Caped Crusades Reviews the Second Episode of Gotham

It’s Tuesday which means it’s time for another Gotham episode review. My first episode review was a little brief so I thought today I would go a lot more in-depth in my discussion. I also should warn you that there may be some spoilers in this article, so if you haven’t seen the first two episodes of Gotham be sure you don’t mind spoilers before you read this.

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The second episode of Gotham is titled ‘Selina Kyle’ and in it we get our first good look into the young life of Selina Kyle, who is already going by the name Cat on the streets. When I was watching the first episode of Gotham I thought Selina was watching Bruce, after having witnessed his parents death, but now I’m wondering if it only looked like she was watching him because she was watching Gordon. I know Gotham is supposed to be this really corrupt and terrible town but to be honest when I see how city hall and the GCPD treat the homeless of the city I can’t help but feel that this seems like the sad truth in a lot of cities. The kids are on the street because no one wants them and the cops don’t care because they aren’t paid enough to care, and because the kids often turn to crime to survive so they are a nuisance  to city hall and police alike.

Watching this episode I feel bad for the people of Gotham, I feel bad for them because they are clearly all corrupt or stupid. This mayor is the first in a long line of idiot bastards who are terrible for this city but the people keep electing them! I understand being too poor to be able to leave Gotham, or too rich to give a damn about what’s wrong with the city but the mayors of Gotham have traditionally always sucked and in this particular case the mayor is driving me up a wall! I want to strangle the stupid out of him, which of course means that Richard Kind is excellent in this role, because in very little time he has made me hate him.

As I write this review I am re-watching the episode, mostly because I don’t remember seeing the possible Joker in this episode, and each episode is supposed to have one. The premiere had the comic performing for Fish Mooney but I can’t say that anyone stood out to me in this one. I can see how Penguin becomes the man he is when Batman exists, I can see the threads weaving together to turn these characters into the people they are destined to be, and because of that I am very much enjoying watching this show.

I’m watching Renee in these first two episodes and I can see why she and Gordon end up bonded they way they do in the future, only good cops in the whole town, eventually they’ll work together to make it a better place. I am also fast falling in love with the character of Fish Mooney, I think strong empowered female villains and just as important symbols for popular culture as strong empowered female heroes and civilians. It might just be my imagination but I look at Gordon’s fiance Barbara and I can see a bit of their daughter in her.

I want to stop for a moment and discuss something that was brought to my attention about this show in an article on io9, the inherent problem with Gotham. You can read the io9 article here. There is some concern that telling this story, with a young Jim Gordon as the lead, is going to negate the need for Batman to even exist in this version of Gotham. Either Jim Gordon will fail at his task of fighting back against the corruption, in which case how on earth does he get to be commissioner, or he solves all the cases of Batman’s villains before they ever face Batman and there is no need of him.

The problem with making Gordon the hero of this story is that he is going to have to succeed in cases that only Batman was ever meant to solve, because if he doesn’t then he’s not a hero and people could lose interest in watching Gotham. I think one io9 commenter JackRabbitSlim323 put it best:

"And so we reach the ultimate problem with Gotham. We can’t have Jim Gordon solving all of Batman’s foe’s crimes, decades before Batman can solve them. It defeats the purpose of Batman. By the time Batman comes around, Gordon will have compiled massive cases on the entire rogues gallery. All he needs is a DA brave enough in the form of Harvey Dent, to bring the cases to trial. At that point, Bruce Wayne would better serve Gotham through political and monetary support of the non-corrupt components of the city."

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