Gotham appears to be one of those shows that viewers either love or they hate, but there is often little middle ground in between. A review by Rob Bricken on io9.com entitled “Gotham Got So Stupid It Actually Became Kind of Awesome” demonstrated this when it stirred up a storm among Batman fans who were eager to praise or bash the show’s unfolding plot and its often zany characters.
All the fuss apparently began after the February 16 airing of Episode 16, “The Blind Fortune Teller,” which was also the aborted Season 1 finale. This episode saw the introduction of Jerome—the boy who would be the Joker, as well as the parents of the yet unborn Dick Grayson—the boy who would be Robin. The season was extended presumably because of high ratings.
Author Bricken commented on how terrible he thought the episode was, even while it put a “smile on his face” as he evidently decided to watch on anyway. He also described it as compelling, in much the same way a car wreck is compelling. After rambling on and on in his foul-language laden review, readers are left with more than a hint that Bricken enjoyed the show, in sort of a masochistic manner.
In yet another post-Episode 16 review on Observer, author Vinnie Mancuso likewise called the Gotham “really, really stupid,” but also emphasized that he loved the show, and looked forward to watching it. The author was evidently not too pleased by the desire to write-in elaborate back stories about the movers and shakers of Batman’s world. Apparently, too much information tends to short-circuit this critic’s mind.
However, there is an old showbiz saying that be it good publicity or bad publicity, publicity is still publicity. All the chatter in the Internet about Gotham can only serve to invite a bigger audience to this supposedly “stupid” show.
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