Gotham has found its pacing. It took a few weeks (although I didn’t review last week’s episode here, my quick take on it is that it was pretty slow and basically a bit of a mess) but it would seem that this week the show finally hit on what many of us were expecting it to look like from the get-go. We came face to face with a “villain” that was neither shoehorned nor terribly over the top, there were Batman references that felt like they were going somewhere rather than just being thrown in our faces (coughArkhamcough), and most importantly, it actually felt more like a cop show.
The focus was fixed more on Jim Gordon this week than it’s been in a while, and that certainly helped Gotham a lot. That’s not to say I didn’t still love the Penguin-to-be’s background arc or the building tension between Fish and Falcone, but nonetheless it was nice to cut more consistently back to Gordon’s story and have him as more of an anchor than just another thread in a spool of subplots.
Speaking of that spool, little Bruce was a bit less contrived in this episode, and while some were complaining that he was too much like a mini-Batman in episode 3, I feel that it worked. After all, it’s not as though Bruce just sat around for years doing nothing before suddenly deciding one day to start training– he made the vow that night in Crime Alley to avenge his parents, and what we’re seeing now is the honing of that vision, the molding of Bruce’s idea of what he will one day become.
Ultimately, if Gotham keeps up the balance that they achieved in this episode, I think we’re in for a good season. (Also, though I’ll avoid details for the sake of not spoiling it, the cliffhanger leading to next week was GREAT.)
Score: 9.5/10
