On the Rocks | Gotham: Lovecraft Review

<p>Gotham’s essentially been two shows since its debut&period; The first’s been about one cop trying to make a difference and the second about the rich little orphan boy he made a promise to&period; In the time since Harvey Dent&comma; a new kind of Gotham’s emerged – one about the budding friendship between our very own Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle&period; It’s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;gotham-lovecraft-preview&sol;"><em>Lovecraft<&sol;em><&sol;a> that brings out the best in its two crazy kids if not flirting with some of the worst in its adults&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>An attack on Wayne Manor unwittingly puts Bruce and Selina on the run from a string of assassins in the most unlikely of team-ups spanning Gotham City’s underbelly&period; David Mazouz and Camren Bicondova again prove mutually adorable together&comma; infrequently stilted dialogue or not&period; While Bruce’s &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;nice way” brings out the humanity in the two of them&comma; Selina brings the spunk&comma; and it’s hard not to think of the two as inseparable decades before either of them pick up a mask&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;05060932&sol;Gotham-Lovecraft-Copperhead-Bruce-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-69335 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;05060932&sol;Gotham-Lovecraft-Copperhead-Bruce-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham Lovecraft Copperhead Bruce BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"199" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Their tour of Gotham’s seedy side additionally reaps the rewards of some great action and tension to boot&comma; a dramatic rooftop race not withstanding&period; Though it is a wonder how both of them hesitate to fight back when prompted to by a variety of Gotham’s crooks – particularly when we’ve seen them respectively claw and beat folks to a pulp in episodes past&period; There’s yet to be an instance where Bruce has had to hold his breath or poke hot candles&comma; but Selina’s use of that fancy footwork of hers is something of an appreciated gratuity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was Lesley-Ann Brandt&&num;8217&semi;s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;defending-sloppy-controls-arkham-origins&sol;">Arkham Origins-ish Copperhead<&sol;a> that intertwined our misadventures Gotham with Jim Gordon’s casework for the week and doubly disappointed&period; The cool-headed assassin hired to silence the city’s two Wayne murder witnesses – our very won Selina and eponymous Dick Lovecraft – failed to leave any lasting impressions but did leave more than a mark on Gordon in the process&comma; albeit it conveniently non-lethally&period; A hollow contrast to Anthony Carrigan’s delightfully creepy Zsasz&comma; there’s little more to this Copperhead than her &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;copper” tinted-skin&comma; far more garden snake here than cobra&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;05060939&sol;Gotham-Lovecraft-Alfred-Mooney-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignleft wp-image-69334 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;05060939&sol;Gotham-Lovecraft-Alfred-Mooney-BagoGames-300x200&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham Lovecraft Alfred Mooney BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"200" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As would be his prerogative&comma; Alfred came to the rescue of our crazy kids and it was rather enjoyable seeing our favorite butler get his due amount of the action&period; I don’t know how I feel about the ease with which Alfred shot down Copperhead’s henchmen&comma; but there’s a lot of irony to be had if Gotham’s Batman is indeed against gun violence&period; Some more interesting gestures of his included seeing his tactics of bribery and subtle British charm essentially Jedi Mind tricking Fish Mooney into lending a helpful hand with one smooth sentence&period; Too cool&comma; Alfred&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Winks and nods may have been at their lowest this week with Pamela Isley’s – &ast;ahem&ast; Ivy Pepper’s appearance during Bruce and Selina’s stop at an underground street kid bazar&period; Her family updates were more morbid than &&num;8220&semi;scary” if not only grossly unnecessary for foreshadowing a villainess we might never see at this rate&period; I do commend the producers restraining themselves from having Ivy hold some sort of houseplant to hold and or caress at the minimum&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile&comma; a dead witness and a botched case finally pulled Gordon and Bullock’s partnership apart and the mayor putting Gordon on reassignment to Arkham Asylum&period; The perpetual fall guy regardless of the situation&comma; it’s unclear when Gordon can and cannot be blamed for screw-ups&period; He may have spent half this season suspected of a murder he didn’t commit&comma; but only now is he punished with &ast;gasp&ast; a new job&period; Because mayors can do that apparently&period; They can just tell you you&&num;8217&semi;re a janitor or a plumber&period; Because what does the GCPD have to do with Arkham security&quest; At the very least&comma; it does put Gordon – and Gotham – even closer to the Batman show that’s long overdue&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;05060918&sol;Gotham-Lovecraft-Gordon-Dent-BagoGames&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"alignright wp-image-69339 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;11&sol;05060918&sol;Gotham-Lovecraft-Gordon-Dent-BagoGames&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Gotham Lovecraft Gordon Dent BagoGames" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"207" &sol;><&sol;a>An episode after <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;poker-face-gotham-harvey-dent-review&sol;">his lop-sided debut<&sol;a>&comma; Harvey Dent continues to take a bizarre backseat after messing up his and Gordon&&num;8217&semi;s plans while becoming the two-faced pet of Richard Kind’s Mayor Aubrey James&period; Incompetent or power-hungry&comma; it’s strange to say that Harvey’s already the type of two-bit lawyer that’d get busted by Batman here and now&comma; but at least it explains some of the city’s future corruption&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Our Penguin versus the mob plot feels more distant than ever&period; John Doman’s Falcone has never been intimidating and his blood-soaked dinner with him and Fish felt cheap for a show capable of more creative violence&period; And the longer that Penguin surveils Liza amidst her plans against Falcone the more surprised I become that Falcone doesn&&num;8217&semi;t suspect Liza himself&comma; given how he on the ball he seems&period; Much more that she&&num;8217&semi;s the most blatantly suspicious person in his ranks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Whether <em>LoveCraft<&sol;em> reconciles Gotham’s tale of two shows is something only time and the halls of Arkham will tell&period; We may be able to assume Gotham will ever drop Alfred and Bruce&&num;8217&semi;s storyline&comma; even when it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t feel needed&comma; but if they did ever plan to give them a several episode break&comma; <em>Lovecraft<&sol;em> felt like a nice place to leave them&period; What Gotham does well it does in the present&comma; but it’s more difficult watching <em>Gotham<&sol;em> make all the right promises it can’t keep&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&lbrack;divider&rsqb;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Gotham<&sol;em> airs Monday nights at 8&sol;7 Central on Fox&period; The show returns in January for its midseason premiere&period; In the meantime&comma; catch all the latest episodes at <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;fox&period;com&sol;gotham">Fox&period;com<&sol;a> and all the latest reviews right here at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com">BagoGames<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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