Gotham Review: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Of "Pilot"

The Bad: That's A Lot Of Rogues In The Gallery

As great as was the balance between the acting and the cinematography of the pilot, the episode suffered from an inundation of superfluous characters. While there's nothing wrong with a few winks here and there at fans of the source material, throwing out cameos of some of the most well-known figures of the Batman universe stuck out so much as to disrupt the balance of the plot. The little redheaded girl hovering over potted plants and oozing malevolence at the authorities was clearly a young Poison Ivy; was it really necessary for her to introduce herself as actually named Ivy? Edward Nigma as a forensic investigator in the Gotham police department was a fun twist for potential Riddler plotlines, but Harvey Bullock actually complaining about Nigma's riddles irritated more than tickled. Characters referring to Cobblepot as "Penguin" multiple times throughout the episode without any real reason actually lessened the gravity of his villainous turn at the end. We can only hope that the comic auditioning for Fish Mooney doesn't turn out to be the Joker. Overall, the Easter eggs of the episode were so blatant and numerous that they would have fit well in a feature film; to include them in the pilot overwhelms plot elements unique to the show and presents the possibility that the series is playing its best cards too soon. Less obvious but still underwhelming were the action sequences. The most notable of the hour was the chase scene in which Jim Gordon pursues the fleeing Mario Pepper-who seems to be running for no reason beyond providing a few stunts to liven things up-throughout his apartment building, through a factory, across rooftops, and down into a dingy alley. While not a dull sequence, its similarities to a scene from Se7en (and done better there) invite unflattering comparison. This chase is also heavily reminiscent of a sequence from the pilot of Arrow, where the pure athleticism and savagery of the hero was enough to make up for any plot thinness. Without a standard comic hero, action is an area in which Gotham may end up struggling in general, particularly in comparison to other DC programs that will air this fall.