Gotham: Season 1, Episode 5

Gotham

Episode Title: “Viper”

Channel: Fox

Director: Tim Hunter

Writer: Rebecca Perry Cutter

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller

Runtime: 45 min

Rated: TV-14

Original Air Date: October 20, 2014

Gotham still suffers from a lack of identity. Is it a police procedural? Is it a superhero show? The writers don't seem to know the answer. Is it possible to be both, of course it is, but that requires a balancing act that thus far they have been unable to maintain. Due to this both aspects of the show suffer.

That is not to say that everything in “Viper” was bad. This was the first time I felt the plots in motion, or being put into motion, actually have some weight. Before this episode the audience was just told; Fish has this plan, Maroni is doing this, etc. We've now seen how some of those plans are going to progress, and the impact they might have week to week. The newest wrinkle, an apparent sympathy towards criminals is festering inside Wayne Enterprises, allows Bruce to have an intermediate goal on the way to finding his parents' murderer. The continuing stories are the reason viewers tune in every week and I'm happy with this new addition.

The mention of 'Venom' was a nice wink to the comic reading audience, and the show managed to lift a technique right out of the comics. Sure, on the surface it looks as though they killed another of their week to week villains, but we never saw the body. This leaves the door open for Stan Potolsky to make a reappearance, yes I know that the effects of Viper on everyone else would seem to keep this from happening. Here you're talking about it's creator, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to concoct circumstances under which he survived. I hold out hope that we might have finally met a villain of the week that we'll see again.

The writing in certain scenes was a bit curious. One moment that stuck out in particular was the scene in the station where Gordon and Bullock decide on a suspect. What immediately followed could have been handled in any number of ways. As filmed, Gordon and Bullock get up to leave and the acting and dialogue make it seem as though Gordon forgot to order and APB. They could have had Bullock mention it at once, excited to finally have a lead. They might have had Gordon order the APB as the next logical step to finding their suspect. One would think that Gordon didn't just jump straight to homicide detective, so he should be familiar with the steps he needs to take. Instead, to me, he seemed to be a bit scatterbrained and rookie like, not the image of Gotham's best cop I expected to see.

Conclusion: The overall arc for this season comes much more clearly into focus during this episode. Some clunky writing kept “Viper” from being a better episode, but it served it's purpose better than some of the previous episodes have. The growing relationship between Bruce and Alfred took huge steps forward as well.

Rating: 7/10