Television: Gotham, "The Balloonman"

I still can't decide how I feel about this show. Do I like it? Not entirely. It's definitely not as good as I hoped it would be, but then again, I'm not sure exactly what I was hoping for. I mean, the title denotes that the show is about Gotham, which we all know is a city with a lot of troubles and a seedy underworld that fertilizes the problems. So I suppose I shouldn't be surprised the show is about the mob and corrupt cops and all that jazz.

But I'm not really one for Mob stories. So Gotham isn't really my cup of tea.

Still, the chemistry between Gordon and Bullock is good. I only wish they had more interesting things to do; their stories so far are not particularly exciting. In this episode they were after a guy who was attaching weather balloons to notorious con men, pedophile priests, corrupt cops . . . The show does a good job of showing Bullock's lackadaisical attitude toward these things versus Gordon's bright, shiny honor—it isn't until a fellow cop gets targeted that Bullock becomes interested in finding the guy; until then, Bullock's take was that the vigilante was doing the city a favor. Gordon, meanwhile, maintained that a vigilante is just another kind of criminal. A crime is a crime, no matter one's motivation.

Other stuff happened: Alfred and Bruce (I like Alfred and wouldn't mind more of him, but there's only so much one can do with that situation, I guess); Barbara and her ex-girlfriend, who is one of the investigators who has just heard that Gordon killed Cobblepot (aka Penguin) and runs to tell Barbara about it; Selina Kyle proving she saw the Waynes murdered by sending Gordon into a sewer to retrieve the wallet she pick-pocketed.

I keep hoping Gotham will get better, more interesting, so I keep half-watching . . . But if I'm being realistic, it will probably continue to focus largely on Mob maneuverings and such. Not my thing at all. We'll possibly see the rise of the Penguin, but we're not going to see Batman any time soon, I don't think. Sigh. While I do enjoy Gordon and Bullock, their banter and such, without better stories to engage them, I don't know how much longer I'll be watching.