Written by Kim Newton
Directed by Mark Tonderai
Professor Pyg (to a cop): "Oink, oink, little pig."
Okay, one of the creepiest and most recent Batman villains finally got added to the show's roster of Rogue Gallery members and this was an episode that despite not being overtly gory (funny, considering the main baddie in question), did however managed to be suitably creepy while at the same time providing a disappointing if not surprising revelation about Bullock to boot.
First of all, props to guest actor Michael Cerveris for being utterly menacing as Pyg. We never get to see what he looks like outside of that pig mask he wore but all of his scenes, including that chilling last moment where he was actually feeding the pigs really struck a note for me that there's more horrible stuff to come.
Pyg as a character in general is genuinely horrifying and has gone from the comics to the Arkham games and Beware The Batman animated series in recent years. This live action foray into the character is off to a promising start with him kidnapping and killing corrupt cops and putting pigs heads on their faces to boot.
The use of opera music, the creepy sing song style rhyming, just everything about Cerveris's performance just sold Pyg as a dangerous villain but the fact that he was willing to spare Gordon, whom he viewed as a good cop was interesting while he failed in his attempt to murder Bullock though. Speaking of Bullock, this wasn't his best episode yet.
I'm not really surprised that he was revealed as being under Oswald pay packet and I almost can get his reasons for doing so but it came across as a rather predictable move and do we really need yet another reason for Gordon to get on high horse? The answer would be no and you know it's going to put a strain on their friendship for the next few episodes.
As for the rest of the episode, this plot in the Narrows with Leslie, Butch/Grundy and Nygma has gotten pretty interesting too. While these Fight Club storylines most genre shows seem to do nowadays usually tend to be rather boring, there at least a few dimensions to this one as both Leslie and Nygma interacted quite a lot here.
I like that Leslie tried to look out for Grundy with Nygma barely containing the fact that he was using the latter for his own end while at the same time having some fun at Ed's expense before agreeing to help him out. The subplot with Cherry allowing Leslie to run a free clinic in exchange for helping out with her boxers made a lot of sense. Basically this Narrows storyline is probably a lot better than most of what Leslie had going on last season.
As for Oswald, once again we had a situation where it looked like he was finally going to catch Sofia out, only for things to be turned on their head and for him to fall further under her thumb for good measure. Sofia this week revealed that she opened up an orphanage and to be honest, I think Zsasz's reaction really summed it up. I get that the Nygmobblepot shippers are hating this storyline but I'm finding it rather fascinating to be honest, though I do hope they don't go down the romance route here.
- Leslie's in the Narrows as it was the worst affected by the Tetch virus that she feels guilty over being released.
- I'm hoping the show does a bit more with Cherry before this Narrows storyline is over with. So far, she's done not too much other than being concerned about money and making sure Leslie keeps to her side of the bargain.
- No Bruce, Alfred, Selina, Lucius, Ivy, Barbara or Tabitha this week.
- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left off.
Hog Day Afternoon with a bit of a tweaking would've made for a good Halloween episode. It was certainly creepy enough and we have yet to see the show properly acknowledge the holiday considering that this season is meant to be influenced by The Long Halloween. A good introduction for Pyg and some great subplots as well, nicely meshed together.
Rating: 7 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment