Oswald Cobblepot is apparently the breakout character of this series judging from some online chatter. I guess I would agree with that, although it seems like the reason is that he's the most active and colorful character on Gotham right now. I would have chosen Bullock personally but even he's lost his bite in recent episodes. Whenever Oswald comes onscreen, viewers would pay attention to what's happening. The problem is the simple fact that Cobblepot keeps ratcheting up an unusually large body count. He has killed at least one person in every episode so far. It's gotten so ridiculous that, at least to me, it's become a running joke.





There has to be a time somewhere down the line where he's going to pay for all that death. So far, they've been obscure, nameless characters, which means that the death really doesn't have much meaning. Other than that, it's a performance without any sort of nuance. Cobblepot freaks out whenever he's physically threatened (as Gordon does here), but then switches into supervillain mode whenever it suits both him and the plot. Somehow, Maroni saw enough in him to graduate his position from lowly dishwasher (and a poor, absent-minded one at that) to restaurant manager. That shows me that Gotham seems to lack any sort of governing logic.



Four episodes in, and the show has become problematic almost across the board. I want to like this series but again, I think that I just have completely different expectations from what the writing staff intend to do with the series. Even the good aspects of this episode have some nagging issues. For instance, both the Maroni and Falcone characters set up a decent plan to leverage a vote from the Gotham city council on development of the Arkham district. They both send a lone killer named Gladwell to kill the crucial council voting members. Gladwell uses a unique weapon in a small metal spike that he stabs his victims with in vital areas of the body. He's also rather calm and menacing, which helps in springing surprises on his victims.


His spike weapon, however, is effective on his first two victims. When he attacks the mayor of Gotham City, I realized that his weapon would only be effective at close range. It's useless when he has to chase his victims, which he does with the mayor being protected by Gordon. Gordon drops his gun in the chase, which Gladwell picks up to use as the more effective weapon. Suffice it to say, Gladwell doesn't make it to the end of the episode. This is in part because he leaves some rather obvious clues behind that allows Gordon and Bullock to find him very easily. Like the Balloonman case, Gordon and Bullock (who once again seem to be the only cops doing anything in this crime-ridden city) solves their cases with way too much ease.





The ideas that the mob "families" use for the Arkham district do indicate that the show is thinking big picture. Only, the compromise solution that the mayor approves makes no real logical sense. Renovating infamous Arkham Asylum into a world-class mental hospital is a laudable goal. Having it sit next to a waste disposal site somehow ensures that the residents in that district will live in continual squalor. If Gordon thinks that these compromises are really the best way to avert a mob war, then he isn't quite the shining hero example that the show wants him to be. He would be complicit in creating the very conditions that necessitate his calling on Batman to save the city in the far future.


I find it somewhat disturbing that Gordon would speak to young Bruce Wayne about matters involving the city infrastructure that any normal kid would ignore. Yes, Bruce Wayne is not a normal kid, but there has been no indication that he has any kind of life or interests outside the walls of Wayne Manor. The show is playing the same beats over and over with the character and his relationships with Alfred and Gordon. There needs to be a change to this or the show will lose me.


The writers at least try to do something in that vein with Barbara's character, although like every other character on this show, it seems limited in scope. She spends the run of the episode wondering what is going on between Gordon and Cobblepot, and Gordon gives her an understandably evasive answer. So she goes ahead and tells him about her past relationship with Montoya with the thinking that he'll give up his secret in return. When he doesn't do that, she threatens him by leaving and breaking up. It feels temporary (due to the fact that the show hasn't proven to stick with much of anything so far), but it's at least a move in some kind of direction. Barbara is unfortunately a character that is only defined by her relationships with Gordon and Montoya. She doesn't have anything else. She doesn't leave the apartment to do anything. She doesn't even show the habits of an ex-junkie. It feels forced, and that's only the case because she's been pressured by Montoya in earlier episodes to out herself.





It's very troubling to see how this show depicts their primary female characters. Barbara and Montoya are ill-defined characters, and their past relationship is only there to manufacture drama that involves a romance without much chemistry. Fish Mooney is barely in the episode. She has three scenes, all of which involve a young girl "seducing" her as auditions to be her right hand woman. The end result is that the lackeys engage in a short catfight to see who ends up by Fish's side. There's something of promise perhaps brewing there, but I can't really see what that is right now. Gotham is a mess, and shows no sign of improving or getting into something of a storytelling rhythm.