Television review: Gotham- Episode One: Penguin makes it worthwhile

UK Channel: Channel 5

UK Season: 1, episode 1

UK Premiere Date: 13 October 2014 at 9:00pm

Country of Origin: USA

Show trailer: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d1zpt6k5OI

Official website:
 http://www.fox.com/gotham/



There wasn’t anything particularly new in Gotham episode one. It was a television programme set in some alternate reality where people have mobile phones, but it didn’t resemble anything close to what you could call contemporary reality in a 2014 context.

The 'good cop' doing his cop show pose. 

It was established that the city is corrupt, and that you are probably better off just going along with the corruption if you don’t want to end up with a bullet in the back of your head. The main protagonist was, as you might expect, somebody new to the system who is going to change it by sticking to his personal code of morals, where he will do what is right, even at cost to himself, and his family. The problem was that this first episode had a cop out ending where the individual (a young Commissioner Gordon with a cool haircut) was faced with this moral dilemma, only to dodge it completely.

The underlying moral philosophy that will drive this show is that you can change a corrupt system by joining it. This is standard fare in all (corporate sponsored) television programming, pushing the idea that an individual can change a system by working within it. I have a problem with that. My main problem is that it’s a philosophy that (much like the ending of this episode) gives people a moral cop out. You don’t change a system by joining it. It incorporates you, and if you think that you are bigger than an entire societal system of evil and corruption, that you can change something a billion times bigger and more powerful than yourself then you an egotistical, programmed and utterly deluded individual. By joining any evil system you strengthen it, and the world keeps on turning, just like it always has done. All rebellion is incorporated. If you join, you lose. You change evil by refusing to join evil, not by kidding yourself that you can change it from within.

Penguin, the best thing about the show.

The show, looking at it from a character and narrative standpoint, wasn’t terrible. The plot was predictable, in that the killer wasn’t the killer. Of course he wasn’t, he never is in these shows. That was fairly obvious, but there were a couple of characters that made it more interesting to see it being played out. James Gordon was what you might expect from a show such as this. He was good cop playing with bad cops. The Penguin character was great though, a snivelling ambitious, cowardly, weasly psychopath who cares only about himself, and his future career progression. The guy who played him was the best thing about the show, by a long way. The ‘Fish’ character was somebody we have seen before, a ruthless crime boss. The twist was that she was not at the top of the crime pyramid, and was being used by a bigger fish in the pond. They kept that twist to the end, and that elevated the plot into something a bit more interesting than I thought it would be. The Bruce Wayne character has been done to death, so it was a good idea to keep him in the background. The child actor wasn’t great, but he looked like a young Bruce, so that will be enough. The fun part of the show, for comic book fans at least, will be to spot the younger versions of their favourite villains. This one had a young Poison Ivy. Her Dad was a low-level criminal; she hated him, but hated the Police even more. That makes sense. Oh yeah, the show had the Riddler in it as well.  I could watch the show just to spot the villains. That could be fun.

Gotham says nothing about our world. It’s just another cop show, with good cops and bad cops. The viewer’s point of view is obviously on the good cop, as he tries to change a corrupt system. Good luck with that mate. The plot was blah, with some nice twists at the end to make it appear more interesting than it actually was. The show looked big budget, and it also looked a bit like old comics. That was okay. The bloke playing Butler Alfred had a horrendously fake English accent. He’s English as well, so that was a deliberate choice made by the programme makers. I still don’t understand why they do that. What’s wrong with an English guy just talking like a real English guy? Oh yeah, Catwoman. She was hanging around, looking like a lost kitten that would survive about a minute and a half in the real world. She was too feeble for me, but, again, like Bruce I guess she was cast for her looks, nothing else. I’ll conclude this review with a couple of reasons why the programme wasn’t a complete waste of time. The young villains, and the Penguin. That’s all there is here. Is that enough? As a one hour weekly distraction? Yeah, it’s just about worth checking out. If you like your old Batman comics then the show should have enough to keep you interested, at least for a while.

Rating: 6/10