Review: Gotham – S3 E1 “Mad City: Better to Reign in Hell”
“I don’t think Gotham’s running out of monsters soon.”
Gordon’s sentiments certainly ring true, as the Indian Hill escapees run amok in Gotham City. The first scene of the premiere shows Gordon making good on his promise; he has found Lee happy and healthy in a small, quaint house in a small, quaint town where everything is bright and sunny and – happy, say compared to Gotham. And, oh yes, she’s happy and healthy with a new man in her life. Smash cut six months forward, and Gordonis a hardened, hard drinking bounty hunter who earns his living rounding up the Indian Hill escapees for good money. It appears seeing Lee happy with a new beau has hit him hard – this is the darkest Gordon so far, and he has no interest in returning to GCPD; at least, not yet. But since we know he will become Commissioner Gordon in the future, wecan sit patiently and watch how this plays out.
We are introduced to scrappy, never give up reporter Valerie Vale who is on the Indian Hills story, and she pesters Gordon at his favourite bar until she gets the truth. Since women seem to be expendable on this show, El Predicto states she will likely be the one to bring Gordon out of his post-Lee funk, only to die or leave and have Gordon’s heart stomped on yet again.
This episode feels like a “Hi, Bat-viewers! Glad to see you again. Here’s what everyone’sbeen doing for the past six months,” and proceeds to shove every character into the forty-two minutes of screen time. Penguin visits his bro Nygma weekly at Arkham to work through his issues: seems he’s perplexed Fish Mooney allowed him to live when the bus crashed in last season’s finale. Nygma, who has very little to do here, does impart one dash of inspiration to hopefully get Penguin back to his ruthless, vicious self – “Remember that penguins eat fish.” And it seems to do the trick, as Penguin places a million dollar bounty on Fish’s head, dead or alive, which catches Gordon’s attention.
Unfortunately, that’s all it does; Penguin spends the rest of the time he has keeping the kids in order, namely lovesick Butch who pines for Tabatha’s return. Tabs, however, has hooked up with Barbara and the two opened a bar not surprisingly called Sirens. Butch even goes so far as to hire the local gangster to squeeze the gals, hoping they would run to Penguin for protection. But Tabs and Babs are big girls and acquit themselves as the feisty badasses they are. Robin Lord Taylor has so much to offer as Penguin, yet continually gets bogged down in useless subplots that meander all over the map and fizzle out. Similarly, Jessica Lucas and Erin Richards are great as Tabs and Babs, but need more to do than drink cocktails and look good.
The fun doesn’t stop there; Selena is a hanger-on with Fish’s new gang, the Indian Hill escapees, and they need a certain pharmaceutical to make Hugo Strange’s body modifications permanent. Ivy, whom Selena is trying to protect, follows Selena to Fish and in her escape falls into the sewer. Since we lost Mr. Freeze and Firefly, this will likelypay off with the emergence of Poison Ivy somewhere down the line.
Even Bruce and Alfred have a storyline; after returning from Switzerland, Bruce has proof that the “shadowy cabal” (later to be revealed as the Court of Owls, likely) is responsible for Strange and the experiments at Indian Hill, but have also infiltrated Wayne Enterprises. Bruce throws down the gauntlet at the Board meeting, challenging the cabal to meet with him; else he leaks the proof to the media. Cue secret phone call to the White-Haired Woman, who nods to a masked heavy, and Bruce is kidnapped yet again. I know Alfred is older, but he was in the SAS. Can’t he dish out some really good lumps and maybe win a fight on occasion? Even more disappointing is the series dives yet again into a “Bruce Wayne in mortal danger” storyline, which lacks any real stakes since we know he will become Batman in the future.
And we get a glimpse of Bruce Wayne’s clone who follows Selena because she was nice to him without seeing his face. I know he is supposed to be differentiated from Bruce, butdoes he need to look like a teenaged Chris Gaines? I guess it would have been more ridiculous to slap an Evil Spock goatee on him.
All the characters are squeezed into the episode to set up their storylines, but it really feels forced and they lack enough time to sink their teeth into anything substantial. Selenaand Bruce have a pseudo lover’s quarrel – so what? Penguin visits Nygma in Arkham – give me more. Lucius switched jobs and is now with the GCPD – big deal. Even Barnes is reduced to a lot of harrumphing when he is on screen, save for a private moment coughing fit that reveals he hasn’t fully recovered from his near-mortal injuries from Azrael. And to top it all off, not even a great, sardonic quip from Harvey, who is still the best character on the show.
I know what you’re thinking; there are many characters in action on Game of Thrones. The difference is that GoT has an extra 15 minutes (as the show is commercial free) to give the characters the space and time needed to flex their muscles and move story along With Better to Reign in Hell, cramming in every character to show what they’re up to feels more like the producers are padding out the episode.
And that’s the rub. I’ve written at length last year how Gotham suffers from an identity crisis, whether a gritty crime drama or a camp-ish comic book show. The show seems to shine when the actors are unchained and allowed to go over the top. Until that gets figured out, it appears we are in for another season of meandering storylines without any real stakes. Let’s hope the female characters aren’t as dispensable this season.
Better to Reign in Hell is neither awesome nor terrible; it is – undwerwhelming.Tune in next time – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
