Despite its first season ratings success, Gotham had trouble finding itself in the first year. Its tone was all over the place, oscillating between campy and wacky humor aimed at younger viewers and a more seedy, violent nature that would seemingly prevent those same viewers from watching the show. The initial pacing bored, as well, leading to a midseason finale that wrapped up arcs that were seemingly intended to continue throughout the season. This left poor Jada Pinkett Smith stranded on a show as a “regular,” despite her character being so completely finished with her narrative that the writers literally shipped her off to a remote island for the majority of the second half.

Fox knew that the show had lost some of its audience, so they branded season two as something of a reboot. Hence the beginning of “Gotham: Villains,” a tag that was frequently used in the marketing but never actually appeared on the show. Despite a seeming gulf between marketing and the actual writers, Gotham did begin to show some growth this year, even if it’s marginal.

Gotham will never be a great show. Hell, it often fails at even being a particularly good show. But the early episodes of the second season show that it’s at least settled on something of a tone. The campiness is still there in spades, but it feels better tied to the more violent aspects of the show. Instead of two separate tones, the two have fused into a weird colorful dark comedy. It’s hard to take seriously at times, and is a far cry from the recent Christopher Nolan take on Gotham City, but it’s distinctive and, sometimes, fun.

The narrative progression has been problematic, with most of the characters who were introduced on the hero or villain “teams” wiped out fairly quickly. But the series found a strong throughline with Theo Galavan, a seedy, charismatic politician who slowly begins to take over Gotham. Making the villain of the season a part of the established system creates a theoretically strong conflict for Jim Gordon. Gordon would always rather take down a criminal through legal means, but when his target controls the courts, what can he do? The show doesn’t do a great job of resolving that conflict, and the “Is Gordon going too far?” arc never feels consistent or earned. But at least the writers are showing a willingness to challenge the convictions of their hero.

The show also picks up a lot toward the end of the fall season as characters are finally starting to become their “true” selves. One of the biggest problems with prequels is that they utilize characters during less interesting periods of their life. This almost has to be the case, because if such a period was as ripe for drama as the original story, then the storyteller likely would have started there in the first place. This is absolutely the case in Gotham, as we get a character like Bruce Wayne as a naive child rather than the freaking Batman. Villains, too, are typically less interesting versions of what existed in the original story. It’s hard to be excited about The Riddler when he’s just a nerdy lovestruck fool at the Gotham Police Department.

So, to finally see Bruce scheming and manipulating to get what he wants is refreshing. So, too, is the show’s embrace of the Riddler’s psychopathic megalomania, and his newfound friendship with The Penguin. Being able to see Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Lucius Fox, The Penguin, and Selina Kyle all team up and take down the Order of St. Dumas is a lot of fun, and embraces the sort of temporary alliances that the comics like to play off of. It’s pandering, but this is a show that could stand to pander a bit more.

The series also improved a lot in the last couple episodes due to a faster pace. There’s simply so much happening that there’s no time for filler. Given the lack of real depth that Gotham possesses, this allows the show to embrace its real strengths. Again, it isn’t a great show, but it doesn’t have to be if it can just remain fun for the full hour.

This series will never be able to integrate every aspect that makes primary Batman timeline fun, but at least it can grow into an approximation of that universe. Here’s hoping that the second half of the season will embrace the craziness and silliness this fall season ended with and grow into something worth anticipating each week.