After a decent pilot, Fox's
Gotham returned tonight with a significantly better second episode. "Selina Kyle", as the title infers, places the focus on the acrobatic young street kid (she likes to be called "Cat"; evidently saving the "Woman" for when she's a bit older) who witnessed the Wayne murders in the first ep. This time though, she's a witness to another crime: The abduction of some of her street pals by a couple of sinisterly friendly crims (guest stars Frank Whaley and Lili Taylor). As Gordon and Bullock get word and set out to investigate, to avoid a trip to juvenile detention Selina decides to find Gordon first and tell him what she knows about who really killed Thomas and Martha Wayne. Meanwhile, the increasingly psychopathic Oswald manages to hitch a ride and hatches a scheme to get some cash and return to Gotham to seek revenge.
There's much more going on too (Allen and Montoya's investigation of the GCPD, the latter's past relationship with Barbara Kean, Bruce attempting to "test himself" and Alfred worrying etc) but unlike the pilot which at times felt a bit overstuffed, this flows a lot better. Alfred in particular gets a lot more to do, and it seems clear they're going with a slightly more disciplinarian take on Bruce's faithful butler -- though actor Sean Pertwee also allows warmth and caring to shine through. We also finally get to hear Selina Kyle speak and interact with other main characters, and young Camren Bicondova does a fine job. The highlight is still the volatile partnership (friendship?) between Gordom and Bullock though. Donal Logue and Ben McKenzie have great chemistry, and in just like in all the best buddy-cop movies, we see the respect they have for each other despite their vastly different ways of doing things. Then there's Robin Lord Taylor's unhinged Penguin-in-training. Once again he delivers a great, creepy performance as the pathetic but very dangerous Oswald. His inevitable reunion with both Gordon and Fish Mooney should be worth waiting for.
There are still some issues though. Once again there's some silliness on display along with the grit and grime, and though some works, most does not and only winds up jarring. You may remember the clip from the weekend which saw Selina urges a terrified youngster to "go for the eyes" if anyone picked on him? Well late in the ep "Cat" takes her own advice...and actually rips someone's eyes out! OTT enough as that is, the scene is then played for laughs as Lili Taylor's character puts him out of his misery. I suppose it's good to know that there's a bit of a sick sense of humour running through
Gotham, but they'll really need to start integrating it a bit better.
Still, hopefully these are just teething problems because overall this is definitely an improvement. Pretty much all of the story strands should draw you in and leave you wanting the next episode straight away, and -- even if the script doesn't always do them justice -- the performances are top notch. If you still don't see the point of the show though, or feel that it's just not interesting enough given that we know where all of the characters ultimately end up, there's nothing here that's going to convince you otherwise. Two eps in and
Gotham is shaping up to be a pretty good show, I'd be nice to have a great one soon though.