TV Review: Gotham "Rogues' Gallery"

Read on to see what's going down in Gotham this week

Gotham “Rogues' Gallery”
Review by Brandon Wolfe

It would appear that Gotham didn’t make any resolutions for the New Year. The show kicks off 2015 still plodding along as tepidly as it did during its dismal fall run, the same key problems remaining intact. If the show is going to blossom into something worthwhile during its first season, perhaps it’s saving that for the spring, that time of the year when all that is withered begins to bloom. That or it will continue to die on the vine. It could go either way.

Displaced from the GCPD for his unwavering straight-arrow crusading, Gordon has landed in a menial gig as a security guard at the newly reopened (yet still dilapidated) Arkham Asylum, overseeing lavish inmate talent shows, the likes of which are almost certainly commonplace at institutions for treating the criminally insane. But because Gordon watching incarcerated felons perform dinner theater would threaten to make Gotham even more boring than it already is (or perhaps not; a bunch of mugs belting out Sondheim tunes in real-time would be infinitely more entertaining than Gotham’s default state), a mystery quickly begins a-brewing, as inmates begin showing up with signs of invasive, unauthorized electro-shock treatment, leaving them lobotomized. Gordon begins poking around, making the acquaintance of the fetching Dr. Thompkins (Morena Baccarin from Firefly) and butting heads with obstinate facility administrator Gerry Lang (Isiah Whitlock Jr. from The Wire) before calling Bullock to the scene for assistance. Bullock takes Lang to the station for questioning and it comes out (after both the audience and Gordon have already pieced it together) that daffy Nurse Duncan, who had been flitting around the proceedings from the start, is not a nurse at all, but an inmate pretending to run the asylum. However, the real culprit behind the electrocutions is another patient named Jack Gruber, who manages to orchestrate an escape from Arkham via a riot.

For an episode called “Rogue’s Gallery,” there is precious little in the way of notable Batman villains, which is especially baffling since the episode offers up several Arkham residents. If any of the several goons or nutjobs that Gordon bumps up against this week were supposed to be anyone noteworthy, the show doesn’t tip its hand to that. Gruber does bear a certain resemblance to noted Bat-adversary Dr. Hugo Strange, but there is no indication that this is indeed his true identity. There’s no reason why Gotham needs to engage in constant fan service and, as point of fact, starting off its run by cramming in so many familiar names at once felt reductive, but if you’re going to give an episode that title and set it entirely among Arkham’s criminal population, that comes with certain expectations that the episode very pointedly does not meet.

In fact, the only real members of the Rogues' Gallery that exist in “Rogues' Gallery” are the two we’ve been with all along: The Penguin and Pre-Catwoman Selina Kyle. While the latter is put into play just to escort the street-urchin version of Poison Ivy into Gordon’s currently abandoned apartment (a development that exists only for Ivy to make Barbara think Gordon has moved on when she hears a female voice answer his phone, and is precisely as pointless and dumb as it sounds), the former winds up behind bars after overstepping his bounds as an enforcer in the Maroni operation, demanding an increase in dues paid from the fishermen at the docks. This raises the ire of Maroni (who, hilariously, voices his disapproval of the Penguin’s actions by pointing out how those poor fishermen are “risking their lives” for their trade), who dresses down his underling. As ever, the mob-war story thread is completely uninvolving, with a bunch of players on both sides jockeying for position. Here we have Fish Mooney (still being played by Jada Pinkett-Smith in a performance visible from space) dispatching her enforcer Butch to thin out some of her competition, specifically an old friend of his with whom he reminisces warmly before putting a bullet in the man’s head in a scene that’s like a dollar-store version of The Sopranos.

The worst of all of this (which means you know it’s bad) is the Barbara thread. She’s left Gordon and has reverted to her lesbian roots by shacking up with former lover Detective Montoya. But, in a scene that is just unbelievably poorly conceived, Montoya abruptly breaks up with Barbara without provocation, leading to a cringe-inducing perfect storm of bad acting, worse dialogue and inept characterization. This entire thread is utterly pointless, and it’s clear that the writers have no idea where to go with it or even why it’s here, other than that Barbara is a character on the show that we know will be Mrs. Gordon eventually, so they can’t just lose her. Gotham doesn’t really do anything well, but writing for these two female characters is quite simply the nadir of its skill set.

So what’s good about “Rogues' Gallery?” Hmmm, give me a minute. OK, the buddy-buddy camaraderie that has developed between Gordon and Bullock is mildly engaging, if just as an oasis from the earnest-to-a-fault dreariness of everything else on the show. And Bruce Wayne and Alfred weren’t crowbarred into this episode, which is good (if major characters NOT appearing can be considered a strong point). Beyond that, it’s all dire stuff. With Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. showing some recent sparks of life lately, it would seem official that Gotham is now the dullest, clumsiest comic-book-related series currently on television. God, just let Batman begin already.

Discuss this review with fellow SJF fans on Facebook. On Twitter, follow us at @SandwichJohnFilms, and follow author Brandon Wolfe at @BrandonTheWolfe.