Quick Take review – Gotham 1×12: ‘What The Little Bird Told Him’

Courtesy of FOX

Our final take on Gotham coming up after the jump.

Let’s bitch it out…

I’m going to keep this to a 400 words or less because I’m just completely done with this show. After TVAngie dropped the show a few episodes in, I thought perhaps it might be fun to continue watching and provide the occasional update. Instead I found myself hate-watching the show, agonizing over the terrible dialogue, the shoddy plotting, the inconsistent characterization and the one-off villains of the week that get more air time than regular characters who are sorely underdeveloped.

‘What The Little Bird Told Him’, as written by Ben Edlund (The Tick, Supernatural), isn’t the series’ worst episode by a long shot. But it does have, at a minimum, two absolutely terrible developments, both of which are massive revelations for the series, both of which are handled in such a tone-deaf manner that I honestly laughed out loud:

1. The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) gets zapped by villain of the week Jack Gruber (Christopher Heyerdahl) and accidentally confesses to Maroni (David Zayas) that he’s been working for Falcone (John Doman). It’s such a huge moment for the show, but instead of treating it with respect, the truth comes out in a “golly gee zoinks” comedy way. It’s seriously insulting to audiences.
2. The same argument applies – double time – to Fish’s (Jada Pickett Smith) admission to Don Falcone that she’s behind his outster. After a fairly obvious faked kidnapping of Liza’s (Makenzie Leigh), Falcone literally flat-out asks Fish if she’s behind it…and she effing does. Like, what?! You’ve been plotting for 12 episodes to take this guy out and you randomly just come out with it out of the blue?! This development MAKES NO SENSE, especially when we know that this admission will only result in her imprisonment and eventual death.

And so with that, I’m out. No more coverage of Gotham…because I’m no longer watching this show. With so much exciting mid-season TV coming down the pike, I just can’t commit to this crap anymore. To those of you sticking it out, best of luck. Write if it gets better.

Gotham (unfortunately) airs Mondays at 8pm EST on FOX