Jokes, riddles, ice, and fire.
Warning: Full spoilers for Gotham: Season 2 below.
Gotham oh-so slightly improved over its first year in Season 2 by leaning into its penchant for demented violence and doubling up/doubling down on the villains. Of course, not everything clicked and the (over)use of evil-doers really shined a light on how much this show uses Batman's Rogues Gallery -- without Batman -- as a crutch. But there were a few times this year when things came together in fun ways.
Firstly, Cameron Monaghan's Jerome was a psychotic pleasure. No, he's not technically the Joker, but for all intents and purposes, for this show, he was - or is, really, since the season finale teased a return. It's hard to pull off a "Joker" nowadays given the iconic performances associated with that character, but Monaghan was able to make this his own and the episode where he got paired with Barbara, and she did a bit of Harley Quinn channeling, was enjoyable.
Sure, Jerome's attack on the GCPD would wind up being one of many (that place has been violently assaulted three times now? Four?), but it was the most effective. It was even intense enough to bring Bullock out of retirement - which made for that character's only really big moment of the season. There'd be a lot of bad guys this year, but Jerome was the best, followed closely by Hugo Strange and the official Riddling-up of Ed Nygma - whose diabolical plot to take down Gordon in the second half of the season gave us the best storyline of this run.
But yeah - villains, man. Rise of the Villains. Wrath of the Villains. Each half season was given its own telling moniker. And with the heavy-leaning into this theme came a much darker Jim Gordon. A Gordon who, aided by Penguin, would outright murder Theo Galavan. Which maybe could work on a different show to birth a compelling anti-hero, but on Gotham, where the bad guys are usually more likable than the good guys anyhow, it just gave even more of an excuse to not like an already gruff, unlikeable character. So when the time came for Nygma to frame Gordon for murder (and actually get him sent to prison for a decent spell), it was hard to sympathize, because Gordon is a killer. And Nygma's plot was so clever that you wound up admiring it and his ability to outsmart a blunt dummy like Gordon.
The first half of the season peaked with the Maniax storyline, and then fizzled under the boring influence of Theo and Tabitha and the plot to sacrifice Bruce. I'd say that usually, the flashier a character is on Gotham the better, but that doesn't hold true every time. Both Firefly and Mr. Freeze got two-episode origin arcs (they'd even return in the finale to battle each other) but there was nothing truly engaging about either of them. B.D. Wong's Hugo Strange however - a comic villain never before portrayed in live action - was very interesting. And Wong's performance, particularly in the penultimate episode when he confronted young Bruce about his parents, was spot on.
Strange started out as someone in control and who was devious to a unique degree, but unfortunately, he quickly started making sloppy decisions regarding his new farm of reanimated basement boogeymen - poor choices that easily led both Bruce and the cops to his doorstep and drew the ire of Penguin (whom he "treated" and randomly released, along with Barbara). Oh, and the Court of Owls, who were ready to punch his ticket at the end because of his gross mishandling of just about everything. So it was disappointing that our cold, calculating final boss (for the season AND for Bruce's parents' death) wound up being such a dope, after his strong set up.
By the time the dust settled on Season 2, Azrael made his debut (failing to kill both Barnes and Tabitha with a sword and then getting blown up by a rocket), Fish Mooney came back to life (with new Kilgrave-style powers), Bruce vowed to take down the Court, Bullock became the new GCPD captain (I guess? Sort of?), and Gordon went to track down his lost Leslie. All while a new parade of freaks were unleashed into the dark alleyways of the city (including a very silly-looking Bruce clone), signaling that Season 3 will be just as monster/villain-heavy as Season 2.
This is the show now... ALL of Batman's foes years before Batman. And if they're not the final version, they're the kid version, or an alpha version.
The Verdict
Gotham's Season 2 had more misses than hits on the villain front (which is really the only front this show has right now) but it did well by Riddler, Strange (until the end), and the pseudo-Joker/Jerome character. Also, Bruce's separate scenes with his parents' killers - the triggerman and the mastermind - were pretty good. Other than that, our heroes became one-note slugs who were hard to root for.
Editors' Choice
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