Gotham: The Balloonman
October 7, 2014 2:08 PM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Gordon and Bullock investigate a vigilante who murders corrupt Gotham authority figures by attaching them to weather balloons and letting them float away. Oswald returns to the city and takes an unorthodox route to become a dishwasher at an Italian restaurant owned by the mafia Don Sal Maroni.
posted by Small Dollar (18 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
I am disturbed by the marriage of campy music and gritty realistic violence in this show. Its implementation feels lazy and shallow so far.
posted by Bistle at 8:29 PM on October 7, 2014


Still enjoying this show. But this episode really blundered by portraying cops as people who do not know that weather balloons fall back to earth.
posted by davidmsc at 11:21 PM on October 7, 2014 [4 favorites]


Or that Wyle E. Coyote-like, balloons only burst when people are reminded of physics.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:45 AM on October 8, 2014 [4 favorites]


Also, we learned that Gotham City has absolutely zero air currents going above it. A Non-Windy City, if you will.
posted by Strange Interlude at 5:22 AM on October 8, 2014 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I'm out.

It's not even the ridiculousness of the plot. I mean, I watch sleepy hollow. It's the ridiculousness of the plot, the lack of chemistry between Jim Gordon and anyone else, the weird lesbian junkies storyline...

I'd watch the Fish Mooney and Penguin show in all its ridiculousness, but the rest of the series seems to be both ridiculous and joyless, and that's a combination that's not worth my time
posted by dinty_moore at 6:39 AM on October 8, 2014 [1 favorite]


If we're going to get into accordance with real-world physics (I know, it's a comics-based show), a single weather balloon is not bouyant enough to lift a full-grown adult. Some back-of-the envelope calculations suggest a 10ft balloon could lift about 35 lbs.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:50 AM on October 8, 2014


Yeah, if there's one lesson that Gotham should have learned from Sleepy Hollow, it's that in order to get away with being super-stupid you need to be super-fun. Gotham keeps the stupid and drops the fun, which is not sufficient to overcome its premise as a show where we know what ends up happening to all of the characters.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 7:17 AM on October 8, 2014


I'm out too. The lesbian relationship is so freaking forced. It's embarrassing. And the acting is subpar. Leaving Gotham. Buh-bye!
posted by the webmistress at 7:36 AM on October 8, 2014


Someone should remind the writers that it's Falcone not Falcon.

I'm out too; this show doesn't have the potential that Agents of Shield did when it was missing the mark early; everything feels forced and you know where everyone's arc is going so there's no potential surprises or opportunities to grow.

The AV Club review: A corrupt cop beats perps with the award he got for his years of service. This show has no concept of subtlety.
posted by nubs at 8:24 AM on October 8, 2014


I really, really wanted to like this. But I can't. I'm out, too. There's no fun, at all, and you really need some sort of fun to make this kind of show work. And yeah, the lesbian "twist?" I groaned out loud when I saw that coming. I mean, come ON.
posted by cooker girl at 11:51 AM on October 8, 2014


The lesbian subplot was actually right there in the first episode. I guess it's nice that Montoya is allowed to be out of the closet in her first live-action incarnation, but the addition of the secret love triangle and apparent history of abuse just makes it seem rather tawdry, and it casts the character in a really unbecoming light, right out of the gate. Why can't Renee just be a tough-but-fair cop who happens to come home to a woman? She could still make Gordon's life hell, but without the implication that she's moving in on his fiancee.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:08 PM on October 8, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, my objection to the lesbian addict storyline is more about the combination of the two – it seems to be treating Barbara’s bisexuality as unscrupulous as her drug abuse. Not to mention the weirdness of making Montoya’s suspicion of Gordon and quest for justice be about jealousy rather than just not liking crooked cops. Why bother? The show spends so much time on the corruption of the GPD, she’d be right to suspect every other cop of being crooked. She has enough motivation on her own.

And man, if you’re going to have Barbara be part of a love triangle, give her something more to do. At least let her go to work.
posted by dinty_moore at 1:04 PM on October 8, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yep, I'm out too. And I'm only 15 minutes into this episode.
posted by doctornecessiter at 1:07 PM on October 8, 2014


I'd watch the Fish Mooney and Penguin show in all its ridiculousness

I was thinking while watching that they missed a real opportunity to make Cobblepot instead of Gotham.
posted by audi alteram partem at 1:14 PM on October 8, 2014 [2 favorites]


Bullock: "The cops are corrupt! I'm lazy."
Gordon: "Stone-faced silence" (he actually says this)
Scene Cuts
Other Cop: "I'm an asshole!"
Gordon: "Stone-faced silence."
Other Cop: "I don't respect the law!"
Gordon: "Criminals have rights."
Other Cop: "I don't respect the law so much they gave me an award for it. That I use to beat criminals with. Because I'm a bad cop."
Gordon: "Stone-faced silence."
Other Cop: "Now, excuse me, I'm going to go be a bad cop."
Wilhelm Scream of Criminal Being Beaten by a Statuette
posted by codacorolla at 6:44 AM on October 9, 2014 [4 favorites]


Did I miss something? In one scene, Oswald is working as a bus-boy. Then, when he next appears, he's in proto-Penguin garb. Was I out in the kitchen getting a drink when this transformation happened?
posted by Thorzdad at 12:50 PM on October 9, 2014


Still catching up, still entertained, but this episode was rough sledding. New shows often stumble around episode 3, so maybe it's redeemable, but we'll see.

I fucking hate how Alfred is some vulgar Aussie bloke. No rich Gothamite would put up with such a rude, poorly bred jerk as their butler. I do like how he's been softened a bit by the need to be a guardian, but they could have introduced that a lot better.

Also the reboot of Barbara Gordon being Jim's wife instead of daughter is freaking me out. I keep thinking "wait, he's kidding his daughter? No, that's his wife, the secret addict bisexual". Dumb.
posted by Nelson at 8:39 AM on October 29, 2014


Is Barbara's bed right in front of the front entrance to the apartment? It's a big apartment, multiple rooms, right? But the bed is right there when you enter?
posted by RobotHero at 8:40 PM on November 5, 2014


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