Redemption in Gotham.
What They Say:
Batman intervenes in a gang war and tries to convince the older of two rival bosses to change his ways.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One area of the Batman mythos that had picked up well over the decades, especially with more modern storytelling, was just focusing on the crime element itself. The supervillains and weirdness was always fun but I loved that you could have a series simply focusing on the brutal crimes that happen in the city without all of that, particularly with all the mob justice elements and just the nut jobs that roamed it. That may not make for quite as compelling an episode when it comes to TV for some people but just focusing on “real” crime in this way definitely has its appeal. Having been a huge fan of the Gotham Central comic series, that’s still something I’d want to see brought into the live-action world.
A turf war is a familiar piece for many cities over the years and in Gotham we have one going on between the Stromwell family and the Thorne family. Stromwell’s been around for some time and has a solid hold on the city but with his son having disappeared and presumably by Thorne, that has Stromwell willing to meet and figure something out. Of course, Thorne isn’t intent on doing anything to help Stromwell and sets the whole thing as a trap with plans to blow up the restaurant in order to take out Stromwell and the leadership. Which, naturally, Batman is already aware of. Stromwell is super tense even before getting there as we see him triggered by a train that reminds him of a near-death experience during his childhood. It’s a humanizing moment for him that can easily be seen as weakness by others, but for the viewer it shows his decades-long journey that has put him into this position.
Thorne’s execution of it all goes well but we also see Batman protecting him, first by connecting with his childhood friend that became a pastor years ago. The dynamic between Stromwell and Thorne plays well and I like that it works the idea that Batman would save Stromwell even though things would be “easier” in Gotham with one less crime boss and even believing in some level of rehabilitation for him. Batman almost operates as a Ghost of Christmas Past here in trying to get Stromwell to understand what he’s done to this city, all while Thorne sends his men out into the city to find them, but the real kicker is that it’s his son that’s in the facility. You can see how he can separate what he does from what happened to his son but there’s some simple realities here in what he has to do. It’s certainly simple and unrealistic but it works the attempt at redemption angle well with the personal touch, even though Stromwell knows that it’s his end should things go through. But Stromwell’s true colors are shown far too easily, which may make Batman naive in a way but it’s part of this iteration of the character that I like in that he does try to help others find a path back.
In Summary:
This episode keeps us pretty grounded in the grim and gritty side of Gotham with the drug running and guns but it’s kept to the fringes in order to stick to the intended audience age at the time, so it’s not quite as blunt as it could and should be. The trade off is that we get a more physical action Batman this time around with some welcome stealthy moments as he attempts to defuse the mob war that’s going on. There are areas where it doesn’t quite work as well as it should with its execution but it’s got a nice small and personal approach that clicks and I enjoy the whole realistic crime side of the Batman world.
Grade: B
