High Spirits | Gotham: Spirit of the Goat Review

<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s no room for heroes in <em>Gotham&period; <&sol;em>So be it that it all fell to the most unsuspecting of them all this week&comma; namely one Detective Harvey Bullock&period; A decade-old cold case&comma; a hammer-wielding goat-man&comma; and grade A scripting brought out the best in <em>Gotham <&sol;em>and <em>Spirit of the Goat <&sol;em>set up the series on its highest note yet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s clear that Donal Logue&&num;8217&semi;s Bullock shone brightest this episode as the character carrying the darkest baggage&period; To see that once upon a time he was the kind of guy who would rush into the path of a serial killer to save a girl before backup arrived stood as a moving contrast to the dirty cop we&&num;8217&semi;ve come to love and loathe&period; Inadvertently getting his partner – Dan Hedaya&&num;8217&semi;s Detective Dix – permanently injured was enough to sour him brought with it a satisfying pathos to Bullock&&num;8217&semi;s past and a statement about the city&&num;8217&semi;s own decay in itself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;Gotham-Spirit-of-the-Goat-Railroad-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-68240 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;Gotham-Spirit-of-the-Goat-Railroad-BagoGames-300x207&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham Spirit of the Goat Railroad BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"207" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our horned goat killer may have boiled down to an inoffensive hodgepodge of horror clichés&comma; making a list of scary things and checking it twice&comma; but served as one of the better embodiment of the show&&num;8217&semi;s cartoonish psychopathy we&&num;8217&semi;ve seen thus far&comma; nonetheless&period; Sacrificial rites and the cheap mask may have been a stretch&comma; but his plan for killing first borns proved serviceably creepy and possibly loving homage to <em>Batman Returns&period;<&sol;em> The coins sowed into his victims as calling cards were also a nice touch&period;<em> <&sol;em>Better still that Gotham does&comma; in fact&comma; refer to <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wiktionary&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;Gotham">&&num;8220&semi;Home of the Goats&&num;8221&semi; as a name<&sol;a>&period; Way to go&comma; <em>Gotham<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Writer Ben Edlund &lpar;<em>Firefly&comma; Supernatural<&sol;em>&rpar; notably steps up to the plate with the magic touch&comma; meanwhile&comma; crafting the best piece of television <em>Gotham<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s been exposed to&period; Edlund masterfully weaves in and out of the episode&&num;8217&semi;s humor and horror with unpredictability and characterization to match&period; Throwing Bullock out of his element and having him <em>actually<&sol;em> solve a case &lpar;with even a bit of psychology&rpar; was an ambitious touch and <em>The Americans<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi; Susan Misner as a conniving – albeit vanilla – front for wiping out Gotham&&num;8217&semi;s rich and privileged put a smart spin on <em>Gotham<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s gang war as a class war&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Elsewhere&comma; <i>Spirit of the Goat <&sol;i>excelled in lending its supporting cast their respective pieces of the pizza pie&period; Young Bruce got an unexpected houseguest through an open window&comma; Gordon patched &lpar;some&rpar; things up with Barbra&comma; Cobblepot returned home&comma; and Montoya and Allen closed in on Gordon&&num;8217&semi;s looming secret&period; The Cobblepot household brought a welcome window into Penguin&&num;8217&semi;s psyche and its very particular mama&&num;8217&semi;s boy angle was as creepily effective as Carol King&&num;8217&semi;s Mrs&period; Cobblepot&comma; almost uncanny rendition of a Tim Burton directed Helena Bonham Carter&period; Bruce continues to fall in and out of relevance &lpar;albeit with the worst mansion security&rpar;&comma; but just what kind of foreshadowed bond he has with Selina is as interesting as it&&num;8217&semi;s terribly untapped &period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;Gotham-Spirit-of-the-Goat-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-68241 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;10&sol;Gotham-Spirit-of-the-Goat-BagoGames-300x207&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham Spirit of the Goat BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"207" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gordon and Fish Mooney may have been the only odd ones out this episode for reasons we&&num;8217&semi;ve seen being made all too apparent&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s been hard to think of Fish Mooney as little more than fanciful eye-candy than a character or Gordon&&num;8217&semi;s dead-end detective work as a tiring means of bridging everyone else&&num;8217&semi;s arcs&period; The latter may have set up the episode&&num;8217&semi;s most paramount moment – a particularly dramatic finale at the police department – and its party-crasher might be the series salvation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Among other things&comma; it was Nygma who proved to be a joy most unexpected&period; Probably clocking in at about five more minutes than we&&num;8217&semi;ve ever gotten of him&comma; Cory Michael Smith&&num;8217&semi;s quirky antics made finally did the show&&num;8217&semi;s campy fun right&comma; creeping a file clerk with an even funnier name than his own&period; All the same&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s an <em>enigma<&sol;em> &lpar;see what I did there&quest;&rpar; why he&&num;8217&semi;s employed by the GCPD rubbing shoulders with louts like Bullock&period; Maybe it&&num;8217&semi;s that oddball nature that&&num;8217&semi;ll get him into his comic tropes sooner than we hope&period; Some of us would love for him to answer his riddles for a change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s impossible to say there <em>Gotham<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s headed from week to week&comma; but something good&&num;8217&semi;s slowly but surely coming out of the woodwork&period; Frankly&comma; Gotham juggled its ensemble cast with a precision and delicacy almost alien to it thus far&comma; and if it meant branching out from the shaky mob subplot&comma; then more power to it&period; Though it&&num;8217&semi;s got a ways to go before hitting any kind of consistency&comma; <em>Spirit of the Goat<&sol;em> set a gold standard Gotham ought to note&period; How long these high spirits can last&comma; no one can say&period; But heroes&comma; they come and go&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lbrack;divider&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Gotham<&sol;em> airs on FOX Monday nights at 8&sol;7 central&period; Catch all the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fox&period;com&sol;gotham&sol;">latest episodes<&sol;a> at FOX&period;com and the latest reviews at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;