By: Brandon Wolfe
Donal Logue has proven himself over a span of many years to be a talented, perfectly enjoyable actor. Playing a sarcastic crank like Harvey Bullock, Logue should be the saving grace of ‘Gotham,’ livening up the dour proceedings with a snappy line. But in “Spirit of the Goat,” Bullock takes center stage for once and it becomes more evident that the show has no idea how to use what should be a huge asset. With the material working so fiercely against him, Logue can only do so much, especially when forced to speak lines as musty as “The press is gonna have a field day” and “The whole thing’s gonna come down on us like a ton of bricks.” The series imprisons Logue in a tomb of blandness, neutralizing what should be a regular source of vibrancy.
The episode begins on a flashback to ten years ago, back when Bullock was a young cop with a bit more life behind his eyes. Pursuing a serial killer called The Goat, a lunatic who wears a black mask with horns that none-too-subtly visually evokes the eventual Batman, Bullock and his gruff, future-Bullock-esque partner Dix (Dan Hedaya from ‘Cheers’) corner the suspect in a dilapidated building. While Dix is critically injured in the encounter, Bullock manages to shoot the Goat dead, ending the killer’s spree as well as the young cop’s dewy-eyed innocence.
But then the Goat killings resume in the present day, with the new killer’s crimes containing traits of the old that were never disclosed to the public, or even, nonsensically, to any other cops besides Bullock and Dix. The targets of the new Goat are the children of Gotham’s elite 1% (which, incidentally, was also the Penguin’s desperate final plan in ‘Batman Returns,’ though I tend to doubt that this was an intentional nod). Bullock is baffled by the resurgence and in the course of his and Gordon’s investigation, actually seems to uncharacteristically care about the case. The ultimate point of “Spirit of the Goat” is for Bullock to get his groove back, to show that there’s still a human being and a decent cop buried somewhere within this calcified hunk of self-interested cynicism, but it doesn’t quite land because Bullock is such a shallow character thus far in the series. Maybe he’s not all bad, but he still doesn’t feel anywhere near enough a well-rounded person for the new shade to resonate.
Not that anyone is well-rounded on this show. Nobody talks like a human being on ‘Gotham.’ All the dialogue and character moments are frustratingly stilted. It’s the sort of processed-TV writing that one wonders how the people creating it don’t zonk out at their laptops from boredom. Our hero, Gordon, has yet to do or say a single memorable thing in six episodes. He’s like a placeholder until the real hero arrives. The most thankless role on the show has to belong to Gordon’s fiancée, Barbara. Erin Richards could be a fantastically gifted actress, but you’d never know it from what’s she is given on this show. All she is ever allowed to do is talk to Gordon melodramatically about their relationship or to her former lover, Detective Montoya, melodramatically about Gordon. These scenes are horribly tedious bordering on unwatchable. During her conversation with Gordon in this episode, Barbara emphatically begs him to let her carry half of the burden he carries and you listen to this wondering if the people who write this show have ever heard or engaged in an actual human conversation in their lives.
Here’s how incompetent ‘Gotham’ is: There’s a killer on the loose targeting the children of Gotham’s wealthiest residents. FINALLY, an organic way to work Bruce Wayne into an episode. The killer could go after him and Gordon could protect him. No more disconnected non-sequitur scenes of Bruce milling about his mansion and talking like he’s already been a detective for 32 years while Alfred looks on with concern. Bruce actually fits in with the central storyline for once. Yet the show never has the Goat storyline intersect with Bruce. He just continues milling about and pinning things to his huge Board O’ Crime. The closest thing to action with him comes when Selena Kyle sneaks into his room for reasons unknown, swipes something and abruptly leaves a few seconds later. So, keeping score, this show has TWO child characters it has no idea what to do with, but feels the need to keep around because of who we know they will become many years later. Fantastic.
The same could be said for future Riddler, Edward Nygma, who is given a boost of screentime this week. The show is still nudging us in the ribs every ten minutes or so about his fate (he annoys Bullock with riddles; Bullock says he’s good with puzzles; etc.), but he gets a protracted comedy routine this week where he awkwardly flirts with a comely records clerk named Kristen Kringle, even going so far as to smell her hair. It’s strange and not at all amusing. I always want ‘Gotham’ to lighten up a bit, but if this is its idea of funny, then maybe don’t bother.
The Penguin continues to be the only character on this show of any interest, largely by default. It’s not that the character is written any better than the others, but at least he’s not a piece of driftwood like everyone else. The show still can’t decide whether he’s a diabolical genius or a pathetic loser, but it seems to tip in the latter direction as he returns to his creepy mother (Carol Kane, frequent user of zany accents and, like Hedaya, another veteran of old sitcoms) to bellyache about how his plans have failed and for her to console him while he bathes in the tub. The show doesn’t seem to know who this Penguin is, exactly, but at least the character doesn’t feel like he’s on network-drama autopilot the way the others do. On ‘Gotham,’ you take whatever you can get.
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