“I know there’s a discomfort factor.”
Gotham not only raises that discomfort factor weekly with arduous titles, but also just about every subplot on the show. The first two episodes of the winter season showed promise in crafting a compelling story with Mr. Freeze, but this week killed any continuation of said promise and took a huge step backward. Gotham seems to function on its own peculiar recipe: hopeful character arc, abandon said arc, plug in dull subplot, hint at characters becoming villains and heroes of Batman canon, then repeat. It’s as tiresome as “Wrath of the Villains: This Ball of Mud and Meanness.”
The main problem with the episode is that it centers on Bruce Wayne hunting down the killer of his parents. On the surface that sounds interesting, but this revenge story lacks any true dramatic stakes. We know Bruce’s parents getting killed eventually leads to his becoming Batman, but what is needed is that transformation process told well. How does this traumatic experience affect Bruce? How does Gotham’s corrosion, partly due to his parents, make the city’s heroes and villains? Rather than dig into these questions, the show is content to rest on its laurels when it comes to canon. It’s the carrot and stick idiom that dangles before the mule; keep moving forward for the promise of a reward, but you never get it.
There aren’t many stories of significance on a show that has the potential to do so. The two-part Mr. Freeze story worked because of emotional stakes and depth of storytelling. Gotham, with its broken moral compass and corruption, made Fries; we understand his plight and how that determination extends to Gordon and the GCPD. Unfortunately, Bruce’s search pales in comparison; Gotham has chips on the table, but they didn’t go all in.
The big question of “This Ball of Mud and Meanness”, much like what Gotham did with Gordon, centers on Bruce and will he or won’t he kill Matches Malone. But the question was more interesting than the answer, as if merely positing it is enough to provide the show with edgy components without having to explore them. Having Bruce deal with a shattered privileged worldview and grow up surrounded by violence is interesting, but the show never digs into his psychology and renders his search for Matches meaningless.
And there’s the rub with the episode and the show as a whole. There seems to be a presumption that who killed the Waynes is more important that how Bruce is affected by the murders. If that is true, then it leads to a second presumption that the audience cares more about mysteries and twists rather than character insight; unfortunately, that presumption envelopes all aspects of the episode, such as the Penguin/Hugo Strange subplot.
To be fair, it isn’t fear or hesitation that stops Bruce from killing; he realizes Matches wants to die as he’s full of remorse for all the evil deeds he committed. A once-feared killer has become a tired old man; every killing chipped away at his soul until only an empty shell remains. Bruce understands he is staring at his future and wisely puts down the gun, which forges in him his first code as Batman to never kill.
In another example of force-feeding subtext, the revenge-remorse angle permeates throughout the episode. This is especially clear with Penguin’s “treatments” at Arkham to become obedient. The show doesn’t dig into Hugo Strange or his experiments at Indian Hill; rather, it relies on a perfunctory glossing over to show him as unhinged, serving as a signpost that states, “Hey, he’s part of the canon.”
Continuing from last week’s “A Tale of Two Gothams” analogy, there is still a discrepancy in tone that has yet to be reconciled. Lori Petty, who seems to know she is on a campy show, gives an inspired performance as Jeri, complete with Joker-esque face paint and large grin. Ben Mackenzie still plays Gordon as though he is on Criminal Minds and there still isn’t enough Harvey, though he gets in his line of the episode when the two cops visit Alfred in hospital. “For a butler, you sure get beat up a lot,” he says with a straight face.
It seems like everyone is experiencing the discomfort factor.
