Gotham Returns

Just a reminder that Gotham returns tonight with an all new episode titled Rogues Gallery. Det. James Gordon goes to work at Arkham Asylum with Dr. Leslie Thompkins played by Morena Baccarin, Fish Mooney is still scheming, and the Penguin looks to be causing more trouble.

The Flash: Things You Can't Outrun

In "Things You Can't Outrun," the villain of the week took a backseat to explore the backgrounds of the support team or "geek squad" if you will by showing a lot of flashbacks to the fateful night the particle accelerator exploded.

Here are four things to take away from Things You Can't Outrun.

The Mist

Kyle Nimbus, dubbed the Mist by Cisco can turn himself into poisonous gas because the night of the explosion, he was being executed via gas chamber. Not exactly the best development for the character in this episode, and he was actually dispatched very easily. The Flash kind of just tired him out. But he is the first super-villain to survive and be incarcerated at STAR Labs new makeshift prison. As more meta-human villains get locked up, it'll be more and more likely that they'll all get broken out at some point and it'll be utter chaos in Central City.

Confusing fact: Anthony Carrigan, the actor who portrays the Mist, will also be playing Victor Zsasz in upcoming episodes of Gotham.

Gotham: Viper

When the title of your episode is "Viper," you can make certain assumptions. Viper implies snakes. Snakes have venom. And venom is the drug that makes Bane super strong.

Left to Right: Dark Knight Rises Bane, Comics Bane, Arkham City Bane

But let's slow down for a moment. We didn't see Bane in this episode. And just because viper was revealed to be an earlier version of venom, it doesn't mean we will see any iteration of him as we know him. Anything we see will be an origin story, and if we're lucky, it'll be as good as how the Penguin's story has been so far. And if we're not lucky, he'll end up sounding like the Count from Sesame Street again.

Gotham: The Balloonman & Arkham

Last week's episode of Gotham was a bit of a letdown featuring a villain of the week who paled in comparison to the quirky duo of Lily Taylor and Frank Whaley the week before. But "The Balloonman" did offer me something I didn't see coming. It made the Bruce Wayne storyline more interesting. With the Balloonman carrying out his form of vigilante justice, killing corrupt Gothamites by way of weather balloon, it showed that the city really needed someone like that. Someone to stand up against the evil in the city. And Bruce Wayne's recognition of that and the fact that despite the Balloonman's good intentions, he was still a criminal, quickly developed Wayne's "no killing" rule, which is one of Batman's key morals. Of course, we're never going to see the young Wayne become Batman, but it's nice to see the character finally grow up a little instead of remaining the whiny little kid he's been so far.

Mob Wars

With Arkham up for grabs for land development between rival crime families the Falcones and the Maronis, Gotham delivered a great episode Monday night. The villain of the week this time, who I literally shouted out, "Hey! It's Dubaku from 24!" was an assassin who used a device with a telescoping spike to kill his victims. He spiked one victim in the eye. Seriously, how dumb do you have to be to put something to your eye a stranger gives you? And he burned another to death which made me wonder how they can show this stuff on an 8PM show?!? The baddie was ultimately dispatched by Gordon and Bullock when he tried to kill the mayor. In turn, the mayor allowed both crime families to have a piece of Arkham, weakening Falcone and strengthening Maroni. There's definitely a mob war coming.

What's Worth Watching?

Here's a brief roundup of the new television shows I've been watching, and whether or not you should be watching too.

Gotham

Check out my posts on the first and second episodes. This is a must watch show for me now.

Scorpion

I talked about the first episode of Scorpion being "not bad" here. The second episode did a very CBS thing and went straight for your heart detailing the various faults in the team members. And all this was triggered by a number of children who were infected by genetically engineered viruses.

The show is sometimes smart, definitely cliched, and follows a pattern that most CBS shows employ. And thinking back, I give a lot of CBS shows a shot. All the CSI's, The Mentalist, Numb3rs, Person of Interest, and Elementary were all shows I followed at one point, and then just lost interest. I can't explain it, but I suspect Scorpion is probably on the same road for me. The question is am I getting off on an early exit or not?

But one of the big head-scratchers in this episode was when they could only send a germophobe into a bio-hazardous facility to retrieve some sensitive information because he was the only one with a photographic memory. It's like these geniuses have never heard of a camera. If eye-rolling drama continues to be manufactured like this, I'm probably switching back to Monday Night Football.

Gotham Episode 2 - Selina Kyle

For most of my favorite TV shows, I can tell you the episode that got me hooked. For Sherlock and LOST it was their very first episodes. For Game of Thrones, it was episode 4 where Tyrion gets arrested by Cat Stark. And I didn't get addicted to Doctor Who until the second season of the relaunch's The Girl in the Fireplace. If Gotham ends up going anywhere, "Selina Kyle" may be the episode that makes it a must watch for me.

Selina Kyle

You know it's a weird thing when the character in your episode title doesn't even utter her first words until about 40 minutes in. When Selina, or Cat as she prefers to be called finally speaks, she's blunt and to the point. She doesn't whine, unlike another prepubescent character on the show. Her character already comes off as an adult having been hardened by the streets of Gotham. And by the end of the episode, she's completely won me over.

Gotham Episode 1

Gotham is a BAD town. Bruce Wayne's parents were seemingly arbitrarily murdered in an alleyway. The police department is essentially run by the mafia. There's a mob war coming. And the only thing standing in the way of that evil is Detective James Gordon. Until of course he ultimately fails, and Bruce Wayne grows up and has to take care of things. But that's a long ways off.

So How Do You Make A Batman Show, Without Batman?

Let's face it. Batman is kind of boring. He's a brooding, no fun having superhero who wouldn't even exist without crime or his extensive rogue's gallery. He's mentally, physically, and technically gifted and he's your hero so he's never really going to die. So why not make a show focusing on the more interesting part of Gotham City, the bad guys! This is what I imagine how the pitch for Gotham went, and it's not a bad idea. Since the movies already have Batman occupied, the supporting bad guys are going to have to take center stage.

Gotham TV Series

If you were watching 24 last night, and by all means you should have been, you may have seen the trailer to Gotham, a new FOX series set to debut in the fall detailing the life of a prepubescent Bruce Wayne, a young Jim Gordon, and a bunch of Batman's villains before they become villains. Think of it as Batman Really Begins. I guess if you can't make a TV series about Batman, the best way to get around it is to tell a story about the people around him. The trailer looks pretty slick, but will it survive long on the cancel-trigger-happy FOX network?