Monday, February 23, 2015

Gotham: Season 1, Episode 17


Gotham
Episode Title: “Red Hood”
Channel: Fox
Director: Nathan Hope
Writer: Danny Cannon
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Runtime: 42 min
Rated: TV-14
Original Air Date: February 23, 2015

Luckily this week's episode of Gotham, “Red Hood,” was not what I was expecting from the primary villain(s). Without a Batman in Gotham the Red Hood that we know from the comics is impossible, and instead of finding a contrived way to introduce the audience to Jason Todd the writers went a different direction. Initially I thought it might be a reference to a previous incarnation of the Red Hood, The Joker, especially after the criminal we first see in the hood let loose a rather maniacal cackle. With that idea also apparently discarded we're left with just a gang of bank robbers trying to use the hood as a symbol.

The case this week was pushed to the background by everything else happening in “Red Hood.” On the positive side of things we got to see some quality scenes involving Bruce and Alfred. A military buddy of Alfred's showed up in the night and Bruce offered him refuge in their home. We got a lot more background on Alfred and got to see the inception of Batman's fighting style. It's not always honorable, but he's going to set out to hurt his adversaries with whatever dirty trick or improvised weapon is available. This particular story line concluded with a rather shocking moment; although it lost some of its impact due to our knowledge of how things are going to end up. This only highlights the fact that the writers should break away from the constraints of the comic stories and tell their own tale, in an alternate universe type setting. Surprise me and kill someone I think can't die, that's the only way that the danger in this show will have an impact.

The rest of the episode was spent portraying characters as strange, incompetent, and creepy. Fish Mooney received her audience with the manager of the organ farming ring she's fallen in to. Let's forget about the absurdity of that entire situation; how quickly she gained control of her fellow prisoners and how little time it took for her to convince all those people to be willing to die for her. Instead lets focus on the immediate situation. Her negotiations don't go very well, although she didn't seem to put a lot of effort into it, and in some twisted scheme to deny her eyes to her captors she digs one out with a spoon and stomps on it. How does that even seem like a viable plan? In Fish's former club Penguin is still being painted as an incompetent by the writers. This is a guy who played the two major gang family leaders against each other and now he's forgotten how to scheme. Add to that the strange change in Butch's character, now he's got some sort of pride in the club instead of being brainwashed into following orders, and you've got a mess of a situation with Penguin. One of the better characters on the show is in a downward spiral that I hope they can recover him from.

The last bit of strangeness involved Barbara. She is now living with Selina and Ivy, one would think that she must be lonely or something to tolerate such a strange situation. After creepily harping on how beautiful Selina could be she decides to dress the two girls in her old clothes. She proceeded to give Selina some odd advice about the power of being attractive being akin to wielding a gun or knife, in regards to what you can get with out. The only positive here was that the whole conversation led to a pretty decent burn from Selina about how well that plan has worked out for her.

Conclusion: The case this week itself wasn't bad, if really only background noise for the other things going on. The Bruce and Alfred arc this week was by far the most interesting, with and ending that I wish could carry more impact than it does. Most of the other primary characters featured in “Red Hood” are suffering from varying levels of absurdity, almost sabotage, that make it hard to take anything they're doing seriously.

Rating: 6.25/10

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