All Happy Families Are Alike

I mean are the henchmen trained by Stormtroopers? I mean the action scene where the henchmen attacks Jim were he is protecting Falcone and the Penguin, I mean the scene is so terrible, slow motion when he rises with his two guns, like its gonna make us feel "wow he is so cool and great" well it diden't. I mean who is the guy that is koreograph that makes these scenes. bad bad bad and bad.

Please learn to make a scene with feeling, those thugs were horrible at shooting with the arsenal they had, almost felt like stormtroopers, and that dude the assassin that got released from prison...lol yeah he was really good.

/Mats

This series is a real roller-coaster ride, and after the low of the terrible, 3-part serial killer episode, we get a season finale high that - while admittedly ridiculous - was also tremendous fun.

A wild medley of mob hits, new alliances, nervous breakdowns, shootouts, and secrets, the highlight was the return of a punked-out Fish Mooney assisted by a newly edgy Selena (because the way you know a criminal is serious is by their new hairstyle).

Much of the episode was absurd, such as an unconvincing shootout and a rather petulant killing. But Penguin was great as always, Nygma had an interesting scene, and even the tail end of the serial-killer story contributed some entertaining (though not entirely surprising) moments.

I hope this series is more consistent next year. If only all the episodes were as good as this one.

When I initially began watching "Gotham", I was terrifically excited about the potential of an origins story for the city that Batman eventually protects. While knowing that a young Bruce Wayne would be part of the show, I honestly didn't even expect much from that angle. I knew going in that this would be mostly a police procedural dealing with Jim Gordon and some familiar villains. With the first season having just come to a close, the show ultimately did not live up to expectations. It is strictly a guilty pleasure, for a number of reasons.

The main problem with "Gotham" is that its narrative structure backbone is essentially a gang war between Carmine Falcone (John Doman) and Sal Maroni (David Zayas). There are indeed many other interesting things that happen in the show (which I will get to in a moment), but the entire structure is indeed based on the gang warfare principle. Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) and Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) play major roles in the gang activities, to differing effects. Fish is an extremely annoying, time-wasting character from the beginning, and she stays that way until the end. Oswald starts off as the best character in the show...but then is given very little new material after the first 4-5 episodes. All he does is stir up trouble between Falcone and Maroni episode in and episode out.

The other glaring weakness of the show is that the writers/producers really don't seem to have a direction that they are settled upon. They look to be just "throwing things against the wall to see what sticks". This is not a show built on careful plot/character deliberation. Instead, it is "charge forward and figure out the direction when you stop to catch your breath". This is especially galling with the Edward Nygma (Cory Michael Smith) character. They tease his presence during the entire season...and then give him some rush, tertiary character development right at the very end. Obviously, nothing was planned out in the making of this show.

There were, however, some great, spine-tingling moments/characters that made me tune in for all of the episodes this season despite proclaiming my ambivalence to the show practically all the way through. For example...

-James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) is a tremendous lead and I could see him easily turning into the "Commissioner Gordon" we all know and love. Unfortunately, in typical show fashion, he is saddled with a terrible partner character in Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue). Not terrible in terms of acting, but terrible in that it is essentially a tag-along character. -Young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) is spot on as the "spoiled rich boy who just lost his parents but will someday become a hardened hero because of it". His interactions with butler Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee) produce some of the best moments/dialogue of the entire show. -Young Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) is a wonderful feline precursor to his later cat-ish ways. She is also the spitting image of a young Michelle Pffieffer (who played the Catwoman role in "Batman Returns") and carries a great screen presence.

All in all, "Gotham" is a show that "has its moments"...but not nearly enough of them to sustain any sort of interesting narrative over the course of a season (or probably beyond). I know that in the early goings of the show, the Bruce Wayne component wasn't going to be added at all. However, it seems like the FOX producers realized that they couldn't (or didn't want to) make a show called "Gotham" without a Batman-ish presence, so they caved. Not a good way to start the existence of the show...not knowing where it was going from the very beginning.

I compare this first season of "Gotham" to the later 2-3 seasons of "Smallville", which dealt almost exclusively with villains and story ideas plucked right out of comic books. That is really what "Gotham" is: crime noir (that could be ripped from the pages of any graphic novel) with enough canonical moments to keep Batman movies like myself interested. Thus, if you don't mind it being a crime/police procedural at heart, you will likely enjoy the proceedings much more than I. However, if you are looking for a true Gotham origins story (using the characters from the movies), you will be severely disappointed after the first few episodes. It just lacks too much focus to be anything close to great.

The second last episode was so great that sets up a grand finale. Following gang wars setup from the beginning itself which were mostly cold wars develops into a formidable end as Penguin orchestrates his bigger plan. Shootout sequences were the best part of the episode followed by the face to face fight which we have been eagerly waiting for. Plus the ending developments especially attributed to Edward Ngyma hits it out of the park while the solved mystery twist of the previous case provides good surprise element. Coming to acting performance, although it was a Robin Lord Taylor's Penguin show the whole thing changes once Cory Edward Smith steals the limelight with his performance by the end.