First Look: Mad City | Season 3 Ep. 1 | GOTHAM
Robin Lord Taylor , Richard Kind and Michael Chiklis in Gotham.
If you caught Sundays 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, you were treated to a truly delightful celebration of the finest modern TV has to offer; the stellar performances that genuinely moved us; the daring directing choices that continually wowed us; the tight, focused writing that made these talented, diverse voices sing. Hi, my name is Vinnie Mancuso and Im here to say: Never mindthat s**t, here comes Gotham.
Yes, ladies and gents, FOXs beautiful baby Bat-quel returned with its third, THIRD, season premiere, Better to Reign in h**l, which is a reference to John Miltons Paradise Lostthat has no connection, allegorical or otherwise, to the plot of Gothams third season premiere. Unless, of course, you equate Satans rebellion against G*d and subsequent fall from grace to buying a fitted black polo from Kohls and calling yourself a bounty hunter. Thats the driving force of Gotham now, by the way; Jim Gordon hired someoneto film him with the sepia filter onso he could surprise Leslie but double-swerve shes moved on to someone else. Jim, despite the fact that he let Leslie think he was rotting away in jail even after the miscarriage of their child, is just Hot Topic-d by this development into quitting the GCPD, throwing out every article of clothing he owns that isnt fit to brood in, and hunting the monsters plaguing Gotham City off the grid for 5 grand a pop.
And you know whatI love it. Thats the thing with this show; after three years together, Ive grown to enjoy it for its Captain Barnes head-sized flaws. Yes, Gotham is a series so tonally, narratively and straight up logistically inconsistent that Im genuinely shocked when the title is spelled correctly every week in the opening credits, but thats what makes it fun. Asking me to review Gotham at this point is like asking a legitimate food critic to review Taco Bells menu as if it was anything other than a choice between some old, boring nachos and a bloating sack of melted cheese, or like asking a respected political analyst to review the 2016 Presidential election as if it was anything other than a choice betweensome old, boring nachos and a bloating sack of melted cheese.
Whoa boy. Call this recap a poo-scented hand-cream because this s**t just got topical. But if youll allow me to get serious for a moment
Better to Reign in h**l, for all its amazingly Gif-worthy moments of chubby low level gangsters angrily swiping bottles off of tables, was not much more than a game of catch-up, an hour to explain where everyones been since the season two finale while setting the stage for things to come. Episode writer John Stephens accomplished this by loading exposition into a nuclear bomband firing it into the sun. A SANDWICH? I half-expected someone to yell, at any point. You know I havent eaten a sandwich in SIX MONTHS, roughly since the conclusionof last seasons events! So, as long as were treating subtly like the time Bullock legit almost murdered Jim in season one bypretending it doesnt exist, I too will quickly explain where we find our major players, and how we got here:
JIM GORDON: Like I said, Jim is in a rough place, as is Gotham itself. Crime is rampant, Godzilla is robbing pharmacies, Leslie is living with someone who looks a h**l of a lot like Jim in shadowy lighting, in an idyllic suburban house with windows definitelylarge enough so that this does not count as being conspicuous:
So, yeah, Jimbos not doing so hot. Hes making great money though, charging top dollar to catch Hugo Stranges basket of deplorables or whatever that are running around tearing apart the city. Like me, hes doing the same exact thing he was doing for the last two season of Gotham, except way drunker.
BRUCE WAYNE AND ALFRED: These two return from a quick sojourn to Switzerland, because apparently its easier to research a shadowy, all-powerful cabal whenyoure wearing clogs. Bruce wastes no time calling a Wayne Enterprises board meeting to, essentially, challenge the Court of Owls to fight me IRL. I could genuinely watch Sean Pertwee scold the smirk off businesses executives for a full 40 minutes, so no complaints here, and the on-screen chemistry between this pre-Batman and an unsure-about-all-this Alfred remains rock steady.
Meanwhile, Bruces doppelgnger is lumbering around the streets of Gotham, eating garbage (I assume) and just generally looking like Edward Scissorhands circa freshman year of high school.
FISH MOONEY: Fish is pulling a Theo and galavanting around Gotham wearing a costume I assume was in the original sketchesfor X-Men: Apocalypse before Bryan Singer told his designers to dial it down around 15 to 20 notches.
OSWALD COBBLEPOT: Penguin, who in my reality is played by 15-time Emmy winner Robin Lord Taylor, has offered $1 million for anyone who can bring him Fish Mooney, dead or alive. Hes obviously not strapped for cash, because in addition to high-value bounties hes also been fueling fanfiction flamesacross the country by sending Eddie Nygma biscuits and sweaters in Arkham Asylum.
BARBARA KEAN: Along with Tabitha Galavan, and despite the constant interference of Butch Gilzeans ever-present erection, Barbara has opened a new nightclub named The Sirens, proving Gotham City will in fact hand out a liquor licenses to a clinically psychotic, convicted serial killer and a leather-clad super-assassin that may or may not moonlight as a dominatrix. It took my uncle, like, two years to get that thing in New York City.
NATHANIEL BARNES: The captain of the GCPD now has a b*m leg, a result of that time Theo Galavan rightfully mistook Barnes for a Halloween pumpkin and attempted to carve him up.
SELINA KYLE: The entirety of Selinas dialogue is still being written solely by this man.
IVY PEPPER: Ivy fell into a sewer pipe, which spoilersis going to double her age because Gothams producers were uncomfortable with you getting seduced by a 14-year-old, ya bunch of freaks.
There we have it, Gotham season 3. Going forward: Bruce was taken by the Court of Owls, Jim is barely a couple steps ahead of a prying journalist in his search for Fish Mooney, and Captain Barnes is assembling yet another special force to be slaughtered next week. Captain Barnes loves assembling special forces that get slaughtered the next episode. If Michael Chiklis ever approaches you to join so much as a softball league, you f*****g run.
As always, lets run down every reference, fact, and nugget of Bat-history brought up in the season 3 premiere, Better to Reign in HellGOTHAM CITY SIRENSJessica Lucas and Erin Richards.
The name of Barbara and Tabithas nightclub is a nod to Gotham City Sirens, the title of both a 2011 comic series and the books titular group of villainous, slightly insane femme fatales Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. Theres some opportune timing here, as well. I mean, Selina Kyle is still making terrible cat puns and chugging milk every other scene, but Tabitha Galavan basically has the wardrobe, presence and overall deadly slinkiness of an adult Catwoman. We already know Poison Ivy is on her way, as soon as Ivy Pepper crawls out of whatever sewage plant that causes you to fly through puberty. As for Harley Quinn? Well, Gothams producers already promised a forerunner to the role recently blasted onto a big screen by Margot Robbie. For a textbook example of what a forerunner to Harley Quinn would look like, look no further to the mood-shifting, high-cackling way the scene-stealingErin Richards plays Barbara Kean throughout Better to Reign in h**l.
VICKI VALEJamie Chung as Valerie Vale.
Vicki Vale, played here by Once Upon a Times, has been a character since 1948 when DC writers decided Superman had a newspaper reporter girlfriend so Batman needed one, too. Since then shes morphed into much more of a badass, figured out that Batman was actually Bruce Wayne roughly twenty times, and notably lasted several decades as a journalist in Gotham City without ever being suspended over a shark tank by a crazy person in tights.
HUGO STRANGES MONSTERSI applaud the fact that Gotham, never one to shy away from a cheap comics nod, seems to have simply made up their own gang of weirdos for the Arkham Asylum escapees. Theres Marv, the fountain of youth in reverse, that guy with the goggles that Im sure serve some purpose, and what appears to be a massive walking ice-cream cone. The only monster in Hugo Stranges basement crew who is familiar is the only one Jim Gordon manages to capture; thatscreeching, flying dude is clearly a precursor to Man-Bat, a character that is pretty much exactly what he sounds like:
Oh, and that one guy I am 1000 percent is a Jawa from Star Wars.
Source: http://observer.com/2016/09/gotham-reference-guide-3x01-the-jim-gordian-knot/
