S01.E06: You're a Damn Good Cop, Jim Gordon

[MarkHB]

Quote

When Clayface loses his arm in a heist, it turns out to be not only evidence for Jim Gordon (CHRISTOPHER MELONI), but also a key witness against Harley and her crew.

 

[paigow]

How does the Cowled Critic get all that video? Is Jim married to Barbara Kean and has a daughter named Barbara???

[CletusMusashi]

I love that Clayface's hand can grow whatever body parts it needs to, but his own tendency to overthink every single role means that, until the original part comes home, he feels obligated to only morph into amputees, regardless of the fact that he obviously has extra magically-disappearing body mass to spare...

Also love that King Shark is apparently considered perfectly appropriate to drop into the normal prison population! 

Does the introduction of King Tut's tomb mean we're going to get Professor William McElroy? Or an actual re-animated mummy king? Or neither? Sometimes I see things that I assume are never going to be plot points, such as the "Suicide Squad" shirts. But sometimes other things from that exact category come back to visit again, such as Dr. Psycho's tech-obsessed son. So... I honestly have no idea what to expect any more.

Edited January 4, 2020 by CletusMusashi

[CletusMusashi]

On the first watch, I considered this one to be fun, but just not as good as most of the rest of the series. Based on the lack of other comments, I suspect that opinion was wide-spread. 

On the actual-for-real-rewatch after seeing the whole first season and then going through it again... this does fare better. Not only are there, as usual, jokes that I missed, such as the fact that the hat that Clayface lost his arm Indiana-Jonesing after was actually morphed out of him... meaning he actually grew a hat out of his body that could fall off, instead of just growing a hat-shaped attachment... but also, the little lost hand is less annoying and more interesting (in short, more funny!) when you're viewing the ep with a real understanding of Clayface's personality.

Clayface has already been shown to be obsessed with character motivation. I don't think Jim had that in mind when he introduced himself. However, an entity that basically has the same motivations as Clayface (1. study of acting, and 2. approval for one's self via study of acting,) but a less developed personality (therefore not many peripheral concerns about the other body's friends, or even as much shape-shifting or voice control skills,) quite probably would act like what the fist time around struck me as a rather annoying falsetto over-extended joke. When Jim introduced himself, the hand instinctively became interested in What Motivates This New Character, Jim the Cop? And from there on, progessively cast itself more and more as His Best Friend

Also, I was mildly annoyed the first time I saw this that King Shark can bite heads off this week but goes berserk if he smells Robin's blood. My take now is that smelling blood when he's in water-breathing mode drives him into a frenzy until he feeds, but smelling and/or tasting blood when he's in air-breathing mode is fine. For now, I'm going with it. It fits, and it allows sight gags like a giant shark man ducking down, still being visible be cause of his fin, and then tip-toeing up to someone who he can effortlessly decapitate in one bite.

A fate which the poor guard listening to Clayface's distraction-character's tale of woe no doubt envies.

Also, I love that among the list of potential Harley hideouts that Gordon is crossing off on his list are "abandoned mannequin factory," "abandoned chemical factory," and "abandoned 'abandoned factory' movie set."

Edited March 26, 2020 by CletusMusashi

[Lantern7]

Anyone thinking maybe this version of Jim Gordon is supposed to be a sharp contrast to good-looking Ben McKenzie's take on the character in Gotham? It's sad, yet it's hilarious.

When I get back to conventions, I'm gonna get a King Shark sketch. Yes, this version is basically "What if Ron Funches was a humanoid shark," but he's so funny. Gotta love the end, where he's running the prison, then threatens to murder the others for using the phrase "new fish." He's adorable, eating if he's literally biting a guy's head off.

Seriously, Harley's gang is made up of keepers. Gotta love Clayface sauntering into police HQ, telling the cops that the Joker had kidnapped "Bruce Springstein." And they bought it! Maybe this Gotham City is in New Jersey? While I still "ship" Giganta with Ryan Choi on Gail Simone's run on All-New Atom, watching her slag Dr. Psycho and the "Jolly Green Whore" was fun, as well as her cunning linguist new boyfriend.

King Shark sketch . . . and maybe one of Jim and the Clayface hand. They were cute, and it was a nice twist on a Batman animated episode with a similar spawn of Clayface.

[CletusMusashi]

The funnies thing about the Bruce Springsteen joke was that they weren't even suspicious about his pronouncing it "Spring-stine." Clayface is like a sillier, more clueless incarnation of Sideshow Bob.

[johntfs]

I liked Harley casually hanging up on the poor woman reporting a murderer who was still inside her home.

[Kel Varnsen]

On 3/26/2020 at 12:00 AM, CletusMusashi said:

Also, I love that among the list of potential Harley hideouts that Gordon is crossing off on his list are "abandoned mannequin factory," "abandoned chemical factory," and "abandoned 'abandoned factory' movie set."

The last item was Basement of the Alamo. Gotta love a good Pee Wee's Big Adventure reference, especially with all the creepy clown imagery in that movie(it was directed by Tim Burton after all).0