Gotham
Episode Title: “Welcome Back,
Jim Gordon”
Channel: Fox
Director: Wendy
Stanzler
Writer: Megan Mostyn-Brown
Genre: Crime,
Drama, Thriller
Runtime: 42 min
Rated: TV-14
Original Air Date: January 26,
2015
I hate writing reviews like this one.
Gotham has consisted of
several ups and downs in its short history, and I've tried to give
the writers the benefit of the doubt. It takes some time for a show
to find its identity, to find the right balance between the larger
story arc and the cases in between. Finding the sweet spot as far as
how many individual character arcs you can fit into one episode must
be difficult, and Gotham
is operating with a very high number of concurrent stories to juggle.
“Welcome Back, Jim Gordon” is an example of most of the things
wrong with the series so far.
Present
in the episode are: Gordon's investigation into another member of
the GCPD, Fish Mooney's plight at the hands of Don Falcone, Penguin's
ascension as a major player in the underworld, Bruce's search for
Selina and the knowledge of his parents' murders, and Nygma's ongoing
infatuation with Ms. Kringle. It's just too much, there isn't enough
time to focus on so many different things. An episode that is only
42 minutes long cannot tell a self contained episodic story and move
the serial plot along with so much time devoted to things that don't
matter at the moment. The latter two plot points fall into this
category.
While
I'm glad that Bruce now has a reason to resume his own investigation
into the murder of his parents the setup for it should have been
withheld until his investigation plays a bigger part in an episode.
Combine those scenes with the scenes in which the audience is still
getting bludgeoned by how weird and creepy Edward Nygma is and you
have a major chunk of time that could have been more effectively used
elsewhere. Lets leave Nygma alone for a while, the show already has
plenty of villains to go around; there's no purpose in continuing
those scenes. A large percentage of the audience must know how he's
going to end up, and the ones that don't must see these scenes
largely as filler.
A huge
missed opportunity in “Welcome Back, Jim Gordon” revolves around
the capture of Fish Mooney. I think it's safe to say that we all
knew that Fish wasn't going to be thwarted quite so easily, she
wasn't going anywhere during so inconsequential an episode as this
random midseason dud. As her character is not protected by years and
years of comic book stories she represents too ripe a possibility for
surprising the audience. As one of the few characters on the show
that the writers have complete control over she doesn't have to fit
some preconceived role reinforced by decades of previous stories.
During the whole of her captivity I expected her to take matters into
her own hands, hatch an escape plan, and deal with her torturer in
most brutal fashion. Instead she's rescued by Butch, wasting the
chance to really see her cut loose. The only positive item of note
in her story this week is the revelation that she and Harvey may have
a closer relationship than we had suspected.
The
presence of Gertrude Kapelput, the Penguin's mother, in nearly all of
his scenes made them borderline unwatchable for me. Add to that a
very strange “getting drunk” montage straight out of an 80s flick
and you've got a sequences that had me begging for a commercial
break. For a character that had previously been one of my favorites
this was tragic misstep. His scenes with Fish near the end were
sullied by a new level of overcooked acting from Jada Pinkett Smith
as she decided to up the corny factor in her expressions and delivery
Gordon's
storyline involved him investigating something he'd been told to
leave alone, rampant corruption throughout the law enforcement
community, scenes in which we see that none of the other cops really
have his back, and Captain Essen being the one to step up and take
his side. Ultimately, after wasting a chance to change the show by
leaving Arkham Asylum behind, Jim's role this week was to do almost
nothing we hadn't already seen from him. The one bright spot
involved his appeal to Cobblepot for help in his investigation. Upon
receiving the Penguin's assistance Gordon is shown dealing with the
fallout of his agreement. Did he take the only option available to
him, and if so does this signify that Gordon has accepted that he's
going to need to choose between the various evils in Gotham to
achieve that best possible outcome?
Conclusion:
“Welcome Back, Jim Gordon” tried to do too much and through its
lack of focus managed to do nothing well. Between unnecessary scenes
and a blatant rehash of themes previously presented to the audience
nothing here felt new or important.
Rating:
5.5/10
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