Where do I begin here?
I am not really a person who posted a review of movie or
series I just watched, but yes I do always have more than a word “Great!” or “Subhanallah!”
as response. I have watched various series like Heroes, Fringe, Medium, Marvel’s
Agent, Psych, The River (2012), Cristela, Franklin & Bash, True Detective, Grey’s
Anatomy, Charmed, Whitney, Modern Family, The Neighbors, and many more. Never
for once I felt the urge to write the review for those. Wait, since I have mentioned
them I just realized perhaps I should have done that. Whatever, let’s back to
my point. I am not implying that those are kind of blasé or less entertaining,
but I have more convincing reasons for expressing the things pop up in my head
about this Gotham series. Especially for this episode 7 Penguin’s Umbrella, it
really hit the spot.
1. I do not care about argue on which published story is better between DC Comics and Marvels, but from the existing realm of Superheroes, only Batman that makes sense to me. I like the characters, the background story, and the logic that becomes the foundation of the whole story: A city namely Gotham that has its people living under the breath of organized crimes, corrupt societal system, injustice that drives high number of crimes, and the balancing battle between good and evil represented by the characters such as Gordon, Bruce, Riddler, Penguin, Bullock, Joker, and others. Batman/Bruce is perceivable for a Superhero. He has money to access information, high-level figures, technology, and ultimately he has strong background that makes him able to do the change.For these reasons, I watched Gotham, and that had not disappointed me until I met BARBARA KEAN who becomes my #2 point.
2. This point is to explain the thing that does not make sense to me, yet. Boobra, sorry, Barbara was perhaps meant to be an eye candy for this series. I did not notice the prominence of her role on the Batman movies, but somewhat on Gotham she is there to fill the story as influential person in Gordon’s life. It really bothers me to witness Barbara as a woman that is so typical in mostly Western movies/series. She is portrayed as a lover who is sexy, beautiful, nice for eyes, but so much stupid in love that she always does stupid thing and jeopardizes Gordon’s life and his career. She works in art business; typically what beautiful and high-class woman does for a living. I am terribly disappointed. I do not hate any Barbara Kean, but I hate the fact how Gotham’s story writer has chosen to portray her that way. I suspected that as I saw her the first time she stupidly called media telling about discreet information right after Gordon just told her that his boss ordered him not to reveal it to public. She said what to Gordon? “But that’s the right thing to do!”. Such a naïve head you got there Barbara! What a lovely lady! Here I list her stupidity:
- On the occasion of whether Gordon shot Penguin
dead or not, she said to Gordon she hated that he hid things from her. Come on,
judging from the previous thing happened when she called media about secret
work stuff, why on hell Gordon would open up to her? Logic, Boobra? Funnily,
she said it realizing that she was also had not told Gordon about her past lesbian
relationship. What a funny Boobra. Gordon would not give out any information
that had potential to risk his beloved woman. Don’t you get it, Boobra?
Professionally speaking, even to partner/spouse, secret information about work
stays secret. That is what exactly is
expected from a man of reliability and trustworthy. What, Boobra? Do you want
the man you love to lose his job because he is disseminating confidential
subject? Just because he is honest, does not mean he can share such information.
Don’t you both have something more interesting than talking about work that
even Gordon does not want to discuss? I mean, Barbara, what is it in Gordon
that makes you fall for him? That has to be more profound reason than his work,
right?
- After the breaking revelation that Gordon
apparently did not shoot Penguin, Boobra insisted to stay with Gordon. What a
stupid act of affection. The man was trying to protect her that he even was
willing to let her apart from him, but the woman wanted to stay for what? So she
could be an additional burden to Gordon? This act of love by Barbara does not
make sense to me. It never does. This is a pattern of differences between how
man and woman would do out of love that I frequently find in movies. Why do
story writers often put them such in opposite natures? Haven’t we got through
it yet? This is 2015 already. Not all women do things based on affection. We,
women, can calculate too. This is
bothering me. I mean, If I am in Barbara situation, yes, yes, I will go to
faraway country, staying for a week in remote city, picking apples or oranges
for pretext, and then move to other remote city to avoid being a collateral
damage on Gordon’s behalf. That will I do because I, presumably, love Gordon so
much I cannot let myself get on his way while he is fighting evil.
But that’s me; maybe that’s why I never have a boyfriend in the first place.
 |
| What the heaven were you doing there, Barbara? |
- There is one scene that made me cry, not because
the story is sad, but because how stupid it is. It is from Episode 7, when Gordon
and Bullock had already had the Mayor and Falcon on their grasp. It is a few
seconds away from bringing them to prison or shooting them dead for resistance.
Falcon then said that he had Barbara for his leverage. Damn! Barbara is really
moronic. Can the writer try to challenge himself to continue the story without
involvement of female stupidity or whatever love has to do with it? I mean, she
apparently came back from wherever she was hiding pleading Falcon’s mercy to spare
Gordon’s life. I mean, hello? Isn’t that the stupidest thing she could do for
the man she loves? In my eyes, she was only sabotaging Gordon’s plan to bring the
villains down. What a waste.
But
that’s just me. That’s probably why I never have boyfriend since I was born. I have lack of a beauty and less stupid.
The
unfair thing is Falcon then told Gordon that he was lucky to have Barbara as a
brave woman. Bravery? Is it what her action called? I see it as sabotage and foolishness.
Not only is it the act of recklessness, but also futility. At the end of
episode, it was revealed that actually Penguin that plotted with Falcon to
spare Gordon’s life. So how is it, Barbara?
 |
| Barbara finally gets her wit to regret things she did. |
- Referring to my aforementioned point, Barbara
cried saying sorry for what she did to Gordon. Yes, regret is a good start,
lady. But it is unfair that she still got a kiss from Gordon. This is probably
to exhibit how much Gordon loves her. But that does not make sense either.
Which part of Barbara that is appealing enough to make her his girlfriend? Oh
well, I recall from second episode when Bullock told Gordon “You gotta learn to
control your woman” regarding the leak of discreet information to media. As
response to that statement Gordon said “I
kinda like her the way she is”. Perhaps, it is true that man likes woman who is
beautiful (of course) but rather stupid, impulsive, reckless, and stupid. Did I
just mention stupid twice? Yeah, double stupid.
But that’s just me, maybe that’s
why… oops enough with self pity.
The crux is, apart from the story about
superheroes, Gotham has failed to serve new point of view on how influential the
role of women in protagonist’s side. Barbara is just like another cliché from
among three weaknesses of men (woman, power, and money) that makes everything
that went well now gone wrong. Based on the Batman movies, I like how Cat Woman
is represented. Unlike Bruce’s previous girlfriend Rachel Dawes, Selina Kyle
was portrayed as witty, intelligent, intuitive, and quick-witted. I mean, the
first quality I notice from her is not merely physical beauty. I really hope in
Gotham, the writer decides to present Selina Kyle with more focus on her quality
other than her beauty. We have enough Barbara for eye candy. We have enough of
female cliché. No, not every twist in life is started by woman.
