Gotham S01E05: “Viper”

After several weeks of mediocre-at-best episodes, “Viper” was pleasantly surprising in both its writing and its execution. Fish Mooney formally launched her plan to bring down Falcone, while Penguin was formally taken in by the Maroni crime family. Bruce Wayne continued to act like a tiny adult—and everyone continued to treat him like one—but I was so melty when Alfred sat down and helped the young master obsess over the probable corruption over at Wayne Enterprises that I’ll drop that complaint for this week. “Viper” was a marked improvement! Let’s par-tay.

One of the big questions/qualms I had after watching last week’s “Arkham” had to do with Wayne Enterprises’ apparent lack of a presence in Gotham: We’d been told repeatedly that it was this massive power, so how come we hadn’t really seen it? Furthermore, with all signs pointing toward some sort of mafia/Wayne Enterprises team-up, where did Thomas and Martha Wayne fit in? While I’m still not thrilled with the angle that the esteemed Mr. and Mrs. Wayne may’ve been bumped off by the corrupt parties that popped up under their altruistic noses (srsly, yawn), I’m thrilled that Gotham is finally finding its footing with regard to its storytelling, and that all the poop flung at the walls over the past few weeks is kinda starting to form a picture.

Thomas and Martha got to maintain their sainthood status when a tortured biological-weapons maker tattled to his bosses’ bosses’ bosses about what his Wayne Enterprises subsidy was making instead of shampoo and toothpaste: super soldier serum! Wait, wrong property.

But yeah, basically super soldier serum.

And like most DNA-altering super-drugs, it took a few tries to get the formula right. When the Waynes caught wind of what was happening, they halted production on Viper/Venom—production that conveniently resumed once they were murdered, cuz that’s not gonna throw up red flags to be noticed by even mildly interested parties, let alone an obsessive teenager with nothing better to do.

Horrified, Stan the Ethics Man decided to distribute Viper samples on the street as a means of teaching the mighty powers that be that they’re like, totally evil. It went about as well as you’d expect.

And yet, “Viper” was enjoyable, a serious episode that didn’t take itself too seriously. Harvey Bullock’s horror over having to answer a call during LUNCH was perfect and, as usual, everything involving the Penguin was great. Fish Mooney’s training of her protégé was painfully hammy, but once the girl was put into action, that story perked up.

I recommended hanging in there when scoring Gotham‘s 4-Episode Test, and “Viper” made me feel good about that decision. It wasn’t a perfect episode, but Gotham, I think, is always going to struggle to achieve “perfection.” The vastness of the Batman mythos give fans ample fuel to create their own personal definitions of what Batman is and what a “perfect” representation looks like. Gotham itself relies on that flexibility and variety in creating its own brand of Batman, and while I think it’d be difficult to create a straight-up “bad” Batman, I also think it’d difficult to make a Batman that appeals to everyone.

Doctor Who fans often talk about the concept of “their Doctor”—the one who really defines the series for them, and the one to whom all other Doctors are compared. I don’t think there’s been a bad Doctor—classic series included—but when I think of my ideal Doctor Who episodes, I have very specific preferences in mind. Batman is no different. There are fans who stand by the campy ’60s Batman series as the holy grail of Batman series, and there are fans who deride it as an affront to humanity. Meanwhile, for as much acclaim as the Nolan-verse films have received, there are fans who find those movies too dark, too real, and too depressing. I know what my ideal Batman is and I know that having such a specific idea ingrained in me colors every bit of Batman media I consume.

Gotham has its weaknesses, but those weaknesses don’t have anything to do with the fact that it’s different. Plus, if “Viper” is any indication, it seems that Gotham is finally starting to work through its issues and focus on telling a great story—and no matter who or what your ideal Batman is, I think we can all agree that a great story is what we want most.

(Source: http://www.tv.com/shows/gotham/community/post/gotham-season-1-episode-5-viper-review-141384329103/)