I feel like Gotham itself might be a high-concept Batman villain. “This will be my most dastardly plan yet! I’ll make the Caped Crusader look like he comes from a town full of stupid bullshit and dumb assholes! Hahaha!” Part of me almost missed reviewing this show – sorry for my absence – but another part of me gets headaches from how much I roll my eyes while Gotham is on.
To be fair, “A Bitter Pill to Swallow” wasn’t a completely terrible episode. Parts of it were actually good. But the parts that weren’t good…boy, they weren’t good. Let’s talk about the meat of the episode, which revolved around Tabatha Galavan’s attempt on Jim’s life. First of all, this plot lacks any tension or sense of peril, because Gotham is 100% not the kind of show that would kill of its main character. Tabatha goes to some hitman speakeasy to farm the job out, and while the aesthetics, as always, are one of Gotham‘s strengths, we know this plot isn’t going anywhere. I will say, though: the use of “Peaches” by The Stranglers was a great song choice, not only because it’s an awesome song, but because it’s a nice bit of foreshadowing that not everyone would pick up on, because Jim ultimately ends up fighting off a man trying to strangle him with piano wire.
Now obviously no one is going to kill Jim, least of all the man who the show posits as some creepy cannibal: Eduardo Flamingo, who even by Gotham standards is a stupid asshole. He has a Pepe le Pew streak down the middle of his hair, and when the show wants to show us he’s a crazy maniac, he laughs hysterically while Jim wails on him. Oh man, never seen that before! What a psychopath! That was great the first time I saw it, in fucking Fight Club.
Anyway, as tragically dumb and inconsequential as all this hitman business is, one place where “Bitter Pill” succeeds is in showing us Jim’s fabled dark side, which Barbara and Lee refuse to shut up about. Up until now, it’s always been told and never shown to us, but in “Bitter Pill” Jim dangles someone out a window and puts a gun in another man’s mouth. It’s strangely effective storytelling for Gotham.
The reason this show isn’t a complete failure is because of its B-plot. The way that Nygma and Penguin came into each others’ lives was inexcusably convenient, but I’m willing to waive that because, well, this show has perpetrated stupider crimes. What’s more, and I never thought I’d be saying this, Cory Michael Smith and Robin Lord Taylor play really well off each other. Taylor in particular has grown into his role very well, and the dismissive, disinterested Penguin we see in “Bitter Pill” is a nice fresh look at the character. Smith has had a harder challenge: Gotham took its sweet fucking time turning him into the Riddler, so now that he’s firmly embracing the change, he has to evolve a lot faster. His riddles are still stupidly easy to solve, but he and Penguin have genuinely good chemistry, and they’re a pleasure to watch play off of each other.
Bruce doesn’t get a whole lot to do tonight, but it’s always nice to see David Mazouz and his quality haircut. Alfred has some good lines, and I’m pretty sure he’s the only character on Gotham with a damn brain. But you know what? Problems aside, there was some solid storytelling in “A Bitter Pill to Swallow” that makes me think this show’s head hasn’t disappeared completely up its own ass.
A Few Thoughts
- Barbara being alive is incredibly lazy storytelling, and I don’t buy the Barbara/Tabatha love story that Gotham is foisting upon us. Barbara’s sexuality seems to change at the whims of the writers room
- Ben McKenzie acquits himself nicely in fight scenes
- That elevator music gag that we see in way too many action movies needs to die. Read this clearly, seemingly everyone in Hollywood: ELEVATORS DON’T PLAY MUSIC ANYMORE
- That green light shining into Nygma’s apartment was too obvious by half. I hope it was some oblique Great Gatsby reference, but I don’t think that’s the case
About Author
