Way to stay classy, DC! I’m talking about all the restraint you’ve been using on the TV series Gotham. When you strangle somebody to death on screen, you don’t linger on the shot of the hands tightening around the victim’s neck. When someone is stabbed in the back with an ice pick, we see just one spurt of blood, not two or three. Torture is handled tastefully and delicately, not with a baseball bat. Oh wait, it was with a baseball bat. Never mind. The point is, another company might think it’s proper to wallow in ultra-violence while telling the back-story of a children’s comic book character in the 8 o’clock hour. But not you guys. Youse got class.

But let’s not dwell on graphic violence. Let’s look on the bright side! The Riddler! Or the pre-Riddler in this case. Dr. Edward Nigma as played by Cory Michael Smith in the TV series is a welcome departure from the cackling lunatic we’ve seen before. Ed seems like a genuinely nice guy – an oddball perhaps – but he just likes riddles (and he doesn’t like onions) and he has a crush on a sweet girl in the office. We can relate to him as a human being. And we can see he’s just about to crack. A joke! You can feel the tension as E. Nigma slowly loses his patience on the road to becoming a full-blown nutball. Nicely done!

Which brings me to a riddle. What’s the difference between a convict and The Riddler? A convict has a long record but The Riddler’s is only two minutes and twelve seconds.

Cackling lunatic?

.

Subtle characterization.

Do you know the answers to these riddles? I don’t.

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