Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Gotham, review, episode 2: 'an ace hoot'
These franchises do like to spawn, multiply, and massively cash in, don't they? After the sequel and the spin-off comes the now ubiquitous prequel. Down the decades we've had young Sherlock, young Indiana Jones, young Morse, young Darth Vader, even young Delboy. Wherever will the flood of origin stories end? A fiver says Downton is hatching a pert young Lady Violet for when Dame Maggie's eyebrow can no longer clear the high hurdles.
DC Comics are no stranger to recycling, having revisited their bigger names (Superman, Wonder Woman) on TV and film. Hence Gotham, the Batman prequel, which two episodes in, continues to be an ace hoot. It really shouldn't be, as it's much the most violent thing on the small screen. The body count is already, at a guess, in the high teens – unlike quite a lot of the cast – and someone's always beating someone else to a pulp.
But hey, we are in the postmodern zone of the lowbrow high concept where tongues punch holes through cheeks. All that's missing are those percussive intertitles from the old Batman TV show. Crunch! Chop! Slice! Dice!
Scholars of the prequel will note that we haven't seen much of the young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz). In rare glimpses the young orphan who witnessed his parents' murder in episode 1 is teaching himself to endure pain – holding his hand over a naked flame, listening to thrash metal. Further up the batting order is the pubescent incarnation of Catwoman. As played by Camren Bicondova, she's channelling Michelle Pfeiffer by way of Lolita. She looks extraordinary, seeming to have eyes in the side of her head, which is good feline casting. Last night she was rounded up by a gang of child-snatchers and retaliated by removing a captor's eyeballs.
The other homeless street ragamuffins looked about as foul and besmirched as choirboys. Well, someone has to be clean. Pretty much everything is rotten in the state of Gotham City and the GCPD is in an intimate clinch with organised crime. The female superior of young Detective Gordon (Ben McKenzie) explained in a nutshell: "You don't bend, you get broke." Gotham's dialogue doesn't pull any punches either. Exquisite.
Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568414/s/3fa6a338/sc/17/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cculture0Ctvandradio0Ctv0Eand0Eradio0Ereviews0C11175710A0CGotham0Ereview0Eepisode0E20ESelina0EKyle0Ean0Eace0Ehoot0Bhtml/story01.htm
