Gotham Review: Nothing’s Shocking (Season 5 Episode 8)
With only a few episodes left, there’s never been a better time for Gotham to throw caution to the wind and introduce some more Batman villains.
On Gotham Season 5 Episode 8, “Nothing’s Shocking,” viewers meet a few less common Batman villains. Unfortunately, it isn’t particularly well executed.
Normally, Gotham leaning in to their wacky tendencies works for the show, but “Nothing’s Shocking” feels a little too jam-packed. They spend a little time with Bruce and Alfred, a little time with Ed and Oswald, and a little time with Jim and Harvey, but there isn’t quite enough focus for the emotional beats to land.
As a Batman fan, meeting the Ventriloquist is fun. Oswald’s former accountant Arthur is somehow only mostly dead, but has a psychotic break and becomes a ventriloquist bent on killing Penguin. Seeing this character is fun, but we’ve seen the flash forwards and know that Ed and Oswald make it to the end, so the stakes are nearly non-existent.
Admittedly, though, blowing the heads off both the doll and the ventriloquist in back-to-back moments is pretty fun.
The Bruce and Alfred story is easily the weakest of the three. The scene at the end when Alfred tells Bruce that they need a protector is the one and only scene justifying the existence of this C-plot. Alfred and Bruce are some of the show’s better characters, but this story seems ill-conceived.
Yeah, we know Bruce becomes Batman. Get on with it.
It isn’t enough to save the episode, but the best story “Nothing’s Shocking” has is the one centered around Jim and Harvey. Batman fans usually know Harvey Bullock as a dirty or sleazy cop, which is certainly somewhat contrary to the story that Gotham has set forth thus far.
So much to my own chagrin, Gotham explores some of Harvey’s unsavory exploits from the pre-Jim era.
It seems that Gotham is trying to push Harvey closer to becoming the Bullock of Batman-lore, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best decision. The show could greatly benefit from having some of its own twists, like Jim ending up with Lee or Harvey staying on the side of good for the rest of his days.
Still, the Jim/Harvey story is the best executed of the major plot threads on “Nothing’s Shocking.” They nicely combine some tense, horror movie like sequences with a slowly fracturing relationship between two people who were once best friends.
It does seem like they’re pushing toward a rift between Jim and Harvey, but if that’s the case then it doesn’t really feel earned. At least not yet.
A few stray thoughts:
- I adore Barbara, but she is little more than a plot device on this episode. I’m not OK with that.
- Speaking of Barbara, I can’t tell where they’re going with this baby thing. I suppose it doesn’t matter, so long as little Barbara exists.
- Maybe this episode seems poorly executed because it used only their most famous white males in the main plots.
- Jane Doe = super creepy. Really hope she comes back somehow.
What did you think of this episode of Gotham? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Gotham airs Thursdays at 8/7c on FOX.
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Nick Hogan
Nick Hogan is an experienced podcaster and writer (particularly on media topics), who loves discussion and analysis of TV and is always looking for new shows to watch. He is also a parent who loves buffalo wings, blowing raspberries, and his beloved Cincinnati Reds.