Review: Gotham: “Pilot”
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume some meddling studio executive was the one who insisted on all of the name-dropping in the first episode of Gotham. Surely no sane creator with a vision for a Batman-themed TV show would insist on such silly pandering. Surely some executive was nervous about mainstream audiences picking up on the source material and insisted that Edward Nygma show up for 5 seconds to crack riddles, or that several different characters would tell Oswald Cobblepot that he looks like a penguin.
Because otherwise, Gotham doesn’t have much faith in its audience to not be idiots.
TV Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.
I’m going to try not to focus too much on the random character cameos because that’s what everybody is talking about (and Dorkly did it best). Suffice to say, I don’t think they make or break the show. I think they’re the byproduct of somebody higher up desperately trying to push the Batman elements of a show that can stand without them. They’re training wheels for a kid who can pedal just fine on his own.
The sort of people who are going to watch Gotham understand what it’s about, and we’re capable of being patient. We don’t need to be reminded every 5 minutes of another Batman character. I sincerely hope this was just an affliction of the pilot, and that future episodes will behave themselves.
Nobody likes a name-dropper.
I liked the first episode of Gotham, but I also think it was a very unpolished episode. A show like Gotham should crack with the energy and efficiency of an episode of Law and Order. It should establish itself as a cop show first and foremost, and then prove it’s the most interesting cop show with its characters and world. But in the first episode, Gotham seems a little bloated with clunky dialogue, bad efforts at campy humor and an all-around sense of trying desperately to live up to its own expectations for itself. It wants to be this awesome combination of cop show and superhero show, but it’s not quite sure how to achieve that.
Fortunately, being the pilot, a little shoddiness is excusable. Gotham has a whole season to tighten the plotting, the dialogue and the character development.
And I will definitely be around for the whole season.
Join me after the jump or my full review.
The 6 Best Bird Superheroes
That’s right, it’s come to this: bird-themed superheroes. Everybody loves birds, right? They can fly, so that puts them one-up on us puny humans. They’ve got feathers, which are pretty neat. They poop everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. Birds. They’re…well they’re birds.
And apparently they make for solid superhero inspiration!
I should just stop right now, list complete
I’ve already tackled sports, fire, ice, cats and Canandians in my Lists of Six, why not birds? Cats eat birds, so it kind of comes full circle. And if jetpacks are never invented, some kind of bird-harness would be our next best bet for flying – though I’m sure our arms will get tired! Zing! Anyway, bird superheroes are a thing, and at least six of them are better than all the rest!
20 Minutes is a Little Excessive
Our friends at Cinema Sins have tackled Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and apparently they went all out on what was a legitimately good film. You guys are monsters!
But I know we all have 20 minutes to spare, so I hope you enjoyed their video as much as I did! As my brother once said, these are the MST3K for the short attention span Internet generation!
Dorkly is Doing Cartoons Again!
Anybody else visit Dorkly, the one-stop shop for all things dork? It’s a pretty neat website, and they’ve finally started doing original cartoon shorts again!
Dorkly, in association with College Humor, made some of the funniest geeky and video game-themed video shorts a few years ago. They’re some of the best you’ll find on the web. But they stopped, and a light went out in my life. Now it seems they’re back! And on Youtube, so I can share! Let’s make this sort of thing go the viral. Kids are still saying that, right? Or at least ad execs are?
Review: Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #5
Curse you, transition issues, you are the bane of my comic book reviewing existence! Writer Brian Michael Bendis delivers another stellar chapter in Miles Morales’ current superhero woes, but it’s the sort of chapter that takes us from Point A to Point B instead of delivering any really great story moments of its own! And those it does deliver are obvious cliffhangers! It’s so frustrating, but only because the comic is still oh so good!
Ultimate Spider-Man #5
Ultimate Spider-Man #5 is a perfect example of why some comics should be read in the trade! I don’t know if I can wait for the next issue! Exclamation!
Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.
But I’m going to have to wait. I’m a big boy, I can suck it up and deal. Bendis and superstar artist David Marquez are at the top of their game here, telling a tightly packed, vivid story. I would probably even go out on a limb and say their Spider-Man comic is better than the regular Spider-Man comic. Ultimate Spider-Man is just so much more involved, so much more epic. Dan Slott might be dealing with classic Peter Parker and his big supporting cast, but Bendis is telling such a grounded, long-lasting saga here. These characters all have history, they have agency, and that just makes for a stronger story.
I only wish I wasn’t reading it one issue at a time, but that’s no one’s fault or choice but my own.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Henchman-4-Hire 