“Damned If You Do…” gets a B-
Everyone’s favorite Batman show (without Batman) is back! Their season 2 premiere set up a few stories for the coming episodes, such as Gordon killing someone for Penguin, and Barbara and Jerome escaping Arkham with the help of Theo Galavan (the new big bad). Unlike last year, this season is more serialized, with two 11-episode arcs. I’m hoping that ditching the “case of the week” format will improve the show’s quality.
Gotham tries to balance its characters, and it mostly works. There are a lot of them, but putting Nygma in for just one scene feels odd. There are so many things going on in this episode that we need to wait too long to get back to certain characters.
The rest of this season opener saw Bruce and Alfred blasting into the cave. If this kid is going to become Batman, he should have been able to figure out that keypad code.
Gotham is finally embracing its campy side. Remember the Balloon Man from last season? It was hard to take that seriously. Having a guy called “Zaardon, Reaper of Souls” on your show is a big step towards finding the right tone.
Now, about Jerome. Is he the Joker? Is Barbara his Harley Quinn? Are they the Joker’s parents? Whatever route the show chooses, I’m fine with it as long as it makes a good story, but it’s a little annoying to keep teasing us with such over the top craziness.
I found this episode underwhelming. It’s not that nothing happened – there was a lot going on. It just didn’t feel like a true premiere.
“Damned If You Do…” gets a B-
Random Thoughts
- Please, no more Jim “run-cam”.
- Arkham is co-ed? Seems like a bad idea…
TV and City 