“Gotham” 2.3 – The Last Laugh (9.2 out of 10) – Written by Bruno Heller and John Stephens, Megan Mostyn-Brown Based on characters created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Howard Chaykin, Frank Miller, Greg Rucka; Starring Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, David Mazouz, Sean Pertwee, Morena Baccarin, Erin Richards…; Rated TV14. Aired on Fox 10/05/15.
This was another solid week for “Gotham” which already puts season two above season one. However I am nervous that with Jerome’s arc over the show will fall back into its new villain every week formula. My fingers are crossed that they don’t but we’ll just have to wait and see.
The show is really finding its own two feet, they seem to be ditching the canon and just pulling inspiration from it. Which is totally fine with me for one big reason that I have brought up time and time again. This is a show that takes place at least 10 to 15 years before Bruce ever puts on the cape and cowl and for that reason alone the show has to take certain liberties with the characters. Jerome and Barbara having the Joker and Harley chemistry is great. It allows us as fans to get as close as we can to the comics without them actually doing it and it was extremely entertaining to watch.
With Jerome’s death we know he doesn’t grow up to become The Joker but his actions have brought out the crazy in others and the ending can imply a couple of things. The first being that one of the people we saw or just someone else out there saw what Jerome did and uses that to create The Joker persona we know from the comics; or that The Joker is more of an idea and many people take up the mantel. As far as the show goes I like the second option better.
If you go with the first then whoever actually becomes The Joker would be no more than a copycat of Jerome’s and that alone takes away from what makes The Joker one of the greatest villains ever created. The second lets the ideology of madness take hold and means that anyone could be The Joker if they can turn off that sane part of their brain that lets them know when they’ve gone too far.
Barbara was a lot of fun to watch this week as well. It helps that she’s playing off of Jerome and together they are a great team but even by herself I’m really loving crazy Barbara. I hope that she continues to capture my attention in the weeks to come however because the other villains (with the exception of Penguin and Nigma) I find rather boring. Theo Galavan being the villain in disguise has potential and could cause a lot of frustration for Gordon. The sibling jealousy between Theo and his sister Tabitha over Barbara holds no interest for me and I really hope it’s not something like that which ends up being the group’s downfall.
Alfred and Leslie flirting was a nice little touch and the watching Alfred give Bruce a hard time for not telling him about Leslie and Gordon’s relationship before he put the moves on her was great. It really helped show that Bruce and Alfred are back to their old selves and are forming that relationship Bruce will depend on when he becomes The Dark Knight.
Bullock didn’t have a lot of screen time this week but the few minutes he was on screen was my favorite part of episode. Seeing him show up at Penguins headquarters and talk to him like he was the little punk he was when they first met was awesome. That scene really shed some light on the fact that Penguin doesn’t have it all figured out yet and how much he hates if even one person thinks of him as something other than “The king of Gotham.” I’m very excited to see what Penguin is going to do to Bullock for his little remarks. If I had to bet he’ll get his pay back by trying to corrupt Gordon in order to show Bullock that no one is above his influence.
The only thing I hated about this week’s episode was that fact that the 1% of Gotham’s citizenship held a charity event with no extra security right after the GCPD was attacked and the attackers said they were taking back Gotham. If for whatever reason the gala wasn’t canceled after six of the city’s most dangerous convicts have escaped then there is no way Gordon would have Leslie go by herself. Keep in mind one of the six is Barbara who has it out for Leslie and isn’t shy about it. The same goes for Alfred and Bruce, there is no way Alfred would put Bruce in that kind of danger. It just felt out of character from what we’ve seen from the show up till this point. I understand why they did it and to be fair I know the gala would most likely still happen in the comics as well but the very idea of it is so absurd and out of place the episode lost point there.
Overall a great episode and I hope season two can keep it up. I would hate from them to start strong only to fall back on bad habits from season one. I look forward to each Monday night and I’d like to keep it that way.