By: Brandon Wolfe
‘Gotham’ is not shaping up to be a subtle show. As we spend more time with the crime fighting duo of Gordon and Bullock, what we’re witnessing is not merely a study of contrasts so much as two diametrically opposed archetypes thrust together to represent each extreme end of a spectrum. Basically, Goofus and Gallant as cops. Gordon isn’t merely a good cop, he’s the most noble, square-jawed beacon of decency conceivable. Bullock, on the other hand, is the most slovenly, unabashedly corrupt law enforcer you’d never want to meet. These aren’t characters, these are character types. It’s still early enough in the going for the show to deepen these men into something with a measure of nuance, but starting them off so entirely one-note is not starting off right.
“Selina Kyle” sets our heroes (or our hero and that gross jerk who works with him) on the trail of a kidnapping ring. Homeless teenagers are being shanghaied off into the night by a peculiar pair of emissaries (Lili Taylor and ubiquitous early-‘90s character actor Frank Whaley) for a mysterious villain known as the Dollmaker, for reasons that remain unknown by episode’s end. As the episode’s title might have led you to believe, the teens include the young Selina Kyle (whom people refer to as “Cat” because, again, this show likes to get everything right out in the open). In the course of investigating the case, Gordon learns that Gotham’s corruption not only extends to his cynical captain (who actually encourages Gordon to dirty up his hands with the advice that “if you don’t bend, you’ll get broke”), but all the way up to Gotham City’s self-serving mayor, portrayed by an oddly cast Richard Kind.
In villain news, mob second-in-command Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett-Smith, still playing thing very, very big) endures a tense meeting with her boss, kingpin Carmine Falcone, where the big man reveals that a little Penguin told him that Mooney was planning a move to remove Falcone from the throne, an accusation that Mooney sheepishly denies. And speaking of that Penguin, Oswald Cobblepot spends the entirety of “Selina Kyle” making his way back to Gotham after his mock-execution by Gordon (an act that seems to have given Gordon both some credibility with Bullock as well as something for his partner to hold over him). He is picked up by a carload of fratboy jerks who make the mistake of mentioning to Oswald – as everyone seems to – that he bears a striking resemblance to a penguin (he really doesn’t, at all, but show would like to you just go with it), resulting in Oswald killing the bros and taking one hostage, awkwardly renting a trailer from a farmer in which to store his captive. He attempts to ransom the boy to his parents, but his mother isn’t buying it and doesn’t pay. This subplot is so ludicrously untethered to anything else in “Selina Kyle” that it really only exists to keep the Penguin in the game, since he’s a famous Batman villain and that’s where this show’s bread is buttered (we do also get to meet Oswald’s doting mother, played by professional kook-portrayer Carol Kane, so clearly this isn’t Tim Burton’s Penguin).
Similarly extraneous is our check-in with young Bruce Wayne, which seems like it will become a weekly pit stop. Young Bruce has taken to deliberately burning himself, meaning he’s either on the path to becoming emo or becoming Batman. At the behest of a surprisingly short-fused Alfred, Gordon swings by to talk some sense into the boy, who reveals that he wants to donate money to help the homeless teens in any way he can, which means it’s probably the Batman thing more than the emo thing. The show’s insistence on having Bruce Wayne be a regular part of a story that seems designed specifically to not be his story smacks of simultaneous cake-having/eating. Just let this be Gordon’s story. Spreading the focus around in so many disparate directions at once is already emerging as ‘Gotham’s’ primary design flaw.
For an episode named after her, this isn’t really Selina Kyle’s tale. We don’t learn anything about her that we didn’t already glean from her brief appearances in the pilot. We know that she knows how to handle herself, especially around authority figures. Perhaps most surprisingly is that, when she claims that she’s willing to scratch an adversary’s eyes out at one point, she isn’t bluffing. She literally claws a man’s eyes out, a brutal bit of business that I wasn’t expecting from this show. The episode ends with her striking a deal with Gordon to reveal what she knows about the Wayne murders that she conveniently witnessed. Stay tuned.
It’s far too early to count ‘Gotham’ out just yet. Many classic series didn’t figure themselves out until their second season, much less their second episode. If the show isn’t functioning at optimal levels just yet, it has certainly earned a wait-and-see approach. So we’ll wait, and we’ll see.
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