Gotham has been lazing around storylines for a while now. Though last week and the time before that showed vast improvement, we are nowhere near compelled or even excited anymore to see the direction that the DC show is going. Unlike its previous outings such as Arrow and the now popular Flash, Gotham still feels very tentative about packing an almighty punch. And whilst the different atmosphere, stripping back the imaginative villains of the comic book, is admirable – it’s fear of plundering into its characters and keeping them at surface level is detrimental to the entire series that is now being dragged out longer.
Black Mask was definitely a mixture of many different elements that even nodded softly to The Dark Knight. An underground fight club where rich people exerted themselves entirely over their rabbled employees watching them “Battle Royale” it out over a job certainly add an interesting, if albeit short, respite from the rest of the unfurling plots going on in town. It was nice to see a hint at another comic book villain as Gotham continues to sow the Bat-future seeds.
A little spoilers ahead but certainly a highlight for Black Mask was Alfred Pennyworthy. Rather than depict him as this stuff posh Butler, having Sean Pertwee’s gruff and honest Alfred more akin to Michael Caine’s butler is great. But what excels it forward is Alfred’s devotion to Bruce Wayne and allowing the young grieving boy to explore his anger a little bit more after he had exhausted his intellect. What follows is a bully being beaten up, a Bruce finally willing to fight and the best face any adult has ever pulled in glee from being told from a pre-pubescent child they want to learn to fight. It was like Alfred had all his Christmases at once.
Gotham needs to stop waddling along like Penguin and start throwing fists like Alfred. There needs to be an almighty punch soon because all it feels like is background noise. And Jim Gordon deserves better than that.