There are a lot of directions Gotham could have gone in, in its second episode. And it went in the most unexpected one: It’s basically an hour-long dark comedy.
The basic plot of the episode is a creepily wholesome Lily Taylor and Frank Whaley (you know him best as a man asked if they speak English in What) abducting adorable urchins for… some reason. Sex slavery, maybe. It’s kind of vague, although if the show is this good at creating supervillain-like characters without making them actual supervillains, it’s going to be a great season. Mostly it’s about the corruption that runs through Gotham, and the fact that this corruption is utterly hilarious.
This episode never turns down an opportunity to make a bleak joke. A beat cop is at the restaurant down the street from a murder, not because he’s investigating a connected crime but because they slip him fifty bucks a week in protection money. Gordon’s boss complains about his attitude, since now that he’s shot a guy in the back of the head at the docks, he should be “with the program.” And then there’s Oswald icing bros, a plotline that ends in an even darker and funnier place than where it started.
It’s great because it clarifies so much. Everyone’s corrupt, everyone’s on the take, and it’s just the way it’s done. Suddenly, stuff that shouldn’t make sense makes perfect sense. Of course there are open cells where Bullock can beat a suspect with a phone book; everybody does it. It’s a city where all pretense towards decency has been dropped like the sham it is. It’s oddly refreshing how casually nasty this show is, especially for network television; I’m genuinely surprised Fox allowed this on the air.
Granted, there are moments that this show slips, partially because the cast is huge and there just isn’t a lot of use for some of them. The Bruce plotline is dull, unless it happens to feature angry working-class Alfred, which fortunately it mostly does. Barbara is completely unnecessary. Jada Pinkett Smith might as well just be issued some A1 sauce and start literally munching scenery. But if the show can continue to be this dark and this funny, it’ll be something unique on network TV.
Some more thoughts:
- Basically everything Donal Logue does in this episode is great, even if he is playing Bullock up to eleven. I wonder if that cheap nutshot was scripted.
- They really need to let Angry Alfred kick some ass.
- I suppose Bruce being a cutter and listening to angry punk music makes sense, but it’s still kind of weird to see the future Batman as a sulky teenager.
- That bit with Lili Taylor and her gun jamming…wow. That was dark.
- Next episode promises to bring back the tiresome lesbian psychodrama the pilot hinted at.
Any thoughts yourself? Let us know in the comments!