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Gotham "S1E14 The Fearsome Doctor Crane" - Review


Gotham "S1E14 The Fearsome Doctor Crane" - Review
8 out of 10

We have nothing to fear but fear itself the old saying goes. Does anyone else ever get the feeling that Roosevelt and many others who’ve championed that phrase over the years were really just full of it?  That denying the existence and relevance of fear would have been like The Sea Hawks defence deciding just to ignore Tom Brady on Sunday 9that’s right.... I made a dam sports joke!). Despite what Chris Pratt’s charity t-shirts say, fear is real (but they’re still awesome and you should definitely support the cause) and everyone like it or not can succumb to it and only by accepting and understanding your weakness can you prevent it being used against you. Something many people in Gotham could do with learning this week as one man looks to make it fright night.

The Fearsome Doctor Crane – There’s a new killer in Gotham; targeting members of a phobia support group and forcing them to experience their worst fears being he kills them. While Jim and an oddly invigorated Bullock investigate the killer, Penguin is facing his own investigation from Maroni following a tip off call from the exiled Fish Mooney.

This week the doctor so horrible he deserves a sing along blog makes his way onto Gotham.... or does he? As a very curious different take sees the killer revealed as Dr Crane senior (Julian Sans – 24, Dexter) and even delivers a token appearance of his younger son Jonathon Crane aka Scarecrow in waiting. So in fact the entire main story is designed to showcase where the young Jonathan took his fear toxin havoc inducing inspiration from rather than making him a current threat. At the group therapy meeting Crane is seemingly genuinely opens up about his own deep fear of failure and how he’s past that on to his son instilling Jonathon’s desires to push the boundaries. Yet the climactic victim implies he actually has his own twisted moral agenda. As he induces the blinding terror in his victims to make their adrenal glands go into overdrive and extract the contents presumably for some form of miracle cure. So this brilliantly sets up a clear villainy path for Jonathon Crane; inheriting his father’s brilliance and drive but lacking his even vague moral compass to direct his talents towards good. This episode is billed as the first of two parts with the send named Scarecrow so we could well see some villain triggering trauma occur between father and son. Not to mention that take away the comic book character implications and this still makes for a great episode “phobia-killer” setup as Crane elaborately indulges the weaknesses of his pray. While the opening heights (acrophobia) sequence is visually impressive; you have to love the twisted nature of the pig-phobic (swineophobia?) scenes. Seeing Crane menacingly stroking a piglet like an Alabama bond villain is just awesome.

This week also sees Gotham subtly creep towards the two thirds point in the series with several characters and plotlines showing some real developments. The biggest of which is Penguin being rumbled by Maroni; as soon as they arrive upstate for the thing with the guy (best explanation ever!) we really feel that something is going down. Yet the episode does a wonderful job of both stringing along the tension and suspense as well as keeping us wondering which way it will go down; a pulverised Penguin or jabroni beaten Maroni? Their entire sit down secrets game scene is just brilliant as we’re hanging on tenterhooks waiting to see who’ll blink first with some good gags along for the ride. Yet the end result is even better as once more Penguin proves he can somehow talk himself out of the seemingly impossible. This should have some big ramifications in weeks to come when at least one party will be out for blood. It’s also worth noting the pair’s remarks about Arkham and the potential power struggle of its domain. Maroni questions if his apparently worthless Indian Hill territory gifted to Falcone really was that. But most notably Penguins ominous desperate claim of “he who controls Arkham controls Gotham” implying that the series still has something big in the works there.

There’s also a lot of progression with smaller plotlines. Jim and Leslie’s relationship is progressing despite Jim’s inability to separate work from pleasure. Her appointment as the new Police Medical Examiner following Nigma’s hilarious intervention should see her playing a more significant role in weeks to come. Speaking of Nigma he’s on great form this week; both in his clashes the departing examiner (his “corpse probing” face may actually be his best moment yet) and with his continuing courtship of Miss Kringle who appears to slowly warming to his quirky charms. The word is that he will soon take a darker/Riddler creation path this series and it looks like Ms Kringle will play a big part in that. The Captain’s warnings about repercussions and payback from friends of the arrested Detective Flass feel foreboding for the coming weeks and seeing Bullock getting his womanising charms on his acceptance of Fish’s departure makes for great results even if they have a strong “short lived” feeling to them. As for Fish and her quite lavish city departure; the boats hijacking by what looks like pirates make for a very intriguing twist. Yet it’s the final seconds of her and the unknown assailant charging towards each other like a Hulkbuster clip from the Age of Ultron trailers that will be fixed in your head as such bizarre but brilliant WTF moment.

After last week’s episode was lacking I said Gotham needed to deliver here and I’m very glad to see that it has; a great episode that’s strengths are entirely non-dependant on the comics source material success yet still manage to be enhanced by them. This is exactly the show we want Gotham to be; a blend of the gritty and nutty mashed together into a smooth flowing texture. I can’t wait to see what the fearsome doctor prescribes next week.

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