Gotham returns with a new villain, GOT's prophecy blues and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has a ladies' night

After quite a long wait, Gotham has returned to finish up their first season-what is with shows this past year and a half that keep taking mini-breaks? I can understand taking time off during the holidays or certain sporting events, but come on!

Every two or three weeks, we've been getting an unnecessary hiatus for all sorts of shows, from dramas to sitcoms, and that's really disruptive to the steady viewer. Networks, I know you want to stall until those sweeps but you're ticking your audiences off, which will affect your ratings during those crucial time frames! Think about it, that's all I'm asking.

Okay, back to business. While Fish Mooney was making her escape plans from Doll Maker Island(and since Jada Pinkett-Smith is insisting that she's a one year contract gal for this series, not sure how her character is going to tie back into the finale there) and The Penguin preparing to take down Don Maroni, a new menace to society has crossed Jim Gordon's path.

He's a serial killer known as The Ogre, who is a literal lady killer(with a very 50 Shades of Gray lifestyle combined with an American Psycho like stash of deadly items) that's not afraid to go after the loved ones of law enforcement. Gordon was deliberately set on the path to hunt him down by his enemies on the force and despite the danger to the new love of his life Leslie Thompkins, is determined to stop this secretive reign of terror.

Personally, I'm happy to see Milo Ventimiglia back on TV, even in a less than heroic role, and hope that this sinister smooth talker is not just a one season wonder:

Game of Thrones debuted it's season five premiere episode and as there are numerous plot threads going on there, I thought it would be best to focus on just of the big developments.

Cersei's hold upon the Iron Throne is in serious slippage mode, as her father's dead, Tyrion is on the run and Jaime not much help, plus her boy Tommen is little more than a figurehead for her incoming daughter-in-law Margery to step on as she plots to push Cersei aside. All in all, Our Lady Lannister is not in as prime a position as she could be.

I'm going to get slightly spoilery here, as a key scene that explains some of Cersei's past has been somewhat tweaked. In a flashback, we see young Cersei receiving a prophecy regarding her future from a local witch. She is told that,yes she will be queen but destined to be replaced by a younger woman, that her future husband is a king who will bear twenty children while she only has three and that all of them will die before her.

In the book Feast of Crows,which I believe is being combined with Dance of Dragons for this run, Cersei was also told that "a brother's hand" would play a part in her own death. That's a big thing to leave out, as it explains her determination to take down Tyrion.

 Perhaps that nugget of information will appear later on,altho I personally think that the brother's hand refers to Jaime in some way. After all, he did lose that particular limb and considering the twisted relationship between those two(and I don't just mean the sexual one!), it's not inconceivable that the one person she loves the most would be the one to end her time on this particular mortal coil.

I know the show is going to have to take a few side roads, due to the time lapse between book releases, but I do hope that this tidbit is not tossed into the trash bin for good:

This week on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, the story line was strongly female focused, as we learned the reason for Melinda May's nickname,"The Calvary."

The flashbacks revealed that May was the one to head into a house in Bahrain where a potential Index candidate was holding folks hostage, including a little girl and an attack squad of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Turns out the real threat was from the young girl, an Inhuman who was transformed way too soon and went mad with her mind control powers.

That portion of the story was well told, with such a solid performance by Ming-Na Wen that, in my opinion,deserves Emmy consideration. Not only did it explain the current emotional arch of the character, that horrifying incident also showed what her next course of action would be.

 Upon learning that Coulson is putting together some kind of secret superhuman training facility, May is getting suspicious about her allegiance to him yet not willing to go along with the so-called "real S.H.I.E.L.D" gang just yet. If Coulson's smart, he'll find a way to regain her trust and fast, when they meet up again, that is:

Meanwhile, Skye received some more training from her Inhuman mentor,who revealed that she's her birth mother as well. That info has to be kept secret from the others, as Melinda May's Bahrain experience is tied to one of their kind breaking protocol.

It looks as if a big showdown between Raina and Skye is coming, as the former is jealous of the latter's still human appearance. It's understandable but pointing out to Raina that no one forced her to undergo transformation wouldn't help, as willfully evil people are quick to rewrite history for themselves.

As Skye is gaining control over her new abilities, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll manage to learn the same kind of control over her emotions before the next shoe drops on her. Then again, she is a fast learner in more way than one:

RANDOM NOTES:

ARROW/THE FLASH: We had another crossover episode this week, bringing the newest DC small screen hero The Atom long for the ride(how awesome is it that he's played by former Superman Brandon Routh?). The episode was good, not great yet it did set up some of the end game for this first season of The Flash as nearly everyone is on board the "Harrison Wells=bad guy" train.

While I'm way behind on Arrow(which is having some story stumbles, from what my good buddy here tells us), both it and The Flash seem to be carrying the continuity torch for the DC adaptation universe and if the big screen version were made with the same care and craftsmanship, they would be giving the gang at Marvel a run for their box office money: