Wow. Thanks! That nailed it on the head for me what was missing with him and it’s this. he doesn’t have to be a perfect fighter. He should come home bloody and messed up but he won. I think that would also help him gain some confidence he’s going to need as well.
I’m still torn on the show. Yes, comic book story and all of that, but it still seems as if it’s too early or we don’t get that “normal” people aren’t leaving in droves because I don’t know how much more corruption we can have and still have Gotham be a viable place to live. At this rate, this universe won’t have a Gotham for Batman to save!
As much as I would hate to lose a few of the younger actors, what the series needs, well what I want, is for it to skip several years between seasons, and maybe expand out when Bruce was doing vigilante stuff but not in a full costume. He was just in generic biker or drifter clothes. I think that would really help the show.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: David Mazouz only has maybe two decades left before he needs to be as big and tough as Michael Keaton circa 1989.
Given his age and his (lack of) height, two decades wouldn’t help. I really don’t expect nor need Batman in the series. It’s not Batman’s story.
Many cities have had mob shooting wars and serial killers, including my own when I was a child. These wasn’t a mass exodus and we’re still here. Gotham is even based on us.
I assume Penguin’s plan is to emerge from the vacuum after the war weakens both sides - but I’m not sure how he will avoid being caught in the cross fire.
[spoiler]So just have her get in a plane crash, or spray acid on her, or something else that would require reasonably extensive plastic surgery.
Or, as a nod to the original TV series (sort of), just replace her. It’s not as if the original series had the same actress playing Catwoman, or the same actor playing The Riddler (or Mr. Freeze), the entire time…[/spoiler]
I missed a few moments here and there; is Lucias Fox the gentleman Bruce was talking to at Wayne Industries who told/ hinted that his father had some secrets(I believe he said Mr. Wayne was a “stoic”)? Would this be the character that Morgan Freeman plays in the recent Batman movies?
When he demands “tell me who to kill”, why doesn’t she name Falcone, with whom she had a recent and unpleasant experience? The Stockholminess of that subplot is irritating, we should have seen her seeming to embrace her captivity, then grabbing a weapon and hacking the creep up (with clear borderline-sexual enjoyment) and then Jim shows up to “rescue” her. Instead, I now feel cemented in my indifference as to whether or not the Barbara character survives, except to the extent that she may draw screentime away from more interesting storylines.
Related is my annoyance of them continuing to use that crappy sketch (coupled with someone recognizing the person from an encounter nine years earlier). They do have a picture of the guy, with his pre-surgery face. Get some computer nerd to copy and flip the undamaged side and prepare a useful symmetrical composite, or since this universe evidently still uses flashbulbs, does digital graphic processing not exist?
I was further musing on what Barbara SHOULD have done (i.e. got the upper hand, tortured her captor to death, been found by Jim while smoking a satisfied post-murder cigarette) but it occurs to me that this in combination with Selena splattering that guy and the “balloon killer” from an earlier episode that an eventual bat-themed vigilante who doesn’t kill won’t be a symbol to a desperate corrupt city, but kind of a joke. “Whaddyamean mean you tied up the serial child molester and left him for the police? Why di’nt ya just waste him?”
Pretty satisfying on the main. I’m looking forward to hearing from those that are familiar with the oringinal comic, although I know some things have been changed for the show. Is Barbara a future villian from the original? It seems they’ve given her quite a bit of story line which makes me think she is a character that we will eventually recognize? In any event, I was tired of her from the start and was hoping she would get killed off, but damn if the whole cat fight / sudden burst of evil wasn’t a pleasant surprise.
OK, I’ll bite: why did Fish take a detour through that new Mad Max movie on her way back to Gotham? Seems like changing her look in new and exciting ways should have been he least pressing issue.
I’ll miss Falcone, if he’s really going away. He was the one crook with a certain amount of gravity.
Barbara’s version of events (before her psycho freakout) did not seem to jibe with my memory of how that scene (murder of her parents) played out in the episode. Purposeful misreporting or just a product of her madness?
I’m surprised Alfred seemed genuinely surprised at the (presumed) bat cave reveal. Seems improbable that Thomas Wayne would have been up to something like that without Alfred having some involvement (especially since Lucius Fox seems to know a lot about it, given the clue he gave).
And Ed has grown interestingly unstable, instead of just odd.
All in all, not a bad way to end the first season. I’m up for more.
Nope. This is a huge departure from comic book canon. She’s supposed to become Batgirl’s mom.
So either they’re going entirely in their own direction away from that, which is fine. Or they’re gonna come up with a convoluted, convenient way for him to meet and marry a different Barbara.
The finale felt unsatisfying to me. Probably because I wanted Fish to be irrevocably dead, like the Ogre was. I did like the interaction with Fish and the Penguin - it was good to see Penguin finally grow some balls instead of sniveling and quivering the entire episode.
Kinda disappointed in Falcone. “Huh, being a mob boss is actually not a safe career path. Maybe I should retire assuming I don’t get killed in the next five minutes”. It just felt very forced. Not necessarily out of character - I could see Carmine thinking about getting out earlier in the season - but just a forced in plot contrivance.
I felt bad for Butch. He’s really one of my favorite characters.
Barbara was annoying as usual. And apparently has had a psychotic break. I was really disappointed that Tompkins gave it to her request to be her counselor. That’s wildly inappropriate and would only happen in TV-land.
I do wonder if David Mazouz will have the chops for another season. I actually don’t mind him as much as the season has progressed.
Really good first season. Plenty of action, tons of legit suspense, morally ambiguous (I almost never knew who to root for or against), high stakes, pathos. Gets a little over-the-top with the bloodshed sometimes, and there’s so much story going on that it’s tough to keep up, but minor quibbles. Major like. I tell you, after what seems like an eternity of the putrid swamp that is reality TV, I didn’t think it was possible for primetime to be riveting again. And now it is.
I think the biggest revelation for me is how much I enjoyed following everyone. There literally wasn’t a single character who I thought was unbearable or a waste of space. Most of the time, you can set you damn watch by this. Futurama - Bender. South Park - Cartaman. Baby Blues - the neighbor’s son. The Simpsons - Dolph, Jimbo, and Kearney (with Patty and Selma getting a dishonorable mention). Not here. I even found myself liking characters I didn’t think I’d be giving the time of day. Carmine Falcone was almost sympathetic, Sal Maroni was downright charming, Butch was cooler than a suck-up goombah had any right to be, Victor Zsasz was brilliant in the menacing right hand man role, hell, I was touched by the plight of poor Lady Cobblepot (and I normally hate the token oblivious mommy!).
Fish? Y’know what, I think the best thing would be to open the next season with a report that her body was never found. Then hint at a possible return several times, maybe subtly implicate her in various crimes or shady dealings. Then in the season finale, with Penguin riding high and toasting his latest success, have someone knock on the door, which he cheerfully opens and sees…Butch, who happily reports that the cops finally found Fish’s body. A fitting end for her, to die the way she lived, sinister, untrustworthy, menacing, but ultimately no real threat. Which I strongly suspect was her true purpose all along, to show that as nasty as she was, she never had the chops to be one of Gotham City’s big dogs. I don’t want a new actress to portray her, and I don’t want her to be remembered as someone who actually mattered. She made some noise and died like all the rest. Que sera sera. Not everyone can be the quarterback.
Will definitely be around for the next season. This is must-see TV.
Worth pointing out that comic wise Batgirl/Oracle is not Jim and Barbara’s biological daughter. She’s Jim’s brother’s daughter who they took in and adopted as a child. But the elder Barbara was never an important character, they spent a lot more time on Sarah Essen (yeah, the boss lady of the police precinct on the show) as Jim’s second wife than they ever did on her.