Corruption trickles down from the top in Gotham, and if we can believe what “Viper” tells us, it’s from the very top. What goes up must come down, and in Gotham City, there’s always a guarantee that the rich and famous have a hand in the homeless’s cookie jar. This week kept a rather safe beat between these two worlds while throwing in another tired “villain of the week” into the mix, but we did get to see the dirt under their nails, even if was washed away too soon.
If Gotham’s told us anything, it’s that it’s pretty bad to be homeless in Gotham – albeit including stupidly good hygiene. This time, it’s drugs flooding the streets rather than kidnappers, and one of them, “Viper,” just happens to land in the hands of an unsuspecting sad sack that also just happens to get cartoonish, Hulk-like super-strength. The lucky bum in question, Simon Potolsky, conjures up images of a Saturday-morning cartoon lugging an ATM machine on his back and viciously downing a milk carton (What is it with the show and milk?!). While it may or may not have produced a guilty chuckle (or two) from this writer, it did give us tongue-in-cheek references to Bane’s infamous venom serum, but at an outrageously embarrassing cost.
The case of the week afterwards played out quite dryly, Jim Gordon stumbling across big visual clues – a photo this time around of our villain with his mentor – but it did all lead to an old man tossing Harvey Bullock through a door, so there’s that. Though it all ended with a villainous speech waxing poetic alá super villain-style in predictable manner, small steps like it showed promise in graduating the show to a smarter realization of the comic book world we’re slowly getting from Gotham.
The cases that Gordon and Bullock keep taking on, which by all accounts is looking more and more like a laundry list of disgruntled Gotham citizenry, still feel like a different show compared to the rest of the series. Gordon getting pulled out of his episodic case to have a sit down with Maroni makes that feel more evident than ever. It’s casual conversation between regulars that spur some exciting development. By this point, the show’s scatterbrained writing would benefit from a thematic focus, maybe concentrating on even just one character who’s not Gordon for an entire episode. The ensemble often suffers from feeling like leftovers.
Gotham’s not liable to let us forget the crime that brought us here either, and it seems like we’re finally digging up some real intrigue with the Wayne family’s secrets. Bruce might just be more capable with boxes of files and bulletin boards than Gordon at this point, and the work is keeping him as occupied as well as relevant. He may be far too young to be sincerely interested in revenge (yet) but he’s got an active interest in cleaning up his father’s company and all its sins. Arkham Asylum’s place in the family business breathes volumes into the show’s conspiracy angle and the series would do right eyeing it. Even Alfred coming around and helping was sweet to see.
Whereas it may have seemed like the Waynes were targeted by the mob, a better suspect – and a more interesting one – would be Wayne Enterprises itself. Cobblepot/Penguin’s complicated relationship with Maroni is certainly more black-and-white than it needs to be and his outright confession around the dinner table seemed like a clumsy overplay. Which, yes, got him in big trouble. The result’s the real rub of it all, placing Gordon more directly under mob influence than ever. If it’s Penguin’s welcoming arms that offer Gordon’s only aid, than it’s about time these two become quite the interesting odd couple.
Meanwhile, Fish and her new boy-toy Nikolai are sharing quite the bed of lies together in some of the most steamy foreplay you can get on prime time. It’s been unclear since the pilot how Fish would take down Don Falcone, but her “weapon,” Liza, taking on a parental guise took an actually creepy/weird turn. It’s fun to think Gotham’s mob fell to a single lady feeding pigeons and humming lullabies, and a ridiculously risky one at that that makes little tactical sense from someone we’re told is so calculating.
It’s episodes like “Viper” that make you wonder what kind of animal Gotham is. Suggesting the heart of the Batman family itself as the culprit of the series was a good step, in spite of everything to distract from it, druggie bums included. The gang feud continues to provide an engaging backdrop to the Wayne murder case while Gordon and Bullock’s antics are starting to reach the end of their rope. Gotham’s still figuring itself out, this week felt more like a dog chasing cars than a patient garden snake, more bark than bite.
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Gotham airs Monday nights on FOX 8/7 central. Catch all the latest episodes online at Gotham on FOX and all of the latest episode reviews right here at BagoGames.
Gotham: Viper
Pros
- The Wayne Family Intrigue
- Nice Comic Allusions
- The Mob War Takes a Smart Turn
Cons
- Clumsy Case-Solving
- More Hum-Drum with Gordon
- What's the Deal with Fish These Days?
