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Home
Reviews

Gotham 1.08 “The Mask”

Sam Salama Cohén
November 17, 2014
Reviews, TV

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The first good thing about this episode is seeing that the game-changer that took place in the previous one, where Detective Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) confronted his situation in Gotham and decided to go against Carmine Falcone (John Doman) with only one policeman backing his crazy play — none other than Detective Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) — was indeed the end of this show’s first arc and the prelude of the new way things are going to play out in Gotham.

gordon & bullock

This means that, not only did this episode follow up on that thread, but it showed us how the new status quo might work. One where, due to his actions and not playing by Falcone’s rules, Gordon has made himself the lonesome cowboy, with almost all the GCPD cops not wanting to move a finger to help him, even if he could die because of their inaction.

I say almost all, because Gordon is now allied with someone who proved again that he’s going to be by his side: Harvey Bullock — a character that’s growing with each week and gaining more strength and depth in the series, becoming one of my favorites. It’s enjoyable to see how he reacts to the new status quo, where he’s chosen to side with the only good, honest man on the police force; the man who couldn’t care less about the supposed back and forth the cops have to deal with in order to get something done in Gotham. We had been watching Bullock act that way since the pilot, but it’s true that he has been slowly leaning towards the light, whether he liked it or not. He may very well be the only one who is not afraid of siding with Gordon, and at the same time the one who’ll risk his neck in order to save Gordon’s, as he does in front of the whole GCPD on one of his best scenes.

the mask

And though not the focus this week, we still get more on the weird and pissed off Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith), who can’t believe that her mole is not getting anything out of Falcone, or softening him so she can strike her blow at his reign; or on Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), who each time he faces Mooney gets a new scar to remember her by – man, how those two hate each other, it’s almost painful — and they both make their moves towards tearing the other’s organization down. The focus this time around is new villain Richard Sionis, a.k.a. The Mask (Todd Stashwick), who we suppose is the father of Roman Sionis, the Batman villain known as Black Mask — who, at this point in the chronology should be the same age as young “Master Bruce”.

So, though it was not the introduction of a classic Batman villain, we got an eccentric, dark and twisted, wealthy man who loves masks and ninja weaponry; all of these nods to the 1985 character of the Black Mask, fit how Roman Sionis’ father must’ve been to perfection.

ed nygma

Remember Fight Club? Well, imagine something like that but with a Wall Street kind of twist. As secret, as sick, as violent… but all of it just to get a great job at Sionis’ company.

The ambience of it all in this show, as always, is perfect, as evidenced by the scenes where Bullock and Gordon stumble upon all the injured and bruised guys at the Sionis offices, and get no answer out of any of them, in spite of the obvious pattern.

However, there is one but here, and it’s that Gordon’s fighting didn’t look as good as other times. I don’t know if it was a conscious effort to make him look angrier and more desperate after all the recent events, but the way the man moves has certainly changed. And if we are going to get more of these action sequences in each episode, which I always welcome, Gotham could use a fight choreographer, or better stunts… whatever works best to give the show that added value that it lacks at times.

bruce

And, as always, I’m saving the best for last, as this time it was Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) and a hilarious Alfred (Sean Pertwee) who stole the show every time they were on-screen. Bruce is moving on, and that means going to school, and of course, getting bullied by warped kids who make fun of his parents’ death. The way this subplot evolved through the episode was wonderful, as Alfred sided with Bruce all the way, when the little guy thought he was going to get scolded.

Alfred taught Bruce to fight back, and defend his parents’ honor; which is a cute way to say that Bruce handed it over to his former bully, on his own doorstep.

Oh, but the best of it all? Bruce Wayne is going to learn how to fight. Now this is getting interesting.

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Gotham 1.08 "The Mask"
4.0Overall Score

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About The Author

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Sam Salama Cohén
Honest Man / Thunder God

Sam is a passionate comic lover, who since an early age, found himself into the grasp of Marvel titles such as Conan the Barbarian, Captain America, Spider-Man, and, of course, his true love (after his wife Natalia, that is), the Avengers. When he was very little he created his own comic, which thanks to having relatives on the US and other countries, travelled all over the world. Now he is a happy reader. Though looking at his Resume one would think he is the serious kind of guy-Economics degree, Auditor for several years-fun and rhythm flow through his veins, and have been that way since he can remember. Spanish and currently living in Madrid, he loves travelling around the world-and getting comics wherever he goes!!! He has experience managing comic-book related online communities, and during his time on both www.AvengersForever.org and the great, unique www.ComicsBulletin.com he has had the chance to work as reviewer/columnist/interviewer, learning the ropes as he went along. As Comics Bulletin’s Social Media Manager, he devoted a lot of his time to managing and improving the site’s presence on social networks, and on building an active and interesting Community. You can find him as @SamSalama on Twitter, and as Samuel Salama on Facebook.

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