Gotham (TV series)

[Palanan]

Well, the second episode was much less enjoyable than the premiere.

Spoiler: Second Episode

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Much as I wanted to like it, this was a rather uninteresting muddle of cop tropes. The story was plain if not threadbare, and the week's villains were apparently sendups of something from the comics I've never come across. They were too goofy to take seriously and too predictably evil, in a plastic sort of way, to ever be involving.

In fact, the only character who didn't come across as plastic was the Proto-Penguin, who's played just this side of incipient lunacy. Everyone else was thoroughly one-dimensional: the abusive jerk partner, the perky perfect girlfriend, the dangerous femme fatale, none of them remotely interesting. Gordon's girlfriend is a particular annoyance; she's devoid of personality and generally inane. And the city's mob kingpin, Don Tropeone, hits all the top-boss notes and still comes out sounding flat.

As for Cat, I liked her better when she wasn't saying anything. It turns out that when she talks, she's incredibly annoying. She also seemed oddly passive and easily herded, especially for someone who so easily flits ghostwise through the rooftops.

And Bruce Wayne…I'm really not sure where they're going with Bruce Wayne. I have the feeling that since they cast him for the premiere, they figure they might as well include him somehow. But it's the second episode and already he's in touch with Gordon about cases, getting himself involved. It's generically humanitarian so far, but Gordon is also getting to know him, and evidently is being set up as a father figure of sorts. I don't know much about the Batman mythos, but I never had the impression Gordon was that close to young Bruce Wayne.

So, a flat and uninvolving episode, a letdown after the premiere. Still willing to give it a chance, but they'd better start trying now.