Bad Joke | Gotham: ‘The Blind Fortune Teller’ Review

<p>We’ve met Fish Mooney&period; We’ve met The Riddler&period; We’ve met the Penguin&period; Now we’ve met&&num;8230&semi;The Joker&quest; Maybe&quest; Yes&comma; after nearly a season&comma; <em>Gotham<&sol;em>’s Clown Prince of Crime finally has a face – or does he&quest; This week’s <em>The Blind Fortune Teller<&sol;em> left us with fewer ideas way more head-banging questions than answers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Gotham<&sol;em>’s rogues gallery has been anything but slim pickings&comma; but the Joker’s presence&sol;relevance to the series has long been one of the show’s big questions&period; This week&comma; it’s Detective Jim Gordon’s date night abroad with Leslie Thompkins at the circus that gives way to a murder under the big top and their introduction to an auspiciously purple-clad gentleman named Jerome &lpar;&ast;cough&ast; Joker &ast;cough&ast;&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035307&sol;Gotham-S1-Fortune-Teller-Circus-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-72250 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035307&sol;Gotham-S1-Fortune-Teller-Circus-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham S1 'Fortune Teller' Circus BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our blind fortune teller of note&comma; played eloquently by<em> Breaking Bad<&sol;em>’s Mark Margolis&comma; rounds out the slightly creepy clientele of Gotham’s circus guest stars&comma; and of course&comma; John and Mary Grayson of a future Boy Wonder’s eventual family&period; While we yet again see a peek at it&comma; the circus is arguably the smartest set piece the show’s had and one that could best explain the origins of Gotham’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;freaks&period;” Short of a rather darkly comedic scene of a psycho clown fight &lpar;&ast;cough&ast; Joker &ast;cough&rpar; there’s not much more than some hysterically bad dialogue &lpar;butthead&quest;&rpar; and tidily have Jim reconcile the feuding Graysons’ so they can think about &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;children” someday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I’ll admit that I’m warming up to Morena Baccarin’s Leslie Thompkins and her budding relationship with Jim Gordon’s something worth exploring in theory&comma; however contrived it still feels after only a few episodes&period; Out in the field&comma; she’s a bit of a sleuth herself and a damn good one if Gordon would let her&period; It’s only a shame she has to be wasted on the wooden caricature Gordon’s felt like this season&period; Since when did you snort at fortune tellers when you’ve seen <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;hot-air-gotham-balloon-man-review&sol;">killer balloon men<&sol;a>&comma; Jim&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05030458&sol;Gotham-S1-Blind-Fortune-Teller-Leslie-Gordon-BagoGames&period;png"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-77891 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05030458&sol;Gotham-S1-Blind-Fortune-Teller-Leslie-Gordon-BagoGames&period;png" alt&equals;"Gotham S1 'Blind Fortune Teller' Leslie &amp&semi; Gordon BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>To be honest&comma; Leslie’s a lot more fun and I’m almost keen on thinking she’s a lot more than just &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;enthusiastic” about criminology&period; Let’s say that she’s young&comma; beautiful&comma; and the only Arkham doctor on the show&period; So far&comma; only Harley Quinn’s fit that mold in DC Comics’ lore&period; It’d be a long shot to assume Leslie is <em>Gotham<&sol;em>’s Harley&comma; much less that she’s a femme fatale to Jerome given his apparent mommy issues&comma; but it’d be an awfully good twist – one I’d doubt <em>Gotham<&sol;em>’s smart enough to pursue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>No one seems to know what they want on<em> Gotham<&sol;em>&semi; not Penguin&comma; not Mooney&comma; and certainly not Jim or Leslie&period; Consummating the night in a locker room didn’t help the juvenility of their relationship&comma; but Gordon was probably equally excited to just sleep in an actual bed for once&period; He’s got two twelve-year-olds squatting in his&comma; err&comma; Barbara’s apartment&comma; after all&period; Why he’s sleeping in the station is beyond me&comma; but why he’s skittish about women is reasonable&comma; I guess&comma; thinking of his wayward wife in question&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;Gotham-Blind-Fortune-Teller-Selina-Barbara-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-76628 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;Gotham-Blind-Fortune-Teller-Selina-Barbara-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham 'Blind Fortune Teller' Selina &amp&semi; Barbara BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sure as day&comma; Barbara slinked back into the show drunk and disheveled&comma; but only just so much to take fashion advice from Selina and Ivy&period; It’s hard to imagine her and Jim conceiving Batgirl anytime soon&comma; much less getting back together&period; I’d surmise under those pretenses that if a Batgirl is born in the series&comma; than it’s Leslie that’ll be the mother&period; Under that assumption&comma; Barbara’s probably reduced to the jealous ex&comma; a role that finally suits her deservedly low likability by this point&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That the blind led the blind this week would be a fitting metaphor for our episode&period; The Penguin’s silly subplot of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;running” Fish Mooney’s almost vacant nightclub’s turned up nothing these past few weeks and likewise&comma; Fish&&num;8217&semi;s ongoing prison saga is equally pointless&period; Her rabble rousing&comma; <em>Braveheart<&sol;em>-style speech about &&num;8220&semi;family&&num;8221&semi; was all kinds of awful and it’s beyond a stretch that the thuggish manly men under her employ are buying any of her &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;leadership&period;” I don’t know who &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Manager” is holding lock and key over her&comma; but knowing Gotham&comma; it’s liable to be The Penguin upstairs at the nightclub&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035320&sol;Gotham-S1-Fortune-Teller-Bruce-Wayne-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-72248 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;05035320&sol;Gotham-S1-Fortune-Teller-Bruce-Wayne-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham S1 'Fortune Teller' Bruce Wayne BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Elsewhere&comma; Bruce finally wagged his finger at the Wayne Foundation’s board members with some very serious adult accusations &lpar;gasp&rpar;&comma; all while brandishing his black and white Mead composition notebook&comma; mind you&period; Fun&period; In what could’ve been a hilarious Richie Rich moment&comma; the board nearly laughed him out of the room and to be frank&comma; I almost did too&period; What happens now&quest; I suppose Bruce is going to court for two decades &OpenCurlyQuote;til he dons the cowl or something&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That all leads us back to Jerome again and arguably the episode’s most bizarre triumph&period; As just about every promo’s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;gothams-blind-fortune-teller-preview-revealed&sol;">already spoiled<&sol;a>&comma; Jerome’s duly obvious &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;reveal” as a genuine nutcase is stupidly unceremonious&comma; so much as to call the show makers’ bluff&period; Series creator Bruno Heller told fans not long ago that <em>The Blind Fortune Teller<&sol;em> was to kick off the &&num;8220&semi;beginning of the story of how the Joker came to be&period;&&num;8221&semi; Just who Batman’s arch-nemesis was to be a mystery that’ll allegedly be carried on multiple actors&period; As a result&comma; actor Cameron Monaghan’s guest appearance is nothing but wasted here – either he’s the real deal or he’s a passing fake with no room for the anonymity that’s empowered the Joker for over 70 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;Gotham-S1-Blind-Fortune-Teller-Jerome-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-77869 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;02&sol;Gotham-S1-Blind-Fortune-Teller-Jerome-BagoGames-300x174&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham S1 'Blind Fortune Teller' Jerome BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"174" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Monaghan does deserve props nonetheless for making the most out of his impossibly short screen time&period; The man does a wicked good laugh and his ear-to-ear grin is simply haunting&period; If Heath Ledger and Mark Hamill’s Jokers had a lovechild through some miracle of science&comma; then Monaghan’s would surely be their devilish progeny&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It’s hard to ignore how long the nods and winks have taken their toll&comma; all of them pretentiously whispering&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;See&excl; Did you see that&quest;&&num;8230&semi;” to watchers with no rhyme or reason&period; It’s long been a disservice to the show and I’d dare say the same for <em>The Blind Fortune Teller<&sol;em>&comma; if not for the hysterically bad antics displayed this week&period; Gotham&comma; it seems&comma; is just good for a laugh&comma; maybe a great one if the season keeps this crazy scripting&period; With the Joker&comma; I can’t help but feel like Gotham’s played almost every card in its deck and as bad of a hand as it’s had lately&comma; <em>The Blind Fortune Teller<&sol;em> didn’t change its luck&period; But it did just make things a lot more interesting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Gotham<&sol;em> airs Monday nights on FOX at 8&sol;7 Central&period; Catch all the latest episodes at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fox&period;com&sol;gotham&sol;gotham&sol;full-episodes">Fox&period;com<&sol;a> and all the latest reviews here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;