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Gotham "S2E12 Mr Freeze" - Review: An overcrowded but promising return


Gotham "S2E12 Mr Freeze" - Review: An overcrowded but promising return
8 out of 10

Mid-season breaks are all well and good but did Gotham stay gone for too long? Despite some slip-ups, the show was an entirely different monster last autumn, evolved in every way from its first season. With that kind of momentum, should it really have taken nearly 3 months off the job.... maybe? It all depends on one crucial factor: what it would be returning with. If the comeback episode is strong enough, then it doesn’t matter if people remember why the show was great before because they have reasons to like it now. If not, then queue the endless back peddling conversations and feelings of “here we go again” just like season one fizzled in its second half. In this case, Gotham makes a ballsy roll of the dice and comes up a winner as it forgets a lot of its past in favour of some very exciting new.

Mr. Freeze – After 3 weeks and an enquiry into Theo Galavan’s death, Jim Gordon is absolved of all charges and back on the GCPD. He and Bullock investigate a series of odd kidnappings involving frozen victims. Meanwhile, Penguin is sent to Arkham Asylum and introduced to its his new therapist, Dr. Hugo Strange.

This isn’t a complete reset on the season but more of a progression into a second act. We get just enough fallout to deal with the consequences of Theo Gallavan’s downfall and repositioning of certain characters before Gotham begins a new story. This is a smart move for the show. Last season, it was criticized for stringing out the idea of a looming gang war for too long across its duration. This time, it’s making itself more episodic, like a comic book. The opening enquiry serves as a good recap to the prior events while allowing both cast and audience to move on from them. Despite the ruling, both Captain Barnes and Harvey Dent clearly suspect Jim of a darker involvement in Theo’s death and this carried over suspicion helps keep the events feeling significant. The subsequent vast villains montage may be a bit excessive but knowing that Tabitha/Tigress with still be around as Butch’s new left hand is a definite win. Also, look out for the great Joker face wall graffiti on the street wall, instilling the idea of Jerome’s madness still spreading throughout the city.

The titular Mr. Freeze is a real frozen treat courtesy of House of Cards’ Nathan Darrow. Not all of Gotham’s villain origins feature episodes have tackled their subjects well but this one does by focusing on the core aspect of the villain’s character: his devotion to his wife, Nora. Instead of seeing Nora as a tank confined popsickle, here she is stick but still living some degree of normalcy and the episode uses their scenes very effectively to cement her as Victor’s motivation: a man driven to crime and atrocities by love. This is even cleverly flipped by keeping Nora unaware of Victor’s Robert Neville level basement research requiring regular human test subjects (including one very gruesome failure). The fun and comic aspects of his character are still incorporated via his abduction aiding freeze gun. The early frozen bullet time revolving shot looks great and having frozen bodies on the scene plays well into Gotham’s darker humour (Bullock’s windshield face to face!). The early Freeze costume looks very cool too with its hood and goggles. We’ll definitely be getting at least one more episode with the character (next week’s A Dead Man Feels No Cold) so we may still get to see his accidental ice man transformation yet.

Despite the former frosty appeal, the real new star of the episode is B.D Wong’s (Jurassic Park & World) Hugo Strange. Right from his first entrance, he looks and sounds perfectly cast a calm and unnerving schemer. This also brings the story back to the madness of Arkham Asylum (let’s hope the Shakespeare company is still going) and the previously glimpsed secret Wayne Enterprises facility at the nearby (and now connected) Indian Hill. We know that Strange is performing experiments as several previous characters are referenced as patients and there’s clearly master plan in the works. This storyline also allows Penguin to waddle back into an anti-hero role as a captured Arkham inmate subject to Strange’s wrath (you have to love how quickly Strange clocks Penguin’s unhealthy relationship with his mother). You could argue that this bares similarities to Fish Mooney’s capture last year (even a recurring eye theme) but the tone feels very different, focusing more on madness than straight up evil. Knocking Penguin back down again also lets us see him scheme back up to the top with his been a delight since the show began.

Gotham’s long absence does take one crucial toll on the episode: despite good content, it is hugely overcrowded. Even with the likes of Bruce and Alfred being absent, the episode spreads itself far too thin. It should have saved some re-introductions for the next episode but those involved were clearly worried that more causal viewers would need a full reminder now. It’s a shame because it comes at the expense of its storytelling, painfully leaving Jim & Harvey little time to do any actual detective work. Hopefully, that will stay a single episode problem because with Freeze and Strange on the scene Gotham has set itself for some great times to come.

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