Amph Gotham - the TV series

I hate when the spoiler is in the headline and it appears in my news feed.

 

Finally got around to this week's episode.


Phenomenal.


Penguin freaking makes this show for me. His character, his Development. The long games he's playing love it.

Dent was much better than his last appearance, too.

 

I'm still not liking the actor that's playing Dent. He looks too young and too much like a goody two-shoes to be in the city of Gotham.

The Penguin is the best character on the show as he's pretty much into everything and has a murky road to travel, unlike Bruce Wayne or Jim Gordon who's path is pretty clear cut.

 

He was great on Masters of Sex -- and could swap between nice and mean and claw back into good graces there too. So I think he just needs a little more range in the show

 

I saw like the first two episodes of Masters of Sex and I really didn't like his character when he slapped Lizzy Caplan's character. Not cool. But I agree, he needs more screen time but I'm not sure if he'll get it. Right now, Harvey Dent has as much impact on Gotham as Billy Dee's Deny in Burton's Batflicks.

I did feel sorry for Nigma though. Just when you thought he was gonna get some, he's cop blocked.

 

Heaven forbid the women of the world make decisions for themselves!

 

I'm trying to follow this series but they've stopped airing it in Australia but iTunes won't proceed beyond the eighth (or so) episode until Channel 9 abandon their license for the series so ratings aren't adversely impacted by pre-selling the series. Now here's a riddle; how can you be worried about ratings when nobody is watching in the first place, eh?

 

I'm not sure if I care about this Ogre plot. And Barbara is so unlikable that I doubt many viewers care about what happens to her either. And while Selina is now appearing in scenes with an actual purpose I'm not quite sure that her dynamic with Bruce is worthwhile.

I found myself wanting more of the Jim/Bullock dynamic than anything else. But the Penguin/Sal stuff was also pretty good.

 

I can't wait for the next season. This finale was awesome. I love the darkness.

 

Uh, you and I remember Budapest verrrrrrrry differently.

The first season was a mess -- mostly because it had no idea what it wanted to be: case/freak of the week vs. overarching plot arc, camp vs. grit, etc. However where I agree with you is that the finale basically ties up most of those loose ends and hopefully, in Season Two, they pick a damned theme and play. If so, there's some good stuff there.

 

unfortunately after the layoff i forgot and missed two of the final 4 episode's.

 

I would agree the show was finding it's footing through out but I enjoyed pretty much every episode of the first season. The characters evolved really well, especially Bruce Wayne and Fish Mooney.

Although, I was kind of surprised that Gordon

Spoiler

quickly believed that Barbara snapped and attacked Leslie, when he walked into the apartment and saw Leslie give the beat down on Barbara.

You think as a detective he would investigate a bit more.

 

i thought the same thing.

 

Harvey was mostly a goody two-shoes until his darker persona started to gain a hold on him.

 

Finally saw the finale. My thoughts:

Spoiler

-I didn't expect Fish to kill Sal. Really expected him to survive until the epoch of the Batman

-What exactly happened to Butch? How did they brainwash him?

-Please, please, please let Fish be dead. Cannot stand her character anymore.

-Barbara is beyond redemption. What were the writers thinking when they took such liberties with her character?

 

Spoiler

Yeah Sal....they sure got rid of a lot of characters it seemed. Don't know how they're going to carry this off with Batman more than a dozen years away.
i don't get what they're doing with Barbara
Fish is gone i think....at least for the near future.

 

If anything, this finale made Fish essentially useless. Which, given the potential this character had is EXTREMELY disappointing. To me, it feels like the writers planned for 13 episodes and then scrambled when they were picked up for the full season order. This very episode in fact suffers from the same issues that this show has suffered the entire season:

Spoiler

Gordon rescues Falcone and takes him to his safehouse- where he is captured and going to be killed.
In the midst of a fire fight, they escape and hide to be captured AGAIN and brought back to be killed AGAIN. Only for Penguin to start another gun fight and this time they get smart and grab a car. What idiot writer felt the need for that? Just so Falcone could say he's out? He could have done that after they escaped for real. To me, it indicates that they can't figure out how to use their time wisely.

Also can we point out that Bruce has spent about 85% of his time in one room the entire season? And then spends this episode tearing the room apart until Alfred happens to say something useful and Bruce gets lucky enough to find the one book he needed. As other reviewers pointed out, if Fox knew about the book, he could have told Bruce a bit more than just that his father was 'stoic'.

Evaluate it honestly and ask yourself what was gained by Fish's side trip? Would the impact of her return been that much different if we hadn't seen her since Harvey sent her off on the ship? I mean if she can magically recover from a gun shot with NO explanation, why did we even need to see the whole dollmaker plot? Also, nice 'death'. Her name is Fish and she survived all of that just to take a dive into the ocean below. Somehow, I think she's still alive as long as Smith is willing to return some day and the show is willing to pay her. Certainly much more vague than being shot in the head like poor Sal.

How is Loeb not dead yet?

MISSING: Have you seen the following officers?: Rene Montoya, Crispus Allen and sure, let's add in Harvey Dent to that list too. The show's inconsistent usage of characters culminated though in what the writers did to Barbara. Wow did they have no idea what to do with this character. What's even more amusing is that they not only made Barbara cuckoo for cocoa puffs, but they also made Essin a married older cop and his boss. So now he literally only has Leslie Thompkins as a love interest until they find him someone new. Perhaps Maggie Sawyer will come to the show and be straight so Jim can have another love interest. It just seems like the writers don't have a very good long game planned. It would be far wiser to have made Maggie the captain. Same actress, different name. Then you have Sarah in the wings when you need her.

The ups and downs with the characterizations of Penguin, Selina and others is just frustrating now. Penguin goes from a smart chess player moving pawns around to a homicidal maniac. He switches back and forth so much that it's also gotten beyond ridiculous. And Selina is just a killer and hired gun now. She has no apparent moral code and seems persuaded easily since she up and joined Fish's gang so quickly.

At least Maroni an Falcone were solid. And yet that's what the writers decide to break up. I seriously hope they tighten up the writing next season or I expect a lot of deja vu next season.

Harvey Bullock and his relationship with Gordon is literally the reason I keep watching. Bullock is the best character on the show right now.

 

I enjoyed this season. It was my go to on Monday night.

 

Finally I care about Barbara as a character. Also I want Fish back

 

Gotham season 2: Tigress, Mr Freeze and Joker confirmed

 

So Carnie kid wins as The Joker? Fascinating. I'm always partial to the "Killing Joke" origin but I do see the appeal that he was a nutso from before the acid bath. Carnie kid was good in his "reveal" scene but I kinda wish they had played "multiple choice" Jokers throughout the run.

One thing I actually do like about this show, which may drive many many others batty, is that it kind of pulls from all Bat stories and styles and even tones (it has elements of 60s Batman in some of the performances / stories, visually it sort of looks like the Nolan flicks and the cop show elements seem sort of like the Nolan movies, and it also has the high menacing gothic feeling of Burton's flicks), which may cause whiplash but Batman's universe has always been tonally all over the place so it's kinda neat to see it mainlined into a single TV series, even if it does seem like it doesn't know what the hell type of show it is from scene to scene. But it's crazy and Batman's world is crazy so I'm down.