Gotham: Review: Series 1 Episode 11: Rogues’ Gallery

Jim’s new job at Arkham Asylum brings problems all its own…

Gotham returns from its mid-season break with yet more locations and characters to add to an already full roster, although, to be honest, it’s the peripheral action rather than the A plot that is of more interest this time around. Ben McKenzie is great as Jim Gordon refusing to stop making waves even when he’s been pushed as far down the ladder as it seems possible to go, but you’ll work out who’s behind what’s going down at the Asylum far quicker than either he or Harvey Bullock do – even if Donal Logue does have to participate in a very exposition heavy interrogation scene to get to the truth. Morenna Baccarin makes her debut as Dr. Leslie Thompkins, but doesn’t get the material to make sufficient impression.

It’s the material with the future Penguin, Catwoman and Poison Ivy that grabs the attention (and it’s only at the end of the episode that you realise that two of the key players in the first half of the season don’t have anything to do in this instalment). Oswald – now apparently adoring his previously-hated nickname – gets a sharp lesson, but I suspect it may not be Maroni’s brightest move; Selina and Ivy find a new home, and Ivy messes with Barbara’s head – perhaps even more than Jim’s former fiancée’s lover has done earlier in the episode. The gangland warfare rumbles on with a bit of sub-Tarantino business by the riverside, and Fish beginning to get concerned… again.

Verdict: An uneven episode that doesn’t really hang together as well as it should. 6/10

Paul Simpson