Gotham Balloonman Review
The third episode of Gotham “Balloonman” aired last night, and the show is coming into its own. It’s very difficult to gage a show in the beginning of its premiere season, but Gotham is working hard to clearly define itself. Three episodes in, and the major players are in place and the main themes are clearly laid out. Last night’s episode moved the last piece into place and revealed just how much there is to look forward to before the end of the season. But even while Gotham is setting itself in an interesting direction, and has some fantastic moments, it also has some glaring flaws.
One thing that really annoys me is a script that lacks subtlety, and Gotham has been very heavy handed from the beginning. Batman and his villains are defined by the corruption that exists in Gotham, so this corruption is obviously an important element in his origin story. The show is all about examining how mob control of the city develops Gotham’s heroes and villains, but it can’t seem to do so without showing just how corrupt Gotham is every few minutes. Harvey Bullock (played by Donal Logue) is Jim Gordon’s (Ben McKenzie) partner is constantly shown beating people during interrogations, or consorting with questionable characters. His behavior is juxtaposed with Gordon’s, who is constantly referred to as “boy scout” and being placed in situations where he can show his morality against Bullock. On top of that, any scene where Gordon is with his fiancée Barbara Kean (Erin Richards) centers around him complaining about the corruption he sees. We get it Gotham; you are a seedy and broken city. Not only have you established the idea, but you wield it like a jackhammer in every episode. Can we please spend some time on plot and character development?
It’s not that the show is ignoring plot and character, but they seem to take a back seat to developing the idea of corruption. The result is silly plot lines that make me giggle and question why I am continuing to tune in each week. This week’s villain was the Balloonman, a killer who strikes his victims by binding them to weather balloons and allowing them to float away into the atmosphere. It’s that kind of writing that makes me question why I am spending time on Gotham; Alfred (Sean Pertwee) even says, “I can think of easier ways of killing someone.” For every tense and compelling scene in Fish Mooney’s (Jada Pinkett Smith) club, for every piece of fan-service that hints at the future development of a major Bat-villain like The Riddler, for all these amazing things that Gotham has to offer, they frustrate me by writing villains that kill with weather balloons. The beauty of Batman lies in the eccentric villains, they each have their gimmicks that make them captivating; but they are super villains, and they reappear and develop new and creative ways to indulge their quirks. That’s what makes them interesting. Gotham’s flaw is that they are trying too hard to pave new ground with an old formula and the combination of the two has created a freak-of-the-week format that doesn’t work in the context of the world.
The bad comes with the good. McKenzie’s performance as Jim Gordon is understated and he quietly battles his morality as he is presented with the opportunity to become corrupt at every turn. As an actor, McKenzie is placed in a web of caricatures. The vast majority of Gotham’s performances are overly animated and feel uncomfortably comic-book-like in the dark and gritty world the show has created. My favourite part of Gotham so far is the reimagining of Oswald Cobblepot. Played by Robin Lord Taylor, he finds the middle ground between an understated and extreme performance. Cobblepot has been the centre of his own story line as he has made his way back to Gotham. He has been an interesting character since the beginning, in the premiere he was sycophantic and sadistic and in this episode Cobblepot shows just how far he will go to survive. Taylor’s performance is appropriate to his character. In one moment he is quietly observing his surroundings and he allows his menace to show in his face, in other moments he lets loose and is the very picture of over the top cartoon villain. It’s his ability to instantly switch from one to the other that makes him so believable as a sociopath. His path to becoming The Penguin gets clearer with every episode and that is worth tuning in for.
