Gotham Season 3 Review
With the release of ‘Gotham: The Complete Third Season’ on Blu-ray™ and DVD last month (and its returns to Netflix), UK fans finally got the chance to watch the series after a long and painful wait. So was it worth it? I would say, yes, most definitely. WARNING, there are *spoilers* for Gotham Season 3 in this review!
As you know, Gotham loves to sub-title its arcs, and this season was no exception. The first 14 episodes went under the banner of ‘Mad City’, whilst the last 8 took the moniker ‘Heroes Rise’. As we return to the city, Jim Gordon is no longer a cop and is working as a bounty hunter, trying to round up the escapees from Indian Hill. Lee has left and is now dating Mario Falcone (son of mob boss Carmine Falcone), Barnes and Bullock are holding down the fort at GCPD, and Bruce is determined to root out the shadowy cabal that is controlling the city. On the villain side, Penguin has put out a bounty on Fish, who, unfortunately, has returned from the dead. Fish has assembled a gang from the Indian Hill crazies, including a guy who can age people. This conveniently leads to Ivy being transformed from the young Clare Foley to the rather more adult Maggie Geha.
As the season progresses, we see Jim return to the GCPD, Bruce meeting with Court of Owls which leads him to Ra’s al Ghul, Penguin has a short tenure as mayor, and discover he has feelings for Riddler, the return of Jerome (aka proto-Joker), the introduction of Jervis Tetch (aka the Mad Hatter) and the resolution to the Bruce clone storyline which was thrown in at the end of Season 2. There’s really so much packed into this season, it’s hard to go into everything in detail, but here’s what I thought worked and what didn’t.
Firstly, the Bruce clone… I always felt this was unnecessary and very gimmicky, and the resolution of that story didn’t dissuade me. It felt like something they introduced in the Season 2 finale and then weren’t entirely sure what to do with when Season 3 rolled around. I just felt you could have left this plotline out entirely, and you wouldn’t miss it.
Much of the season is dealing with Jervis Tetch and the virus contained within his sister Alice’s blood. This is the McGuffin which allows them to mess with the personalities of some characters. The biggest victim here is Nathaniel Barnes who goes from being the by-the-book Police Chief to the murderous Executioner. It’s a nice good-to-evil twist, and it was clear Barnes had to go at some point (otherwise, how is Jim going to end up in charge eventually.)
I was extremely happy to see them bring back Jerome, as Cameron Monaghan does a superb job as a fledging Joker. I also liked how they managed to weave in Scott Snyder’s face-stapled version of Joker, which has become somewhat iconic in the comic books.
As we head into the ‘Heroes Rise’ portion of the season, Cobblepot and Nygma are at war after Penguin kills of the love of Nygma’s life… who he’s only known for 5 mins, but looks like his old girlfriend. Much like the Bruce clone storyline, I wasn’t a huge fan of this. Having a girl show up who just happens to look exactly like his ex, felt like an extremely lazy plot device which is never really explained. I’m sure there was a better way to put these two in conflict which wouldn’t have required a dubious doppelganger.
Bruce has now been kidnapped by the League of Shadows and is being brainwashed by Sensei. Whilst under his influence he meets Ra’s al Ghul (played by the always brilliant Alexander Siddig) who convinces him to stab Alfred. The realisation of what he’s done pulls him out of the trance, and he uses the healing powers of the Lazarus Pit to bring his butler back from the dead. Meanwhile, the ‘Tetch’ virus has infected both Lee and Gordon. During an exchange to get the antidote, Nygma ends up frozen in a block of ice, Butch is shot in the head, but Gordon and Lee are cured… But that doesn’t stop Lee from leaving, again.
Overall I did enjoy this season, but there were a number of missteps along the way. I sometimes feel the show relies too heavily on McGuffin style gimmicks rather than thinking through a creative solution to a plotting problem. It was nice to see the Falcones return this season, although they still haven’t introduced the one I’d really like to see – Alberto Falcone, aka Holiday. That might have been a more interesting choice as Lee’s prospective husband rather than the more straightlaced Mario.
With Gotham Season 3 over, we now have a bit of a wait in the UK to see when and where Season 4 shows up. It will come onto Netflix next year, but there is a question mark over whether it will show up before then. Given Channel 5 has had a number of issues airing Season 3 – something they still say they are planning to do – it seems unlikely they will pick up the 4th Season, which leaves it rather in limbo.
In the meantime, you can get ‘Gotham: The Complete Third Season’ on Blu-ray™ and DVD right now.
