to go look in on Bruce and Alfred (a character dynamic that, as I mentioned last week, has innumerable interesting possibilities to explore).  Barbara Kean's rocky relationship with Renee Montoya is finally revealed - a serious lesbian entanglement that dissolved over drugs.

While the overarching story seems to be progressing nicely after three episodes, it's starting to become apparent just how inept the show's writers are at handling their female characters.  Between Barbara, Renee, Fish and Cat, only the latter is doing any real legwork.  Barbara exists only as a counterpoint to Gordan: as a domestic end-game.  For all of her huffing and puffing, Renee has functionally done nothing over the first three episodes; she threatens, investigates and even manages to sneak in a few cloak-and-dagger conversations with Barbara, but she doesn't actually do anything substantial.  Having Renee and Barbara as ex-lesbian, ex-junky lovers only gives the semblance of character development, when it seems more likely that it's a way for Fox to sex-up the show while giving ultimately minor characters something to do when the men go out to commit and solve crimes.

Fish Mooney is easily the worst-written of the lot.  She is petty, conniving and shockingly ineffective as a leader: always shut in her club, never getting directly involved in her own criminal works.  When her pride is wounded by Falcone - who beat up "her latest boy toy" to keep her in line - she pettily orders an underling to mug his girlfriend and fires her broken-spirited lover for "bringing down the mood."  Falcone foiled her attempt to kill Gordan and Bullock, Gordan foiled her attempt to kill the Penguin and seemingly everybody has seen through her blundering job of killing off the Waynes - all in just three episodes.  She has essentially become the pre-Gotham Penguin: so boring and inept a villain that it makes us wish they'd just used somebody else in her place.

Despite the stupidly named vigilante that was the episode's focus and the continually disappointing use of the show's female characters, The Balloonman delivers an ultimately decent, if easily forgotten, case for Gordan and Bullock to solve.  Its direct connection to Selina Kyle prevents the series as a whole from feeling overly episodic.  While it's great that the best part of the show - Robin Lord Taylor's Penguin -is back in focus, I would have much preferred to watch him scheme his way ahead on the streets for a few more episodes.  Overall, I would give the episode a 6.5.

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Piece of the Puzzle: Gotham S1 E2 - Selina Kyle

In which I review the latest episode of Gotham.

Since the Wayne's murder last week, Gotham has become a much more interesting place.  After beating a confession out of the Penguin, mob boss Carmine Falcone realizes that he can no longer trust Fish Mooney.  While Bruce resorts to self-harm in the wake of his parents' death, a desperate Alfred turns to Jim Gordon to reason with the boy.  All the while, homeless children like Selena Kyle are being abducted off of the streets and sold to a mysterious over-seas buyer known only as the Dollmaker.

From the start, Selena Kyle feels like what we can expect from the rest of Gotham's first season.  While the overly-rushed Pilot was basically stumbling over itself just to make sure that it checked off everything that was important to the series, this week's episode took its time to choose which narrative alleyways it wanted to wander down.  Ivy and the maybe-Joker were both absent, Nygma was rushed on for a brief cameo and Penguin's story was mostly just to remind people that he'll be back in Gotham before too long.  This was Cat's episode.

It makes sense that they would turn Batman's anti-heroine love-interest into child, given Bruce's age in the series.  In doing so, they also opened themselves up to wide range of increasingly interesting narrative possibilities, especially in how they relate to the adult Jim Gordan.  Her interactions with Gordan play out exactly like how a strong-willed, independent girl who thinks that she's more adult than she really is would speak to an grown-up that she begrudgingly respects.  Gordan is forced to navigate between treating her like a thirteen-year-old orphan that he's obligated to send to child services and the intelligent, manipulative witness to the Waynes' murder.  And, given that she's kept tabs him and the surviving Wayne, I can't wait to see how the future interactions between her, Alfred and Bruce will play out.

While Michael Caine will always be the definitive cinematic Alfred in my eyes, Sean Pertwee gives a refreshingly different portrayal of the Waynes' loyal butler.  Rather than stodgy and reserved, he's gruff and hard-edged: reprimanding rather than compassionate.  He obviously was not hired as a child's caretaker, but for his ability to efficiently run a household; it honestly wouldn't surprise me to find out that he had a military background.  He is as grievously over-his-head in raising Bruce as Bruce is in dealing with his parents' murder, and has absolutely no idea how to reach the boy when Bruce starts "testing" himself by burning and cutting himself.

If the episode raises any concerns, it's its insistant focus on the young Batman-to-be.  This isn't a Batman show.  This isn't a sixteen episode remake of Batman Begins where Bruce will emerge as a fully formed Batman in the season finale.  It's about Gotham - a corrupt, mob-run city that breeds crime and insanity - and has more in common with police procedurals than superheroics.  While I appreciate the direction that they're taking Bruce and Alfred in, they should not be as much of a focus of the show as they have proven to be so far.

It's great to see that after a sloppy start, the series has rapidly started to find its footing.  If the show continues to develop its characters and storylines as methodically as it has in this episode, it could easily top Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as my favorite comic-inspired TV show.  With plenty of room for imrpovement in the coming weeks, I give the episode a solid 7.5.

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