Gotham, Episode 3: "The Balloonman"
This episode of "Gotham" found the city dealing with it's first? vigilante as a man starts attaching weather balloons to various corrupt people in the city. Montoya and Allen probe deeper into Oswald's disappearance and Gordon's connection to it and another mob boss enters the fray for control of Gotham's underworld. All this and a familiar face re-enters the city.
"Gotham" continues to be a show with tons of potential that comes close to reaching it, but falls just short in it's third episode. It is becoming a little more deft in the way it juggles it's plotlines, but where the show is continuously falling short is in Ben Mckenzie's portrayal of our protagonist, Jim Gordon. He is just too somber. I understand that Gotham City is a somber and dangerous place, but it's OK to crack a smile. There could be some gallows humor. Mckenzie works so hard at being intense all the time that his performance is coming off as really one note. It's almost like he only has one facial expression and we see it all the time.
On the flip side, Donal Logue really seems to be relishing his role of corrupt Detective Harvey Bullock. One of the most entertaining portions of the episode was watching Bullock schmooze hookers one minute and beat up some dude in the next. No matter which he is doing, Bullock looks like he is having a ball. It almost makes Gordon crack a smile. Almost.
This episode's villain of the week is kind of lame and unoriginal. I could be wrong, but I believe "The Balloonman" was a villain created specifically for the show and he is just too generic to really make much of an impact. "Gotham" as a television show will live and die by how strong the villains they introduce are, whether they are established baddies or ones that are being introduced for the series. Each villain needs to be unique and engaging even if they are just showing up for one episode. If they aren't, it will bring down the quality of the episode. The reveal that the Balloonman was just a disgruntled GCPD officer was a bit of a letdown too. It seemed that they are just trying to further illustrate and hammer home how corrupt Gotham is at every level, which I think we all pretty much know at this point. The upside to this villain was that it seems to be helping young Bruce Wayne construct his ideas of right and wrong and shape the vigilante that he will be. Bruce recognizes that while the Balloonman may be murdering bad people, he is still a criminal and no different than the people he was bringing to "justice."
As per usual, "Gotham" really shines when Fish Mooney and Oswald Cobblepot take center stage. The former is still stinging from Carmine Falcone's visit to her club in the previous episode. She begins to enact her revenge against Falcone. She drops tells Montoya and Allen that word is that Gordon killed Cobblepot on Falcone's orders and has Falcone's girlfriend, Natalia, roughed up and mugged. It's fantastic to watch Fish and Falcone circle each other and I can't wait for their turf war to come to a head.
Robin Lord Taylor continues to kill it as Oswald Cobblepot. Penguin makes his return to Gotham City in this episode, and I'm pleasantly surprised that the show didn't drag out his return by a few more episodes. That is probably the benefit to only being committed to thirteen episodes initially, it helps to make things a little more fast paced. Cobblepot continues to veer from meek to menacing. He kills a thug who recognizes him and then attacks another simply for shoes that he can wear at his new job in a restaurant. In the restaurant, we are introduced to Sal Maroni played by "Dexter"s David Zayas who is another rival mafia don. There is much talk about the closed Arkham Asylum and when he catches Oswald eavesdropping the two have an interesting conversation that gets the wheels in Cobblepot's head turning. Oswald showing up at Gordon's apartment to end the episode makes me really excited and hopeful that maybe a Penguin/Gordon uneasy partnership could bring out new aspects to Gordon.
We briefly touch on a few peripheral characters. Selina shows up just long enough to tell Gordon things we already know and escape his custody. There is more of the Montoya/Barbara/Gordon love triangle. Is it a triangle if one of the people involved doesn't know the other one existed? I still could really care less about this and every time the show touches on it my eyes kind of glaze over. I still am not sure why I should care and I'm hoping the show gives me reason to if it's going to continue to be a thing.
I mentioned gallows humor earlier in my review and I will say the show did sort of dabble in that when the dead body fell on that woman walking her dog. It made me chuckle and I think the show could do more with that kind of thing.
Bottom Line: "Gotham" continues to show promise in it's third outing, but it takes kind of step backward with it's third episode. A lackluster villain of the week drags down an episode even with strong B material.
Grade: B-
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