Gotham Season 1 Episodes 2-4 review - Selena Kyle/The Baloonman/Arkham

Time to look back at our favourite gritty cop show, Gotham

Episode 2 – Selina Kyle

So, time to look into the psyche of Selina Kyle, aka the cat? She's street smart, that's really about it

Also, I guess there's no rights dispute with the Dollmaker, he's appeared on Arrow, now he's referenced in Gotham, I suppose this time he's abducting children, rather than murdering women but…

So, we have the mayor being a pr*ck and sending everyone they gather to a juvenile correction facility, and we have the Penguin dealing with people not taking him seriously. Seriously, it's only a matter of time before he becomes intimidating. (Or at least. that's what they want us to think)

We see Bruce testing his limits, leading to people around him thinking he's harming himself… You know, he's gonna be Batman someday? (... can we go one episode without this)

We also have a confrontation between Falcone and Fish Mooney, when Falcone has one of her staff because... threatening?

We also see Oswald's mother, jeez did someone see Batman Returns and think, yes, that's the design to go with. Well the joke's on them, as I explained previously, THAT MOVIE SUCKS!!

Anyway, she's talking to Montoya and Allen. They're still displaying about the same level of personality as ever. By the way, if the MCU is part of GCPD, doesn't Falcone own them too?

Some of the dialogue needs work, and time is short to improve

Rating 7/10

Episode 3 – The Balloonman

As only a 16 episode series (as of writing the review, it has since been increased to 22), Gotham doesn't have long to find its footing before it has to start being more than just average. This episode is sadly not the one and time is ticking away for the series.

Let's start with Bruce Wayne. Every scene he's in is just a hint that he's going to be Batman someday. This time he's refusing meals, and playing detective (even though in that regard he failed) please stop it, I'm getting bored

But on with the plot itself, a vigilante is killing corrupt officials using weather-balloons, yeah that’s the concept of the episode, and good god is it ridiculous. There are much easier ways of killing corrupt officials than using weather balloons; that surely would surely make a spectacle.

So neither Jim Gordon nor Harvey Bullock understand how weather balloons work, that's just funny. So we have a dozen sub-plots to get through in this episode, we have the aforementioned Bruce Wayne scene. Selena making an escape ploy, Montoya finding out about Cobblepot's murderer and being a basic jealous b*tch, and we have Cobblepot's return to the city with an increasing body count.

The thing about the Cobblepot story is that I still can't imagine anyone respecting him. He doesn't seem confident enough around people to be respected. Perhaps his journey is gaining that confidence, but to be honest, we need to see it, because we all know where it’s going. Having said that the few scenes dedicated to this sub-plot are actually fun to watch.

Rating 6.5/10

Episode 4 – Arkham

So, Gotham has 22 episodes to fill, to be honest, it's been struggling to make things not seem like filler with 16.

This episode got the ball rolling slightly, with the redevelopment of the Arkham district being front and centre. But my question is quite simple. What was the assassin's plan here? He was killing from both sides, and killing the Mayor. TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT? Surely no-one wants a gang war, not even Maroni

And adding to that, Gordon is divulging everything he knows to Bruce Wayne, but NOT TO HIS OWN WIFE! Who reveals today, what we all suspected from the get-go that her and Montoya were in a relationship.

And we have Oswald Cobblepot, OK, I’ll admit it, I may have been wrong about the character. He's playing everyone around him, hoping to up himself in the criminal underworld, and killing his accomplices to, I assume, assure no-one talks.

His conversations with Jim Gordon are the most intriguing of these. Why he's playing this game is unclear, but he seems to be growing in the criminal underworld, as the death of his manager (arranged by him it would seem) had allowed him to take a further step up the ladder, that will inevitably see him becoming the Penguin we're familiar with.

Fish Mooney has her sub-plot, as she searches for someone to assist in her plans to take over from Falcone from the inside. It’s a fairly basic sub-plot, but it's an interesting one none the less. Clearly she's going to be a key player in the coming gang-wars

All this highlights my major problem with the series. The police aren't engaging. Seriously, I haven't talked about Harvey in this review yet (or in many others); in fact this will be my only mention of him. He hasn't got a character or back-story, and it's hurting him in the long run. And any other cop, I don't even care, it's just another cop.

Rating 6.5/10

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Images used in this review are from Gotham and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.