The third season of Gotham, as a whole, is a lot more driven and focused than previous seasons. While I would have loved to see a few more developed villains in the third season, at least some familiar faces outside of the usuals, what you get in the third season just keeps on going and preparing you for the fourth. This is a transition season for everyone involved in the show. Bruce Wayne is going to be Batman, though probably not in the form that we know him as in the movies (think Frank Miller’s Year One). Gordon is going to work his way up in the GCPD towards a commissioner role. The villains are starting to form their Legion of Doom, so expect more and more of them to crop up. All of this is set up in the third season, executed well and acts as a bridge to a bigger payoff.
Lots going on in season three that ends in a beautiful crescendo of a hopeful ‘what’s to come’. It’s certainly worth the trip, even if some of the season is a bit hokey.
Official Synopsis
The fight for order and control in Gotham is deadlier than ever with the introduction of cunning, new DC Super-Villains who might alter the future of our heroes and their beloved city. With the Indian Hill fugitives on the loose, Jim Gordon takes matters into his own hands as a bounty hunter in order to save the city that he loves, but will he accomplish his mission to find deranged mastermind Hugo Strange and Fish Mooney, one of Strange’s villainous subjects? While Gordon plays bounty hunter, Gotham City Police Department’s Bullock and Barnes remain on the frontline in Gotham, fighting against crime and destruction in the monster-ridden city. The city seems to be descending further and further into chaos and darkness as burgeoning DC Super-Villains Penguin, Edward Nygma/The Riddler and more are joined by the future Poison Ivy, now transformed into a young woman who’s harnessed the full power of her charms, and Jervis Tetch aka Mad Hatter, a. talented hypnotist teetering on the edge of madness. All the while, a young Bruce Wayne discovers that there are still more secrets behind his parents’ murder as he peels back the curtain on the infamous criminal organization known as the Court of Owls.
The second season of Gotham ended on an uncertain bang. Fish Mooney was re-introduced back to the mix, as was a slew of villains that were let loose on the city of Gotham. While certainly Mooney was part of the focus of this third season of Fox’s Batman wannabe production, if nothing but to give the very talented Jada Pinkett Smith a send off, the real focus laid on the introduction to the Mad Hatter and a timeline progression to get Bruce Wayne into the role of a young Batman (Year One-esque). While I will say that the Mad Hatter’s storyline did develop well, though incredibly drawn out at times, it did help push the rest of the story firmly into the direction of something special for season four to play off of when it begins.
Let’s dig right into things, shall we?
The opening of the third season starts where season two left off with the emergence of unusual villains that were experimented on and created by Doctor Hugo Strange. Let loose on the city of Gotham, some of them major villains, while others minor, the storylines never really run dry throughout the season. Granted, the first part of the season features some throwaway villains, such as a dinosaur looking fellow, who never really crops up again, but the main ones are in the front row and prominent. This includes Mr. Freeze, Mooney, The Riddler and the Penguin. All of them reoccur through out the three acts, with the latter two taking the most screen time thanks to a mid-season mayor race that the Penguin wins (with Nygma by his side).
Anyway, the first act hits its stride with the GCPD trying to figure out how to handle the villains (keep an eye out of Man Bat). The first part of the season also dedicates itself to dealing with Jim Gordon the private investigator. Having left the GCPD, Gordon finds himself constantly crossing paths with the villains, a nosy reporter named Valerie Vale (HA!), his old flame Dr. Lee (let’s hope Deadpool is okay with this), as well as his old partner, Harvey, and his former new Captain Nathaniel Barnes (he prefers Gordon get with the GCPD again or stop chasing criminals). The first and middle part of the season does a good job of bringing in Gordon to help out his old crew, as well as uncover and expand upon his character. The additional love interests, especially Lee’s story, help to magnify Gordon’s loneliness and isolation since leaving the GCPD, which will also help to define him later on his long career with the GCPD.
While Gordon is trying to figure himself out, a lunatic is introduced by the name of Jervis Tetch (The Mad Hatter), who is in search of his long lost sister. Tetch hires Gordon to help him out in finding her, but Gordon soon discovers that she doesn’t want Tetch to find her and spills the beans on why Tetch is obsessed with her. The reasoning is enormously messed up and probably the darkest thing that Gotham has faced in its story to date. Sadly, Tetch’s reunion with his sister, after invading the GCPD where she is being protected, ends up being short-lived, as Alice finds herself impaled on a metal pole by accident. The death of his sister sends Tetch into a crazed killing spree, mostly involving Gordon with whom he blames for his sister’s death. In addition, Tetch’s sister has some special blood in her that kills/alters people who touch it, which ends up finding its way to Nathaniel Barnes’ eyes after being on the crime scene of her death and it begins to change Barnes into a future villain (potentially The Executioner). The climax to Tetch’s own story hits its stride when he tortures Gordon with deciding if Tetch will save Valerie Vale or Gordon’s ex Dr. Lee, something that Gordon has to decide. This doesn’t end well, though Tetch is caught.
Up to this point the story was spiraling towards hokey with Tetch’s limited abilities to really do any damage to characters outside of hypnotizing them. When his characters goes nuts, though, the story turns incredibly dark and uncomfortable. His character is visibly insane and his story and how he puts Gordon in revenge filled situations is borderline frightening. In short, it does what it should do and it does it well.
Anyway, as the middle of the season moves forward, the story starts to heavily shift to the newly budding relationship between Nygma and Penguin. Nygma is needing to partner with Penguin to progress his life, after he is yanked from Arkham by the mayoral candidate, and eventually he ends up replacing Butch as Penguin’s righthand man. The replacement becomes more than just Penguin having a partner in crime, rather it becomes an obsessive love affair that is one-sided from the Penguin, even to the point where the Penguin makes sure that he and Nygma can’t be separated. It’s certainly an interesting departure from the Danny DeVito take on the character, but a welcomed twist to the history of Oswald Cobblepot. As you can imagine, this dream of the Penguin being the lover the Riddler is short-lived, but it’s incredibly brave of the show to go this direction. It brings out some good emotions from both parties, as well as a somewhat tragic love affair.
While this is going on, Jerome, let’s just call him the future Joker, is brought back into the mix for a brief few episodes to liven things up. First, as a literal face for a group of fanatics run by a man named Dwight, then Jerome comes back from his popsicle state at Arkham to take over for Dwight as himself, where he reclaims and sews back on his face that Dwight took. This portion of the third season is sick and demented, but it certainly acts as a future introduction to what will eventually be a Batman/Joker relationship.
This season has a lot of relationships in it.
As the season starts heading towards its third and final act, Gordon finds himself back in the GCPD and heading up a murder investigation, mainly one that a warped and changing Nathaniel Barnes may be the lead suspect in. The return to the GCPD forms into absolute chaos when a toxin, created from the blood of Alice Tetch, is released into the air as a chemical for the citizens of Gotham to go mad by. If that wasn’t enough, a shady group that call themselves the Court of Owls takes Bruce Wayne from Alfred in attempts to re-program and prepare him for his eventual transformation into a dark knight, where they hope he can cleanse the evil of Gotham. Their training leads Wayne to the League of Shadows, who are briefly introduced in the final episode.
On that note, I will stop giving away the episodes. I will say that the entire season as a whole is a lot more driven and focused than previous Gotham seasons. While I would have loved to see a few more developed villains in the third season, at least some familiar faces outside of the usuals, what you get in the third season just keeps on going and preparing you for the fourth. This is a transition season for everyone involved in the show. Bruce Wayne is going to be Batman, though probably not in the form that we know him as in the movies (think Frank Miller’s Year One). Gordon is going to work his way up in the GCPD towards a commissioner role. The villains are starting to form their Legion of Doom, so expect more and more of them to crop up. All of this is set up in the third season, executed well and acts as a bridge to a bigger payoff.
Regardless, Gotham Season Three proves the show is kicking on all cylinders and shouldn’t disappoint DC fans out there.
Definitely pick this up.
On the special features side of things, here’s what you should expect:
– Gotham: 2016 Comic-Con Panel
– Madness Rising: the New Villains of Gotham
– The Dark Within the Dark: The Court of Owls
– Ben McKenzie Directorial Debut
– Deleted Scenes
The features are decent for a Blu-ray television release, but certainly not as entertaining and intriguing as the show.
