Gotham - Season 1

[Agent Richard07]

1x05: "Viper"

How long until Cobblepot kills Maroni?

Oh and that line from Bullock... "WHAT'S ALTRUISM?!"

Someone did say in a review that if this show went on for years, it'd become like the Schumacher films and this episode has taken it a little further in that direction with the super-strength drug.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Well, I think with this episode they've cemented that they're going to embrace their comic book roots. We may not ever see true super powers, but we'll have to ridiculous anything goes stuff of a comic book. I actually think this will be a good thing. We don't need another dark and gritty crime procedural, and I'm actually starting to find it a breath of fresh air that we have one willing to be a bit goofy.

 

[eyeresist]

Why is Jim Gordon such a sad sack? Does he have not even the slightest sense of humour?
And how did he hook up with this ridiculous woman, who has plot points (trust fund lesbian drug addict) instead of a personality?

 

[sojourner]

Hey, Jim's warming up to Bullock. He actually took his recommendation on lunch.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

As soon as they showed that the guitarist had ripped the ATM out and carried it away with his bare hands I pretty much knew that this drug was Venom the drug that powers Bane.

 

[Guy Gardener]

That's 30 years down the track.

I had some thoughts that were clearly wrong at the mention of immortality and a personality shift.

1. Kobra.

2. Maxie Zeus.

 

[Icemizer]

Bullock was great this week. Poor Jim has got himself into a real pickle with the waring mobs. Would a mob boss really sit by himself in a park feeding pigeons? The catgirl appearance was not needed at all. Bruce and Alfred very good this week as we keep building on who Bruce will become in a comic book reasonable way.

 

[ITL]

The catgirl appearance was not needed at all

But she added some much needed crouching. And I'm sure she thought about saying meow at some point.

 

[Borgminister]

That aria coincidence at the end made Falcone look like a fool... hopefully he's at least suspicious and playing along, or I'm very insulted.

Otherwise, I ask myself why I like this show--because I do. Production values, directing and acting are all really good, and it can almost stand on its own without the prequel underpinning.

It's successfully walking that fine line right now, and I think adding that additional mobster storyline will help stretch out the life of the series. Still tenuous though.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Right now I think its a case of finding a tone. The case of the week stuff, and the brewing mob war feel like they're happening on two different shows.

 

[trekkiebaggio]

I actually really enjoyed that one.

 

[Vendikarr]

By the end of the season, Gordon is going to have wished he had shot Cobblepot. The man is a never ending source of trouble for Gordon.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Has there been any mention about Gill Loeb being commissioner? It was just something that crept into my thoughts last night while I was watching with all the Falcone/Maroni stuff going on, and I might have missed it.

ETA: I also started wondering about Holiday. The next couple of weeks are probably too soon for that, but maybe next year?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Right now I think its a case of finding a tone. The case of the week stuff, and the brewing mob war feel like they're happening on two different shows.

Agreed, last night's episode had a schizophrenic tone mismatch.

The mob-related stuff, especially the stuff with Maroni and his interrogation of Gordon, I enjoyed. (The Fish Mooney stuff, a little less so.) It was grounded in Gotham City politics.

The case of the week, not so much. I had flashbacks to Birds of Prey yet again.

The Bruce Wayne plot was intriguing, if a little dull. Alfred was a bit thick; it took seeing that Bruce was right (when the villain announced his intention to gas the reception) that made him realize there was some value in what the boy was doing. I have no problem with Bruce trying to use his detective skills at this point; I don't expect him to be good at his deductive reasoning, and he's bound to make some huge mistake at some point that will then prompt him go on his around-the-world journey to refine his skills and become the world's greatest detective.

The Selina appearance felt like a "Oh, hey, remember me! I'm in the opening credits!" deal.

 

[Christopher]

I agree about the contradictory tone of the series. Reposting my comments from Tor.com:

This show can't decide whether it wants to be a broad, cartoony action show or a dark, violent, TV-14 crime drama. The problem is that it's trying to be both at the same time. I find that it reminds me of nothing so much as RoboCop: The Series -- a show I actually love to pieces, but that's partly because it embraced its cartooniness fully and unreservedly. This show, by contrast, is warring with itself tonally, playing up the gritty, "mature" violence and sex and rampant corruption at the same time it's embracing broad, exaggerated characters and plots. It doesn't make sense to me. One would think that the whole reason for doing a show that focused on the GCPD rather than Batman would be to do a more grounded, naturalistic take on the property. If they intended to go for larger-than-life supervillainy, why not embrace a larger-than-life hero and just do an actual Batman show?

Bruce is still the most effective character on the show, because the writers are really getting him right. He doesn't want revenge, he wants to achieve justice and protect innocents from harm. And since he's just a kid here and not a master martial artist, the show focuses on his deductive abilities and his sense of justice and compassion, sides of Batman that tend to get neglected onscreen but are crucial to who he is. My main problem is that he's reached this stage a little too quickly. Bruce is supposed to be someone whose mission to fight crime drove him to train his mind and body to their absolute peak over the course of years. True, it makes sense that he was a genius to begin with, but I was hoping to see more of his journey, his growth.

 

[Guy Gardener]

I know it's called acting, but I hated David Zayas on Dexter.

He is so much more likeable as Maroni.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I know it's called acting, but I hated David Zayas on Dexter.

He is so much more likeable as Maroni.

The first time I saw him was on "Oz." And, he played a very similar character....only Hispanic/Latino, not Italian.

 

[DigificWriter]

I agree about the contradictory tone of the series. Reposting my comments from Tor.com:

This show can't decide whether it wants to be a broad, cartoony action show or a dark, violent, TV-14 crime drama. The problem is that it's trying to be both at the same time. I find that it reminds me of nothing so much as RoboCop: The Series -- a show I actually love to pieces, but that's partly because it embraced its cartooniness fully and unreservedly. This show, by contrast, is warring with itself tonally, playing up the gritty, "mature" violence and sex and rampant corruption at the same time it's embracing broad, exaggerated characters and plots.

I don't see how there's any mutual exclusivity between the gritty violence and the exaggerated characters, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Morpheus 02]

I agree about the contradictory tone of the series. Reposting my comments from Tor.com:

This show can't decide whether it wants to be a broad, cartoony action show or a dark, violent, TV-14 crime drama. The problem is that it's trying to be both at the same time. I find that it reminds me of nothing so much as RoboCop: The Series -- a show I actually love to pieces, but that's partly because it embraced its cartooniness fully and unreservedly. This show, by contrast, is warring with itself tonally, playing up the gritty, "mature" violence and sex and rampant corruption at the same time it's embracing broad, exaggerated characters and plots. It doesn't make sense to me. One would think that the whole reason for doing a show that focused on the GCPD rather than Batman would be to do a more grounded, naturalistic take on the property. If they intended to go for larger-than-life supervillainy, why not embrace a larger-than-life hero and just do an actual Batman show?

Since it IS in a Batman world, presumably one with superpowers (as opposed to Dark Knight), some of that could CREEP in.

I guess if this is aimed for Frank Miller Batman -type of fans?

But I hear what you're saying. But I guess it's hard to do a Gotham version that does NOT seem like a Law & Order ripoff. Fox seems to have a hard time with this ... the Chicago Code, which is grounded in "reality", also failed. In that case, they focused too much on the personal life of white cop, and not enough spreading around to the other characters. However, Delroy Lindo was excellent as the villain, just as one of Gotham's strength's is Penguin

Bruce is still the most effective character on the show, because the writers are really getting him right. He doesn't want revenge, he wants to achieve justice and protect innocents from harm. And since he's just a kid here and not a master martial artist, the show focuses on his deductive abilities and his sense of justice and compassion, sides of Batman that tend to get neglected onscreen but are crucial to who he is. My main problem is that he's reached this stage a little too quickly. Bruce is supposed to be someone whose mission to fight crime drove him to train his mind and body to their absolute peak over the course of years. True, it makes sense that he was a genius to begin with, but I was hoping to see more of his journey, his growth.

I agree -- they went too fast.But even from the beginning , Alfred's instruction was to let Bruce find his own way...as well as the weird "Bruce is Alfred's employer" dynamic.

Bruce may be smart, but he REALLY needs a mentor/parent figure in his life. In some comic version, wasn't there a social worker was a substitute mom for Bruce?


For me, Gotham would be more interesting if they used each of the characters to show contrast and similarlities of the different parts of Gotham....Penguin & Mooney with the criminal element vs. Jim's PD and Selena should be the contrast in poverty vs. Bruce's riches.

Each should have strengths, and then also weaknesses.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I know it's called acting, but I hated David Zayas on Dexter.

He is so much more likeable as Maroni.

The first time I saw him was on "Oz." And, he played a very similar character....only Hispanic/Latino, not Italian.

Yeah, he bounces back and forth as to what ethnicity he is. He's one of those actors who can play multiple ethnicities without a second glance.