Gotham Season 1 Episode 17 "Red Hood" Review

Seeing Red

Last week we met the Gothamverse's contender to become the Joker. This week we meet the man who can become the Joker...wait what? Why were they doing two Joker stories back to back? Could the writers seriously not let the "unusable without" Batman villain lie? Well it turns out its not a refrence to THAT Red Hood...not yet anyway. This is actually the start of the Red Hood Gang. This is definitely better than what I originally thought was going to be another Joker themed episode, ending with a character in a vat. So how does this episode go? Let's find out!


I'll start out saying I truly loved the opening of this week's episode. It was a mixture of the opening to the dark knight with a dash of comedy. The criminals are in place and the newest member puts on his red hood, and the response was perfect. It kind of was like the boss was asking "Were criminals! lets not give ourselves silly masks!" Then when the robbery was going down the new guy calls the shots acting like the biggest goofball ever! I enjoyed the Electrocutioner opening because it set the mood. This set the mood as well, instead of it being all serious, it was having a little fun with itself.

The cop story this week wasn't this tell all origin story to a villain. Not a multi-episode arc with dark origins like Scarecrow...or a creepy twisting one like the last Joker. This was...fun! Something I personally thought was a breath of fresh air. It wasn't trying to force the future down your throat, or be this dark story. It was just a simple fun crime story. Along with that, we still get drama in the Wayne side of things. We get introduced to an interesting new player to the game, and the outcome of their story makes me curious about the final episodes.

DON'T LIE WE ALL CRINGED!

UNFORTUNATELY the crime side of Gotham continues to fall flat. Penguin is still failing as the bar loses booze. He's ready to charge in guns blazing into one of Maroni's warehouses...Penguin, the man who has never took the violent road, but the devious one, to his success...was ready to charge in...See the problem here? Meanwhile Fish's storyline took a very dark turn very quickly. Turns out she was kidnapped by the Dollmaker. This could actually be a nice set up for the paths of Gordon and Fish to cross for the finale. All she needs to do is survive long enough...I just had one problem with this section... SHE CUTS OUT HER EYE!Good god it was sick and dark...This would have been perfect if she was there for weeks, seeing there is no way out. This is the second week shes been there...this was an oppertunity that was jumped on too early...and overall just plaun disturbing.

Final Verdict
As the cop storylines continue to rise, the criminal storyline begins to fall further. We were greeted to a fun crime this week, but still had the drama from the Wayne storyline. Both were interesting and I can't wait for the next episode to see where it leads. The criminal storylines need to shape things up, because its beginning to turn Gotham's Foulest to Gotham's lamest.

That's it for this week's Gotham episode! What did you think of this episode? Comment below and I'll see you all next time!