Cloudy Skies | Gotham: Penguin’s Umbrella Review

<p>It seems like the dominoes are beginning to fall into place on <em>Gotham<&sol;em>&period; The stakes are high&comma; the drama’s deeper&comma; and its scope more apparent than ever&period; There’s a tension in the air that’s finally building around its keenest pair of beady little eyes down to its most righteous&comma; and Penguin’s Umbrella felt some of the most chilling winds we’ve gotten yet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;Gotham-Penguins-Umbrella-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-68547 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;Gotham-Penguins-Umbrella-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham Penguin's Umbrella BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gotham’s corrupt have never needed more than fear for its good citizens to do nothing&comma; after all&comma; so leave it to an honest man to step out of line&comma; our one and only Detective Jim Gordon&period; This week ultimately came down to another <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;gotham-spirit-goat-review&sol;">man of the hour<&sol;a> pushing the episode forward&comma; namely amidst the surprising amount of action at the GCPD&period; With a mob hit on his head since last episode’s tumultuous finale&comma; Gordon and Barbra are left with little option to leave town fast as Falcone and Maroni’s war came to a standstill&period; Out of those ashes we got our best look at the short arm of the law still and just how deep the rabbit hole goes in Gotham’s underbelly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Naturally&comma; the police didn’t exactly have Gordon’s back&comma; but a shoot-out with mob assassin and comic villain Victor Zsasz– played with all of Anthony Carrigan’s delightful menace – in the precinct itself was particularly entertaining to see&period; Seeing the cops scatter like rats in their own offices is sickening enough of an image&comma; but even their own Captain&comma; Sarah Essen &lpar;Gordon’s second wife in the comics&rpar;&comma; fleeing gave us a worse look at just how high that fear goes&period; Her hesitation was telling nonetheless&comma; even a subtle nod to her and Gordon’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;chemistry” to come&period; What came afterwards was an exciting bout of gunplay and fisticuffs and lent some refreshing action to Montoya and Allen for a change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;05063203&sol;Gotham-Penguins-Umbrella-Gordon-Bullock-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-68604 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;05063203&sol;Gotham-Penguins-Umbrella-Gordon-Bullock-BagoGames-300x200&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham Penguin's Umbrella Gordon Bullock BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"200" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>What Gordon did accomplish was bring out a few fellow crusaders – even Bullock – to aid him in punching his way straight to the top&period; His &lpar;almost&rpar; suicide mission provided a somber tone&comma; if not one strangely juxtaposed against an equally comedic one&period; Between Bullock drunkenly deciding to team with Gordon and tote machine guns and Zsasz’s ringtone being &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Funkytown&comma;” <em>Gotham<&sol;em> can’t seem to be dour without ending up like a kid in his parent’s clothes&period; If it did grow up some&comma; then it came from Gordon and Bullock’s Godfather sit-down with Carmine Falcone in the triumphant final act with a wealth of masterful dialogue courtesy of John Doman’s Falcone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It’s also a shame on a smaller note that Gordon’s resident Florence Nightingale played by Mekia Cox wasn’t our much previewed Dr&period; Leslie Thompkins&period; That honor will be <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;firefly-star-joins-gang-gotham&sol;">given to Morena Baccarin next year<&sol;a>&comma; but its perfect timing felt like a missed opportunity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;Gotham-Penguins-Umbrella-Zsasz-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-68546 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;Gotham-Penguins-Umbrella-Zsasz-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham Penguin's Umbrella Zsasz BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Plenty of further hilarities were in no short supply for <em>Penguin’s Umbrella<&sol;em>&period; Barbara and Gordon’s romantic cues continue to fall flat for reasons unknown&comma; and our former cop wife inevitably endangering herself for her man was silly and predictable&period; None compete against the mob’s most ill-fated attempt at mustache-twirling that would have Adam West’s villains eating their hearts out&comma; á lá holy nuns&comma; a bus&comma; and some indescribably bad bird puns&period; Honk&comma; honk&quest;&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Everyone was on thin ice this week meanwhile&comma; namely the Penguin&comma; and absurdly unscathed to boot&period; It’s a wonder how he’s walked away from as many botched dealings as he has – bribery included – but his wheeling-and-dealing stratagem’s beautiful to see play out in all of Robin Lord Taylor’s demented charm&period; While Alfred and Bruce mostly bowed out of the spotlight&comma; our very own waddling suit of the hour dug up the biggest twist of the episode in the form of an fascinating &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;omitted” scene of the pilot’s&period; It would seem like he’s already outpaced Fish and her boy-toy Nikolai for Falcone’s renewed favor&comma; and better still that he’s micromanaging the spoils of the war closer to his own pocket&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Calculating&comma; daring&comma; and a trifle clumsy at times&comma; <em>Penguin’s Umbrella<&sol;em> brought the brains and the brawn to match in another fashionable round of mystery and mayhem for Gotham&period; If <em>Gotham<&sol;em>’s to be believed&comma; one man can make a difference&comma; but it’s undeniable Jim’s not liable to be doing it at all engagingly alone&period; The show’s ensemble cast is as much its strength as its crutch even by now&comma; and to be blunt&comma; the sooner Gordon’s put behind a desk&comma; the sooner we can get to the real stars&period; We may not know what game Gotham’s playing with us&comma; but for once it might be worth knowing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lbrack;divider&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Gotham<&sol;em> airs Monday nights on FOX at 8&sol;7 Central&period; Catch all the latest episodes on <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fox&period;com&sol;gotham&sol;">FOX&period;com <&sol;a>and the latest reviews right here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;