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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOWS
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1. Penguin's death
Ok, I'm still kinda processing this, and I'm still angry, so you know, maybe take all this with a grain of salt...but geez! I can't believe they did this. I can't believe it.
Still, suddenly everything makes sense, and it's so freaking sloppy. That's the only word for it. Sloppy. I can't believe Penguin -- my dear, sweet Penguin -- had to die in this sloppy, sloppy plot. He deserved so much better.
On the one hand, if you pretend Season 3 is the only season of Gotham, it's actually pretty good, this character arc of Penguin's. On the other hand, Season 3 is not the only season!
See, this whole "learning to love" character arc would have been great if Penguin didn't already know how to love. We know Penguin is capable of sacrificing himself for a loved one because, in Season 2 when his mother was kidnapped, he told Galavan, "Then kill me, but let [my mother] go."
Granted, you could make the case that the stakes were higher this time because Penguin was also in danger of being tortured, not just killed. But still, Penguin's actions don't have as much significance here as the writers would have you believe.
But now I understand why they acted like Oswald didn't know how to comfort a grieving Ed. The episode after Oswald killed Isabella, Gotham portrayed Oswald as well-meaning, but completely stupid in the affairs of the heart and completely unable to feel Ed's pain and completely without remorse for causing Ed pain.
Let's compare with Season 1, shall we?
When Maroni told Gertrude that her son was a psycho, and Gertrude was shaken to her core, did Penguin take a selfie with her and expect her to feel better? No. He made her a pot of tea and actually tried to comfort her. And when he lied to her and broke her heart, did he tell her that she barely knew Maroni and she shouldn't linger on his words? No. Penguin cried even harder than his mother cried.
Penguin is capable of love and compassion and empathy. We've known it since Season 1.
But if that were showcased in Season 3a, it wouldn't have had the same impact when Penguin "learned" to love in this episode, would it?
So many other things finally make sense too.
Like the fact that it took all of two seconds for Barbara to transform from the heartbroken, obsessive crazy ex-girlfriend she's always been into the all-business, girl-power usurper she is now.
Clearly, the writers just needed someone to take over from Penguin after they killed him.
(I loved the heartbroken, obsessive crazy ex-girlfriend, by the way. Like it or not, some people are that way in real life, and Gotham has enough girl-power characters in their roster that they can afford to give the heartbroken, obsessive crazies someone to identify with.)
Also, Isabella's existence. It makes sense now.
There was no reason for her to exist, no explanation for all the coincidences she embodied.
Well, guess what? Shockingly, she really was just a super obvious, convenient, sloppy plot device for the writers to get the ball rolling on Penguin's death.
All of these characters -- Isabella, Barbara, Tabatha, Butch Oswald, even Nygma -- were just plot devices. The perfect examples of "characters serving the plot" instead of "plot serving the characters."
Speaking of Nygma, I don't know how the writers thought there wouldn't be backlash towards that character, especially since, like I said, he was very much a slave to the plot in this episode and basically killed Penguin just because.
Speaking of plot, it made no sense. I hate it when writers think that, just because a twist is juicy, the audience will forgive the fact that it doesn't make sense. We saw Barbara and Tabatha promise to kill Nygma when no one was around to hear them. We saw it, Gotham. Don't act like that never happened. Don't act like Tabatha's revenge plot was just a ruse engineered by Nygma. I'm not stupid. Don't treat me like I'm stupid, goddammit.
I've never felt like Gotham was treating me like I was stupid before, and that's one of the reasons I loved it. But lately, I've gotten distinctly manipulative vibes from the people behind Gotham.
For instance, I tweeted my sadness after Oswald killed Isabella, and Gotham tweeted back at me with the penguin and question mark emojis. I took that as a "don't stop believing" sign, like Nygmobblepot would still happen. Clearly, I completely missed the point of that tweet or they were intentionally misleading me. As another -- more concrete example -- of misleading information, the Gotham folks have been saying for a long time that Jerome is not the Joker when he clearly always has been.
Speaking of Jerome, the fact that he came back just as Penguin was on his way out?
CONVENIENT TIMING, GOTHAM!
I can just hear the conversation behind the scenes:
Writer 1: "We can't think of anything new to do with Penguin."
Writer 2: "Let's just kill him off at the same time as we bring back Jerome. Any Penguin fans we lose we'll gain back twofold in Joker fans."
Writer 1: "Brilliant!"
I mean, come on! One fan favorite returns just as another one leaves? Nothing fishy there. They clearly don't think I'm a disposable Penguin fan.
>:(
And I know Penguin will probably just come back to life as soon as the writers think of something to do with him, but that could take a very long time. Jerome has been dead for a season and a half. I don't know if I'm willing to wait that long for Penguin's return.
And if, by some happy miracle, Penguin is not dead. I will happily eat my words. All of my words, I'll eat, happily. Especially since Gotham has some genuinely good non-Penguin elements.
But as I discovered in Season 2, when Penguin was absent for only one episode and I stopped watching for weeks afterward, Penguin is the only thing that keeps me coming back to this series week after week. The show is actually a bit of a chore to watch without Penguin.
I'm really sad because Gotham is the only show I watch these days, and without Penguin, I don't look forward to it. And all I ever really look forward to in life is eating, sleeping, and watching TV.
Ok, now I do have some not-so-horrible comments about this Penguin plot.
Dying at your most heroic is probably the best way to go in a show like Gotham. So the fact that Penguin died reaffirming his best self -- even if we'd already seen his best self and it wasn't at all the surprise the writers wanted it to be that Penguin was capable of love -- makes me almost want him to stay dead. For his sake.
The writers will just butcher him when he comes back. They'll stick him back on this boring merry-go-round he's been on for so long, where he finds love, loses it, finds it, loses it. But for my sake, I want him back, because he gives me something to look forward to every week.
I liked that Nygma seemed to be projecting onto Penguin when he said that Penguin would sacrifice anyone to save his own skin and Penguin was incapable of love. Those statements are far more true of Nygma, and I think that that fact should be explored.
But it probably won't be, because the perfect chance for it to be explored came and went in this episode.
I was just confused by Penguin's interaction with Tabatha this episode. She bragged about killing his mom, he said he would kill Tabatha, she said nuh-uh...what was the point of it? What were the writers trying to say? It doesn't explain why Penguin indeed hasn't killed Tabatha yet. It doesn't...add anything...to anything...Did I miss something?
It was, I'll admit, nice to hear Penguin admit out loud that he wouldn't have killed Isabella if he really, truly, purely loved Ed. It was also nice to hear Penguin tell Ed that he would have killed Isabella eventually anyway 'cause we all know it's true.
Deep breaths.
Moving on...
Ok, I'm still kinda processing this, and I'm still angry, so you know, maybe take all this with a grain of salt...but geez! I can't believe they did this. I can't believe it.
Still, suddenly everything makes sense, and it's so freaking sloppy. That's the only word for it. Sloppy. I can't believe Penguin -- my dear, sweet Penguin -- had to die in this sloppy, sloppy plot. He deserved so much better.
On the one hand, if you pretend Season 3 is the only season of Gotham, it's actually pretty good, this character arc of Penguin's. On the other hand, Season 3 is not the only season!
See, this whole "learning to love" character arc would have been great if Penguin didn't already know how to love. We know Penguin is capable of sacrificing himself for a loved one because, in Season 2 when his mother was kidnapped, he told Galavan, "Then kill me, but let [my mother] go."
Granted, you could make the case that the stakes were higher this time because Penguin was also in danger of being tortured, not just killed. But still, Penguin's actions don't have as much significance here as the writers would have you believe.
But now I understand why they acted like Oswald didn't know how to comfort a grieving Ed. The episode after Oswald killed Isabella, Gotham portrayed Oswald as well-meaning, but completely stupid in the affairs of the heart and completely unable to feel Ed's pain and completely without remorse for causing Ed pain.
Let's compare with Season 1, shall we?
When Maroni told Gertrude that her son was a psycho, and Gertrude was shaken to her core, did Penguin take a selfie with her and expect her to feel better? No. He made her a pot of tea and actually tried to comfort her. And when he lied to her and broke her heart, did he tell her that she barely knew Maroni and she shouldn't linger on his words? No. Penguin cried even harder than his mother cried.
Penguin is capable of love and compassion and empathy. We've known it since Season 1.
But if that were showcased in Season 3a, it wouldn't have had the same impact when Penguin "learned" to love in this episode, would it?
So many other things finally make sense too.
Like the fact that it took all of two seconds for Barbara to transform from the heartbroken, obsessive crazy ex-girlfriend she's always been into the all-business, girl-power usurper she is now.
Clearly, the writers just needed someone to take over from Penguin after they killed him.
(I loved the heartbroken, obsessive crazy ex-girlfriend, by the way. Like it or not, some people are that way in real life, and Gotham has enough girl-power characters in their roster that they can afford to give the heartbroken, obsessive crazies someone to identify with.)
Also, Isabella's existence. It makes sense now.
There was no reason for her to exist, no explanation for all the coincidences she embodied.
Well, guess what? Shockingly, she really was just a super obvious, convenient, sloppy plot device for the writers to get the ball rolling on Penguin's death.
All of these characters -- Isabella, Barbara, Tabatha, Butch Oswald, even Nygma -- were just plot devices. The perfect examples of "characters serving the plot" instead of "plot serving the characters."
Speaking of Nygma, I don't know how the writers thought there wouldn't be backlash towards that character, especially since, like I said, he was very much a slave to the plot in this episode and basically killed Penguin just because.
Speaking of plot, it made no sense. I hate it when writers think that, just because a twist is juicy, the audience will forgive the fact that it doesn't make sense. We saw Barbara and Tabatha promise to kill Nygma when no one was around to hear them. We saw it, Gotham. Don't act like that never happened. Don't act like Tabatha's revenge plot was just a ruse engineered by Nygma. I'm not stupid. Don't treat me like I'm stupid, goddammit.
I've never felt like Gotham was treating me like I was stupid before, and that's one of the reasons I loved it. But lately, I've gotten distinctly manipulative vibes from the people behind Gotham.
For instance, I tweeted my sadness after Oswald killed Isabella, and Gotham tweeted back at me with the penguin and question mark emojis. I took that as a "don't stop believing" sign, like Nygmobblepot would still happen. Clearly, I completely missed the point of that tweet or they were intentionally misleading me. As another -- more concrete example -- of misleading information, the Gotham folks have been saying for a long time that Jerome is not the Joker when he clearly always has been.
Speaking of Jerome, the fact that he came back just as Penguin was on his way out?
CONVENIENT TIMING, GOTHAM!
I can just hear the conversation behind the scenes:
Writer 1: "We can't think of anything new to do with Penguin."
Writer 2: "Let's just kill him off at the same time as we bring back Jerome. Any Penguin fans we lose we'll gain back twofold in Joker fans."
Writer 1: "Brilliant!"
I mean, come on! One fan favorite returns just as another one leaves? Nothing fishy there. They clearly don't think I'm a disposable Penguin fan.
>:(
And I know Penguin will probably just come back to life as soon as the writers think of something to do with him, but that could take a very long time. Jerome has been dead for a season and a half. I don't know if I'm willing to wait that long for Penguin's return.
And if, by some happy miracle, Penguin is not dead. I will happily eat my words. All of my words, I'll eat, happily. Especially since Gotham has some genuinely good non-Penguin elements.
But as I discovered in Season 2, when Penguin was absent for only one episode and I stopped watching for weeks afterward, Penguin is the only thing that keeps me coming back to this series week after week. The show is actually a bit of a chore to watch without Penguin.
I'm really sad because Gotham is the only show I watch these days, and without Penguin, I don't look forward to it. And all I ever really look forward to in life is eating, sleeping, and watching TV.
Ok, now I do have some not-so-horrible comments about this Penguin plot.
Dying at your most heroic is probably the best way to go in a show like Gotham. So the fact that Penguin died reaffirming his best self -- even if we'd already seen his best self and it wasn't at all the surprise the writers wanted it to be that Penguin was capable of love -- makes me almost want him to stay dead. For his sake.
The writers will just butcher him when he comes back. They'll stick him back on this boring merry-go-round he's been on for so long, where he finds love, loses it, finds it, loses it. But for my sake, I want him back, because he gives me something to look forward to every week.
I liked that Nygma seemed to be projecting onto Penguin when he said that Penguin would sacrifice anyone to save his own skin and Penguin was incapable of love. Those statements are far more true of Nygma, and I think that that fact should be explored.
But it probably won't be, because the perfect chance for it to be explored came and went in this episode.
I was just confused by Penguin's interaction with Tabatha this episode. She bragged about killing his mom, he said he would kill Tabatha, she said nuh-uh...what was the point of it? What were the writers trying to say? It doesn't explain why Penguin indeed hasn't killed Tabatha yet. It doesn't...add anything...to anything...Did I miss something?
It was, I'll admit, nice to hear Penguin admit out loud that he wouldn't have killed Isabella if he really, truly, purely loved Ed. It was also nice to hear Penguin tell Ed that he would have killed Isabella eventually anyway 'cause we all know it's true.
Deep breaths.
Moving on...
MEDIUMS
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1. Jerome/Bruce/Gordon storyline
I've said before that Gotham is great at setting up high-intensity, action-packed finales. And it's still true here. I liked that Bruce knew to appeal to Jerome's showmanship to buy more time. I liked Bruce's facial expressions and overall reaction to the horror's of Jerome's circus, because it was truly horrifying. I really bought the peril the characters were in from start to finish, from the chaos in the GCPD to the horrors in the circus.
For a moment, it almost sounded like Alfred was admitting to the fact that it's random to draw the line at killing. "You need to have rules to stick to, no matter what the reason for the rules," is almost exactly what he said. But it's not what he said, and the randomness of the "no killing" rule still hasn't been explained.
I've said before that Gotham is great at setting up high-intensity, action-packed finales. And it's still true here. I liked that Bruce knew to appeal to Jerome's showmanship to buy more time. I liked Bruce's facial expressions and overall reaction to the horror's of Jerome's circus, because it was truly horrifying. I really bought the peril the characters were in from start to finish, from the chaos in the GCPD to the horrors in the circus.
For a moment, it almost sounded like Alfred was admitting to the fact that it's random to draw the line at killing. "You need to have rules to stick to, no matter what the reason for the rules," is almost exactly what he said. But it's not what he said, and the randomness of the "no killing" rule still hasn't been explained.
HIGHS
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None.
RATINGS
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Compared-To-All-The-Content-I've-Ever-Loved: 3/10
