At the beginning of this year’s television season we were all ready to witness an unprecedented season that included seven comic book based television shows (Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter, Arrow, Gotham, The Flash, Constantine, Daredevil). Of these shows, the freshman pre-Batman crime drama, Gotham, was supposed to quickly rise and cement itself atop the throne of the comic book television genre. Advanced reviews claimed that the new series was a “Can’t miss” and that it would “immediately hook its audience”. Unfortunately for DC Comics and FOX, this has been very far from true.
The first few episodes of Gotham made it clear that the writers had gone to the George Lucas School of Subtlety. The audience saw the writers dance around weak plot in order to introduce a plethora of characters from the source material as well as continually, and blatantly, allude to Bruce Wayne’s eventual transformation into Batman years down the line. The entire first half of the season felt like the writers were winking at the audience, saying, “Did you catch that? Did you see what we did there?”
The inaugural season alone has seen the introduction of Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent/Two Face, Alfred Pennyworth, Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin, Edward Nygma/Riddler, Selina Kyle/Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Dr. Leslie Tompkins, Professor Pyg, Carmine Falcone, Sal Maroni, Dr. Dullmacher, Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow, Electrocutioner’s father, Commissioner Loeb, Barbara Keen, Victor Zsasz, and multiple potential Jokers. Granted, not all of these characters are recurring, but every early episode seemed to introduce another character from the comics which created an overly crowded cast and a convoluted plot, both of which remain obstacles in the final episodes of the season.
This is a problem because now, at the latter end of the season, when the plot is supposed to be at its climax, the writers are forced to keep the audience up to date with characters that no longer contribute to the main storyline. For example, Fish Mooney, an original character for the show portrayed by Jada Pinkett-Smith, hasn’t even been in, or had any effect on, Gotham for the past several weeks. Her arc has completely spun out of control and will be very hard to believably reconnect to the main storyline unless they pull some Jerry Seinfeld magic.
Each episode has about four story lines and it always seems like there is one plot too many. Last week’s episode, for example, saw Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock continue their investigation of the Ogre, a serial killer who seduces women before murdering them, but also kills anyone close to the investigating detectives. This has actually been one of the better story lines all season and introduces the intrigue and tension that have been absent all season. The secondary storyline saw Bruce and Selina attend the Wayne charity ball to further investigate his company’s shady employees. While this storyline can get a bit goofy, it is a perfect example of showing instead of telling us that Bruce Wayne will be Batman, as he begins to develop his detective skills and morality. I find it humorous and interesting and welcome the slight change of pace. The tertiary storyline saw the origin of Edward Nygma’s transformation into the Riddler. This had been a few weeks in the making and was done extremely well with Cory Michael Smith giving an incredible performance. But, there is always one story too many; the last few episodes’ extra plot revolved around Fish Mooney, this week, though, it shifted focus to Penguin. Essentially, he and Sal Maroni chatted at a dinner table with Oswald’s mother and Sal told her that her son was a psychopath. Now, this is obviously a tough thing for a mother to hear, especially since her and Oswald have such a close relationship, but it didn’t need to be told, at least not during this episode. While it seems more likely that this will contribute to the finale more than Fish Mooney, it added nothing to this episode’s plot and it completely killed its momentum.
Gotham still has a chance to somewhat redeem itself with its final two episodes, but no matter how great the finale is, this show will not be held in the same esteem as The Flash, Daredevil, Agent Carter, Agents of SHIELD, or Arrow. For Gotham to rebound and have a successful second season, I really believe that they need to sit back and watch Daredevil before writing the script. Now, I’m not trying to compare shows or start a war. The bottom line is that they are both first year, dirty crime dramas and one was extremely successful, pressing all the right buttons, and the other was very disappointing and struggled to find an identity (Even if you take Daredevil out, the show’s plot is exactly what Gotham should look to mimic). Daredevil’s short season definitely helped; with only 13 episodes the writers are forced to keep the story concise and to the point. But, that’s whatGotham needs to do in order to discover its identity and compete with the other shows in the genre next season. Sure, there will always be a few filler episodes in a 20+ episode season, and this is when you can wink at the audience and plant major Easter Eggs that may come to fruition somewhere way down the line, but the majority of them need to revolve around an overarching plot that continues to up the stakes and the tension as the season moves forward.
Fortunately, there is an easy way for Gotham to find its identity and it revolves around Falcone and Maroni, the two major crime families that are being ignored far too often. The show’s entire plot should focus on Falcone, Maroni and their struggle to take over Gotham. Using Penguin as a wildcard was a great idea, but was executed very poorly. Have Oswald break away from the two families and start his own faction. While he orchestrates a war between the two families he can slowly begin to take Gotham for himself (Somewhat cliché, I know, but you get the picture). The comic book allusions should subtly supplement that story; i.e. Victor Zsasz working as a hitman for Falcone.
At its heart, Gotham is a creepy, crime drama. It needs to focus on the injustice within the police force and the city’s government officials, the crime on the streets, and most importantly Falcone, Maroni, Oswald, and Gordon and the battle for power in a doomed Gotham.