Well, this episode didn't particularly offer anything new. Gordon is still a giant snore, with absolutely no inner conflict. For a second I thought we might see him learn a thing or two from Bullock, which would have pierced his insufferable self-righteous perfection, but no, we still got a simplistic black and white hat portrayal down the line.
I don't understand why audiences today assume a protagonist has to be corrupt to be interesting. Whatever happened to the idea of heroes being role models, people we could admire? Isn't that what "hero" means?
I don't understand people defending sophomoric writing by saying 'but aren't heroes supposed to be pure and good?' Interesting heroes have to struggle to find their purity and goodness because human nature is to be pulled in more than one direction at a time and to have conflicting desires. A "hero" who doesn't have to struggle to find the heroic in himself isn't a believeable character - he's a cardboard cutout. I can't admire a cardboard cutout.
Inner conflict does not mean corrupt. Human beings do not feel only one way about things, especially about things as complicated as how you clean up a city that likes being dirty. The fact that we have complicated feelings is what makes us interesting. Gordon appears to have no inner life or complexity at all. He doesn't feel like a real person and therefore he's a boring character. Why am I supposed to care about this guy, other than knowing that one day he will be police commissioner and will work with Batman? Which is something I don't even believe at this point because I don't see that man in this boneheaded, uncompromising dullard who just seems disapprove of the very good idea of talking hookers and street level operators so that you can find out information.
I heartily disagree. Bullock understands the city as it is, he knows the people as they are and he works within what is. Since what is, is corruption, he's corrupt. Right now Gordon and Bullock's relationship is a snore because it's being painted as Bullock is a total shit and Gordon is a paragon of virtue. At the same time, what we're seeing is that Bullock actually knows Gotham and Gordon is a greenhorn idiot - a brave one but still an idiot, yet I'm supposed to consider him to be superior to Bullock.
Well, this episode didn't particularly offer anything new. Gordon is still a giant snore, with absolutely no inner conflict. For a second I thought we might see him learn a thing or two from Bullock, which would have pierced his insufferable self-righteous perfection, but no, we still got a simplistic black and white hat portrayal down the line.
I take your point but I'm still on the fence with this.
Gordon ultimately, meaning years from now, has to be the pillar of virtue. The only way GCPD and the political system can get even half-way clean is if someone like Gordon, completely uncompromising, stands up and cleans it. What we saw the last two episodes where the fake Penguin shooting comes back to haunt him is very important in his personal story.
Many good people become corrupt in a corrupt world. What we are seeing is his realization that he cannot budge with his ethics. If he gives in a little, he can't just be a little corrupt. Any line he crosses puts him in the power of people like Falcone and Mooney. I like that we are actually seeing this happen to him. He will get out, but he will realize what a dangerous chance he took.
I'm sorry, but a police commissioner who embraces an illegal vigilante who beats the living hell out of people without due process is not a "pillar of virtue" - he's someone who has accepted that the world operates in such a way that one has to sometimes do bad in order to do good. And even that is a highly questionable rationalization. But it's also what makes Batman an extremely interesting character and Gotham an extremely interesting place. That's exactly why this simplistic black hat/ white hat approach is bugging me.