“Five.”
I’m not sure whether to give this episode of Gotham a five out of ten or bodyslam it to the mat, finish with a Big Splash, demand a five count from the referee then dismiss it with casual indifference, à la King Kong Bundy. I choose the latter, so much has Mad City: Look into My Eyes has vexed me last night. I watched The Revenant recently, and what that grizzly bear did to Leonardo DiCaprio is without any hyperbole what Gotham is doing to me this season.
Just when I was hoping Gotham had turned the corner on expendable villains, the show manages to pull the wool over my eyes again. Iconic DC villain Mad Hatter arrives to wreak havoc in Gotham, as the commercials leading up to last night’s episodes promised. That sounded good in theory, but so did Communism. The mysterious, calm, psychotic Jervis Tetch was supposed to freak us out, but came off more as a Johnny Depp lookalike for 1/20th of Depp’s fee.
Tetch arrives in Gotham looking for his sister, Alice, who has a “condition”. If you just dropped in to see what condition her condition was in, Alice has a rare poison in her blood that, in the words of Otis Redding, are hard to handle, so dear brother turns dear sister over to the loving, capable hands of Hugo Strange for a comfortable stay in the cozy confines of Indian Hills. Tetch figures Alice must be around after the escape and hires Gordon to find her. To make ends meet, Tetch performs his magic act at Sirens, much to the smiles of Babs and Tabs.
Gordon, meanwhile, experiences an awkward post-romp morning greeting with Valerie Vale, who comments on the exquisite finery of Gordon’s apartment. With all the cash he’s been raking in from capturing the Indian Hills escapees for the GCPD, you’d think he can afford better digs.
But wait, there’s more. Lee and fiancé Mario are back in town permanently, as Super Mario has taken a position at Gotham General Hospital. Barnes even offers Lee her old job back at GCPD. One needn’t be a rocket scientist to tell Gordon and Lee aren’t over each other and El Predicto calls it right now that the love triangle between these three will take up valuable screen time that could otherwise be used with – oh, I don’t know…characterization, perhaps?
But wait, there’s more. Turns out fiancé Mario is the son of Carmine Falcone, which should at the very least add some decent, if not convoluted, conflict to the series that Gordon can chew on when not tugged to one side or the other of the Vale/Lee sandwich.
But, I digress. Gordon indeed finds Alice, but promptly allows her to escape. He then confronts Tetch about Alice, and Tech hypnotizes Gordon in an attempt to get him to jump off a roof ledge. Alice swoops in to shoot and kill Tetch and save Gordon, and Gordon repays her by handcuffing her.
So let’s get this clear for the sake of clarity; Fox builds up A LOT of anticipation for the arrival of the Mad Hatter, only to have him hypnotize a member of the audience to gain access to his home, then almost gets killed when he hypnotizes Babs and unintentionally unleashes Bat-crazy Babs, only to be talked down by Tabs. Then he hypnotizes Gordon and is killed by his sister. Another solid villain in the comics gets the short end of the stick on TV and is killed off before he can really do anything sinister and psychotic like.
Equally frustrating is the Bruce and Bruce clone story. Now called Five, he cuts his hair, mimics Bruce’s voice, steals a car and catches up with Selena for a night on the town. Not sure whether to think this is a sinister motive, a teenager’s first night out and/or a dude jealous of Bruce and decides to covet thy clone’s not-girlfriend. And Selena doesn’t have much to do in this episode except show sadness and concern for a missing Ivy (which should happen more), throw tantrums when Bruce declines to help her, or puzzlement of Bruce acting strange since he is really Five, but goes with him anyway.
The only scenes worth watching were Penguin’s run for the Mayoralty. Seems former corrupt Mayor Aubrey James wants to return to the now vacant position and is challenged by Penguin. Who better to clean up Gotham than a criminal, right? Besides, Penguin’s gone all in, turning his mansion into a campaign office and bribing the new head of Arkham to release a newly declared sane Nygma to help with the election effort. Most entertaining in particular was the scene where former Mayor Aubrey James meets with Penguin in a restaurant and attempts to tell him what’s what, as the restaurant’s staff draws guns on Penguin, indicating they work for James. Penguin turns the tables in a fine moment, as all the patrons are armed and in his employ. That is the kind of scene that the show needs more of, something familiar yet taken in a new direction that the audience doesn’t expect.
To top it off, there is very little Harvey, which isn’t good. Overall, Mad City: Look into my Eyes continues the trend of being uneven with a few, small, solid and entertaining elements.
Perhaps it’s the show’s little things we should focus on, because the big ones ring flat.
Tune in next time – same Bat-time, same Bat-channel.
