After an extremely rocky start followed by strong subsequent episodes I feel confident in saying the show has found its sweet spot. It feels now like the continuing story of Cobblepot's backstabbing rise to power paralleled with Jim Gordon's slow acceptance that he may not be able to save the city from itself are the heart of the show, and thankfully most other elements have stopped trying to take center stage.
The Penguin is undoubtedly still the highlight of this show. He's played perfectly and watching him switch between his two modes of vicious killer and sniveling lackey is something that shouldn't work but is endlessly entertaining. His relationship with Gordon I also find very interesting. Cobblepot knows he can feed Gordon certain information to help his own rise to power. Meanwhile Gordon may not want to be indirectly helping Cobblepot, but he seems to know that he can still use the information that he's getting from the little wacko (plus the fact that he has to try and keep the fact that the guy's alive under wraps.) The dynamic between Bullock and Gordon has also found a good place. After seeing the two butt heads non stop in the first couple of episodes, they seem to be getting at least an understanding and borderline respect for each other. This sort of begrudging partnership is always great to watch, and really doesn't get done all that much anymore. I hope it's a dynamic the show can maintain, and it doesn't rush the two into more of a buddy-buddy situation.
This episode also gave a nice look at the underworld politics at play within Gotham. The various players in this world (Falcone, Mooney, Maroni, etc.) are all well used unto themselves, and seeing them try to undermine each other is a great power struggle that being played out. Of course Cobblepot is the wild card that none of the others see coming, which makes it all the more interesting.
There are a few lingering issues though. Barbara is becoming a bit of a sore issue. Her chemistry with Gordon is decent enough, but after coasting by for the last few episodes she's started to dip into the burdensome significant other cliché. Her previous relationship with Montoya is honestly, just kind of weird. Not because of the lesbian thing, but because I don't understand what it's supposed to add to anything. Now to see her start pulling the "you have to be honest with me about everything" card just seems to be setting her up to be a source of potentially overblown drama for Gordon's home life. But a show like this has plenty of drama in its main thrust of crimes being solved, we don't need this tacked on domestic stuff. Especially when we haven't been given enough reason to like Barbara and care if she's unhappy.
Young Bruce Wayne is a mixed blessing of late as well. He's been better utilized in the past few episodes, but whenever he has a scene with Gordon things get too on the nose. Case in point, him asking Gordon "Do you think Gotham can be saved?" They might as well have had him say "Insert show tag line here." Separately they function fine, but put those two in a room together and it becomes a mess of cliché and foreshadowing to stuff that the show is not going to get to for YEARS if at all.
While there's still some stumbling points this has managed to go from a show that I was majorly disappointed in (that was with the pilot) to one I genuinely look forward to every week. And that definitely counts for something.
The Penguin is undoubtedly still the highlight of this show. He's played perfectly and watching him switch between his two modes of vicious killer and sniveling lackey is something that shouldn't work but is endlessly entertaining. His relationship with Gordon I also find very interesting. Cobblepot knows he can feed Gordon certain information to help his own rise to power. Meanwhile Gordon may not want to be indirectly helping Cobblepot, but he seems to know that he can still use the information that he's getting from the little wacko (plus the fact that he has to try and keep the fact that the guy's alive under wraps.) The dynamic between Bullock and Gordon has also found a good place. After seeing the two butt heads non stop in the first couple of episodes, they seem to be getting at least an understanding and borderline respect for each other. This sort of begrudging partnership is always great to watch, and really doesn't get done all that much anymore. I hope it's a dynamic the show can maintain, and it doesn't rush the two into more of a buddy-buddy situation.
This episode also gave a nice look at the underworld politics at play within Gotham. The various players in this world (Falcone, Mooney, Maroni, etc.) are all well used unto themselves, and seeing them try to undermine each other is a great power struggle that being played out. Of course Cobblepot is the wild card that none of the others see coming, which makes it all the more interesting.
There are a few lingering issues though. Barbara is becoming a bit of a sore issue. Her chemistry with Gordon is decent enough, but after coasting by for the last few episodes she's started to dip into the burdensome significant other cliché. Her previous relationship with Montoya is honestly, just kind of weird. Not because of the lesbian thing, but because I don't understand what it's supposed to add to anything. Now to see her start pulling the "you have to be honest with me about everything" card just seems to be setting her up to be a source of potentially overblown drama for Gordon's home life. But a show like this has plenty of drama in its main thrust of crimes being solved, we don't need this tacked on domestic stuff. Especially when we haven't been given enough reason to like Barbara and care if she's unhappy.
Young Bruce Wayne is a mixed blessing of late as well. He's been better utilized in the past few episodes, but whenever he has a scene with Gordon things get too on the nose. Case in point, him asking Gordon "Do you think Gotham can be saved?" They might as well have had him say "Insert show tag line here." Separately they function fine, but put those two in a room together and it becomes a mess of cliché and foreshadowing to stuff that the show is not going to get to for YEARS if at all.
While there's still some stumbling points this has managed to go from a show that I was majorly disappointed in (that was with the pilot) to one I genuinely look forward to every week. And that definitely counts for something.