The Hopeful, the Indefensible and the “Huh?” from Gotham’s Pilot Episode

Gotham, which had more pre-show promotion than Beygency membership drives, finally, finally landed on Fox last night with its pilot episode. Since I will not be handling too much recap duty (The Summer of Taj has ended, but let the Fall Autumn of Taj begin!) on these Fall shows, I may gather some thoughts on the pilot episodes for them. Spoilers be chillin in the fire escape above Crime Alley. The Hopeful 1) Some of the supplementary characters are actually pretty well cast. I imagine that many people will be split on Jada Pinkett’s ‘Fish Mooney’ but as an admitted Jada-Stan, I was ok with it. It’s a little much and cartoonish, but it’s also a “Batman-villain” so what are really asking for here? She handled it well enough for me, appropriately scary and intimidating (and fine for those that care). However, the Donal Logue as Harvey Bullock is probably the most well put together character so far, but John Doman (of The Wire fame) as Carmine Falcone is expertly cast. I assume he will be seldom heard from, but he was easily my favorite part of the pilot. 2) Even without the Easter Eggs and random name drops, it does FEEL like the city of Gotham. The aerial shots of the city with sewer smoke and the great absence of sunshine follow the trope of every other portrayal of Gotham ever, but still, we could use some stability. 3) Of the seventeen hundred proposed villains for this show, Robin Lord Taylor as Oswald Cobblepot seems to be the best primed to be a decent villain on this sh…