Gotham Season 1 finale (episodes 21-22) review

As more Superhero shows begin to flood the market, I have to be more selective in which I post regular reviews about. It is with some regret that Gotham season 2 will not be reviewed (you'll see my reasoning during the reviews). But for now, see my opinions on the final 2 episodes of the show

The Anvil or the Hammer

The catchphrase of Wile E Coyote

I think this episode has confirmed to me that I won’t be doing regular reviews of the next season, it suffers from exactly the same problems. Disjointed sub-plots, irritating characters and a lack of interest for the case of the week plots

Gotham has serious work to do to improve its overall standing with me, but this episode was the culmination of all the things I don’t like about the series, and it’s the penultimate episode of the season.

But there is some good. I like the scenes between Bruce and Alfred, the Penguin’s plan to pit Falcone and Maroni against each other was interesting… The rest of it was goofy, uninteresting, and good god I don’t care anymore.

Barbara Gordon, let’s talk about her again. She’s the victim of our villain, and her character has advanced from uninteresting and annoying love interest to uninteresting and annoying period to uninteresting and annoying psychopath this episode.

Yeah, she told the Ogre to kill her own parents. Except we never see her do it. If we saw her do it I might be invested, as it stands, I’m really not invested at all. And the fact is for everything she’s not a villain in this story (I do kind of like the foreshadowing for James Gordon Jr in the comics, but… that would require them getting back together, and I seriously don’t see that happening)

So the Bruce Wayne subplot hasn’t got anywhere yet, the safe they stole the key to was empty (seriously, isn’t that like the first thing anyone would do if their safe key was stolen, use their inevitable spare key to empty the thing) and for the record, we’re no closer than we were on day 1 to finding out who killed Bruce’s parents. I wouldn’t mind this except the first episode and the mid-season finale were both based on this topic!

Yay, Lucius Fox, I’m so happy…

Rating 5/10

All happy families are alike

Namely crumbling

So, oh dear Gotham… I’m just gonna say this. The finale was good at what it set out to do, the problem is I don’t feel satisfied as all the other subplots, including the one that started the season off and was the driving force behind the mid-season finale amounted to teasers for the next season. It feels like a lot of build up for… Find out next season.

I’m not gonna be reviewing season 2 of Gotham, if it’s good I’ll do a retrospective, but more than likely it’ll fade from my memory. This show has left so little an impact on me and there are a lot of new shows coming out next year. (For the record, I’m probably not gonna do the Supergirl one, but I’m open to all the others)

So, what about the episode itself? The plot that gets the focus in the gang war: Falcone entering in his own fashion and the Penguin’s rise to power. Also Fish Mooney returns and somehow Selina Kyle gets involved with her and they both get a stupid new haircut.

When Falcone is injured and people begin to switch sides, Gordon decides the lesser of two evils is the better one and tries to help Falcone. It’s an interesting development that Gordon has come to somewhat accept that Falcone might be better for Gotham than what might replace him.

He manages to thwart the Penguin’s plot to kill him, but thanks to any number of favours he owes to Oswald, he’s force to drag him along as well. But of course Fish Mooney gets involved and hijinks ensue, Falcone decides to retire and Penguin takes the throne and everyone else dies.

In another subplot (subplots should not really be running in a season finale, a season finale should be payoff to what had built up before, any set-ups for future seasons should be subtle) we see Leslie and Barbara talk about what she went through, she went psychopath and was the one who killed her own parents. Oh my this character has fallen.

In subplot number 2 (there are actually 3 subplots) Bruce searches the library for his father’s secret, the secret that likely lead to his parents death. In the end he finds a secret passage and… roll credits, to be continued next season and I really couldn’t give a sh*t

In subplot number 3 we see that Nygma left a clue in the faked suicide note. Miss Cringle confronts him about it and he finally breaks down. I think they rushed this, unless Nygma goes full on Riddler very early next season, I feel like this could’ve used more build up.

It’s disjointed, the dialogue for Bruce is stilted and I’m still scratching my head about Selina’s actions

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.