Per TVLine, one of the generally considered highlights of FOX’s hit series Gotham is saying good-bye.
Jada Pinkett Smith, who plays Falcone Crime Family Lieutenant and original character Fish Mooney on the Batman prequel series, told Extra the following about her possible return for the second season this fall:
We’re done, I did my year and I had a good time. The show is gonna [have] an awesome finale.
I know there’s going to be quite a few disappointed Fish-fans out there to hear this news, but as I understand it, in the second half of the season, her character has been relegated to the side-lines. So, perhaps this was just an eventuality.
From what little Gotham I’ve seen, Smith always seemed to be the one performer who knew what show she was on and was really able to channel that camp into something pretty fun to watch.
So long, and thanks for all the Fish! …I’ll see my way out.
Yeah, not surprising for a few reasons — one, Smith’s a big enough name that a regular TV gig didn’t seem like it was something long-term, and two, simple Prequel Syndrome. We always knew Fish wasn’t going to last and Penguin was going to take over because we’ve heard of Penguin before and we’ve never heard of Fish. (Her on-the-nose name doesn’t exactly make it subtle either.)
I expect she’ll make it back to Gotham by the end of the season to kick off the gang war that’s been looming since the beginning, and probably get killed in the process — but maybe not; maybe they’ll have her Leave On a Bus and leave her open for a return at some point later in the series.
I’ve seen a lot of people gripe about Fish, but I’m with you: her wholehearted embrace of the camp of the show is really refreshing compared to the other cast members who tend to play it too straight. And I think she’s doing a pretty obvious homage to Eartha Kitt’s Catwoman, and that’s cool too.
Fish Mooney has always seemed out of place in Gotham, because she’s the only recurring character original to the series – the other gangsters and cops are stock characters – and yet she gets as much focus as Gordon or Cobblepot, even her own independent subplot lately. In a series that’s otherwise populated entirely with younger versions of established Bat-franchise characters, in a weekly game of “nudge, wink, nudge, geddit, you know who this is, right?” … it’s weird.
I don’t know if they’ll put her on a bus, or throw her under one. But even if they show her being ground up by a bus driving back-and-forth over her, I expect her to be back. Maybe not on Gotham (because Smith might not want to do it, or they might not get to it before it’s finished), but her eventual introduction into the comics (with a last-page splash) is probably inevitable … either because that’s what they’ve been planning all along (which would explain a lot), or because some writer or editor will be brainstorming for ideas and remember this character from that TV show that no one’s doing anything with.
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