Okay, the second episode of GOTHAM was better than the first, but the show is still joined at the hip to its most pressing problems. 1) Either Jim Gordon is an effective cop who can successfully take on Gothams growing army of neophyte super-villains, in which case he will no need of Batman when Batman finally shows up, or hes totally ineffective, in which case were watching a show about a good man who is proscribed from ever accomplishing anything. (The show can counter this by introducing us to more villains he CAN defeat, but the more you go in that direction, the more you take us away from Batman, and thats the bloody point of the show.) 1a) As it is, by the end of episode one he has turned out to be instrumental in the past traumatic experiences of the characters who would become the Penguin and Poison Ivy, so he has already screwed up badly. The general silent contempt everybody including Gordon shows the friendly, well-meaning, only a little socially clueless guy who will someday become the Riddler seems to be heading in the same direction as well. It is finally also given that he is unable to gain the trust of and change the life path of the street kid, Selina Kyle. If this pattern continues, Gordon is reduced to the Jar-Jar Binks of the Gotham Universe, the guy who is responsible for everything awful that the hero will later have to clean up. Folks hate Jar Jars appearances in the STAR WARS movies, but tend to forget -- that annoying, nails-on-a-blackboard, racially suspect twerp was actually RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EVIL EMPIRE TAKING OVER IN THE FIRST PLACE. (Which was great, I have to admit.) I resent putting James Gordon in this position, and if the show is an exercise in watching his serial failures create Batmans entire mass-murdering rogues gallery -- eccch. 2) The show HAS to be about something other than Batmans backstory, because we already know the characters were going to wind up with, and as a result all we get is desperate running-in-place to avoid arriving at a destination we already know. 2a) If the shows entire charm is supposed to lie in the moments of recognition when stone fans get references -- ha ha! Arkham Asylum! Ha ha! Edward Nigma! Ha ha! Young Selina Kyle calls herself Cat! -- then, again, what the show has an echo of the story we already know and actually prefer. I suppose that, as with SMALLVILLE, which was enjoyed by a lot of folks, millions, a percentage well into the double-digits, who (Im not kidding!) had no idea that the entire point of the main character was that he would someday become Superman, there must be oodles of people watching this thing who somehow manage to swim past the references to Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon and Gotham City and so on and never realize that the point of it all is that Batman is at the end of it. But I dont know what theyre getting out of it if the shows chief focus is giving us these references. 3) Again, it is damned odd that of the three live-action TV series that have taken place in Gotham City over the years, two -- TWO -- bent themselves into knots to avoid having Batman in them. Twice as many as the one that actually did have Batman in it. This is damned odd. I am waiting for the series about the African explorer who keeps hearing about Tarzan but somehow never runs into him. Thatll be fun.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 16:57:22 +0000
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