This Monday, Fox premiered the eleventh episode of Gotham, Rogues’ Gallery. After a mid-season break where fans were left to stew on multiple plot lines involving James Gordon, Oswald Cobblepot, Fish Mooney, and Bruce Wayne, we got a pretty lackluster episode that had various examples of deus ex machina and characters who acted illogically.
I know that I sometimes sound like a person who actually belongs in Arkham Asylum when I describe certain future Gotham episodes as “exciting” and then tear the story apart in my reviews. However, that’s only because I’m really hoping that this show would learn from its mistakes and improve. What has always been consistent has been my criticism of the writing — the way things play out much too easily with no surprises or twists. Rogues’ Gallery is no different.
WARNING: If you haven’t seen Rogue’s Gallery, this criticism piece contains spoilers
With James Gordon being demoted to an even lower underdog status as an Arkham Asylum guard, this episode should’ve been rife with conflict. Are you saying Gordon had it too easy, Steve? Yes! Gordon wasn’t challenged enough and many resolutions were not well-deserved rewards. I would say that there were no problems that glaringly stood out because all of the problems stood out by themselves equally.
The introduction of Leslie Thompkins was much too straightforward, and she hit it off with Gordon much too easily and much too soon. If this show is designed for fans, then the writers should know that you never introduce a known protagonist as herself. It’s akin to having a character with this dialogue, “Hi, my name is Leslie Thompkins. I’m a good guy and I will help Gordon in this episode.” It’s boring, dull and serves no real purpose in pushing the story forward. Allegiances should be questioned, and characters need to have trust issues.
Don’t get me wrong, Morena Baccarin did a great job playing her. It was the characterization of Thompkins that I had a problem with, and that issue has to do with the writers. Why was she so cooperative with Gordon, and why did she fawn over him on their initial meeting? To tell you the truth, her real identity should’ve been kept a secret until the very end. It would’ve also made her a suspect in the forced electroshock therapies of the inmates. Since we’re now on that topic, why in the world did Gordon immediately rule her out. Thompkins seemed a much better objective detective when she forcefully proposed herself as a suspect. If Rogues’ Gallery was introducing a mystery, it failed at that on many levels. Every character should’ve been suspicious.
And being obvious seems to be a consistent theme in Gotham’s writing. It was no surprise that Jack Gruber was the mastermind of the attacks. The writers introduce him as arrogant, eloquent and played by an established actor — Christopher Heyerdahl. The minute I saw the character, I started to scream at my monitor (yes, I watch television on my computer screen). I was angered by the fact that working writers would write something that seemed like a first draft from a film school student. Yes, students who haven’t grasped the concept of “always aim to surprise your audience.”
People reading this may say, “But Steve, they did have a twist with Nurse Dorothy Duncan being just another pawn.” No, a twist that you can see from a mile away is not a twist. The insanity of Dorothy Duncan was a bit too blatant. There was no subtlety. Besides, her nurse’s uniform alone seemed completely old-fashioned and out of place — compared to Leslie Thompkins’s more modern doctor’s coat. There should be some consistency in the medical attire. The writers should also be aware that when audiences realize that there’s still over fifteen minutes left in the episode, there’s an expectation of more story — which means they know a twist is coming. Her convenient death was also another (sorry about the pun) dead giveaway. When the inmates trampled over her, my deus ex machina alarms went off like crazy. Gordon and Thompkins didn’t put much effort into their own escape.
Since we’re now talking about insane characters, what’s up with Barbara Kean? In my review for Rogues’ Gallery, I complained how Barbara just bought into Ivy Pepper pretending to be Gordon’s lover. It was ridiculous and really served no purpose for the story. Barbara was the one who left Gordon in the first place, and here we have her in a sobbing mess, tricked by a mentally unstable Ivy Pepper. Her reaction to Ivy’s ruse was just as ridiculous — throwing the phone across the room in anger.
Harvey Bullock, even though he’s becoming a better character, shouldn’t have had any interactions with Gordon. The whole purpose of putting a lone man on an island is so you can leave him isolated without any help — watch how he can rise to the challenge. Allowing Gordon to continue to have contact and support from the outside world weakened what could’ve been a tense, frustrating situation for our protagonist.
Rogues’ Gallery could’ve been a great episode, but the writing had too many conveniences. The title was also a misnomer as we really didn’t see any “rogues” in the plural sense. In fact, most of the inmates seemed completely harmless. The episode was just boring and dull with a lot of unnecessary side stories which contributed nothing to the overall story arc or Gordon’s dilemma. The writers really need to take a step back after each episode’s final draft and be brutally honest — ask themselves if what they see is actually a first draft.
Fox’s Gotham airs on Mondays at 8:00PM EST.