*This review contains minor spoilers*
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Although it once again goes in dozens of different directions and tries to service too many characters, “Gotham” delivers an overall enjoyable fourth season.
The show was all over the place this season. It goes from the Sophia Falcone mafia angle, veers off course with the Professor Pyg story arc, and then brings those stories together with minimal payoff before finally stumbling into the season-ending Jerome storyline. Then there’s the big Ra’s al Ghul stuff that’s quickly dropped and not picked up again until late in the season. It was given so much importance at the end of last season, only to become an afterthought after the fifth episode. Even the Solomon Grundy plot twist is wasted as we get basically just end up with Butch again when it’s all said and done.
There are some cool characters in “Gotham,” but there seems to be too many to invest the proper time to develop many of them…not to mention all the quickly shifting character arcs and alliances. Gordon is stuck with same basic storyline he gets every season as he makes questionable alliances and then regrets what he did for the rest of the season. Bruce starts off the year finally becoming a masked vigilante, but that’s dropped for a slightly-too long “drunken douche bag Bruce” arc that doesn’t quite get his character where he was late last season. The majority of the characters spend their time playing musical chairs with alliances. Enemies become allies. Allies become enemies. And the whole thing repeats. The new Queen of the Narrows story arc actually gives Lee something interesting to do, and the makeover suits her. But that eventually runs out of steam and leaves her in limbo. The Riddler stuff is okay. There’s interesting dynamic between his struggling personalities, but it’s more fun to see him in full Riddler mode then to be redeemed. And as usual, the stuff with Jerome is gold. But the unnecessary plot twist to replace the fan favorite proto-Joker with a much more subdued alternative swings and misses. It will take time to see if this alterative take on the character can win fans over.
Although season 4 of “Gotham” struggles to with a messy narrative, it takes a few more steps forward towards classic Batman story elements as many of the villains come into their own. But the show takes a step back by pushing Jerome within inches of becoming the Joker, only to swap him out with a more low-key take on the infamous madman and leaves a few characters out of position to fulfill their destinies in the Batman mythos.
Season’s best episode: “The Resurrection” (Episode 17): Lee trying to outsmart Riddler at his own game was fun, and the site of most of the show’s rogue’s gallery teaming up was cool site. Meanwhile, all the pieces seemed to fall into place for Jerome to become The Joker.
Season’s worst episode: “The Demon’s Head” (Episode 4): Ra’s comes off more corny then intimidating, while the dog-man assassin was just laughable.
*** out of *****