Review: Gotham 1.18 - Everyone Has a Cobblepot

Hello, my name is Aaron H. and I’m a Gotham hate-watcher.  This is my first time in front of the group.  Before I move on the particulars of this episode I would like to share my general thoughts on the series so that my words can be understood.  I really enjoyed the pilot.  I thought the focus was a bit wide and there were too many references and cameos.  My hope was they would dial that focus down a bit and we’d spend more time with Gordon and Bullock in something of a police procedural that happened to take place in Gotham.  I suppose if we must focus on characters in a show titled after a city, and not that city's police department, these two would be fine.  I am wrong. This week’s episode was not the worst episode that I’ve seen but there is no reason to watch it.  The dirty cop Gordon nailed is released.  Gordon finds out it was Bullock who recanted his statement and the two have a mumble off.  Who can talk the quietest and have the most nasal, gravelly voice?  It’s a tie.  In case you were wondering.  It remains one of the many mysteries of Gotham.  However I am glad the boss from The Incredibles is still getting work.

Animation made flesh

Fish Mooney gets a new eye, because that’s how eyes work.  Also the Dollmaker, when the hell did the Dollmaker get so popular anyway?  He’s shown up here and in Arrow and I think he was a major villain at the start of the New 52 Batman.  Why does anyone care about that D-List Bat-villain anyway?  I digress.  Also the Dollmaker turns his old assistant into a screaming Frankenstein with big boobs.  It’s the height of classy.

Edward Nygma continues to pursue what appears to be someone who fell out of the 1950’s but she just keeps evading him.  Why the hell do I care about this?  What does this have to do with anything?  How does this even play into him becoming a villain?  If it does play into how he becomes a villain how is that even compelling television or story telling?  This woman rejects me for cops so now I hate cops?  Stupid.

There was very little baby Batman here as he and a wounded Alfred are confined to a hospital room the entire episode.  Penguin’s motives are unclear and handled poorly when he saves two people just to kill them later.  Well, first he has one kill the other and then he kills the survivor.  Because he only had one shotgun shell…???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????  No, the Riddler did not take over my review.  That question needed all those so that you can understand how stupid it was.  There is no saving this show at this point.  Too much damage has been done to these characters.  You would need an entire season just to rehab Penguin.  I like Bullock, I don’t care about him, but he’s at least likable.  Gordon is bland as twice baked cod.  Riddler is impotent and Penguin is annoying and I wish they’d just kill off Fish Mooney already.  But they won’t, I’m sure they paid a lot of to have Jada Smith up there over enunciating words in some inscrutable accent and they aren’t about to let that money go to waste.

This episode does nothing to flesh out the established story (the murder of the Wayne's), for adding new elements to the story or even just acting as a placeholder for the series in general to prevent some other show from taking the time slot.  Feel free to skip this one, feel free to skip the whole series for that matter.


Score: 1/5

Gotham 1.18 - Everyone Has A Cobblepot