It seems to me that the show hasn't yet decided if it is going to go the campy route or the gritty route and is unsuccessfully trying to do both. It'll have cartoonish villains like the 50's-looking couple from this episode that could have stepped out of the most lighthearted episode of The Animated Series and then involve them in an incredibly dark plot about child murder. It's very confused.
I wouldn't say it's unsuccessful by any means. It can be off putting to some, but so was The Animated Series as it dealt with some pretty dark stuff itself, iirc. While not absolutely everyone's taste, I do like the contrast of camp and grit, and I think that's a big part of what the myth of Gotham City has always been, that you have this guy in a bat suit breaking arms and this guy in a clownsuit blowing off people's heads and cracking really corny jokes. I think that's where the Batman mythos works best, with a certain aware theatricality, the kind that Fish Mooney shows, which is why she's one of the best characters. Even the characters that aren't aware of their theatricality, like Selina, are still in that dark world, and go from demanding people call her an animal she likes to coercing them by threatening to accuse them of molesting her. That's pretty dark, especially for a kid. And it wasn't in the cute comedy movie way, she crossed her legs and smacked her lips like 'I dare you to call my bluff.'
I guess, basically, your comment helped me realize and highlight exactly why I like this show, which perhaps is the same exact reason you dislike it.
Now, I think it could be better, I think there are some things it seems to lack awareness of, when it comes to naming the Penguin and cramming all these future villains together in a tight box, but the fact that they have that thing so right gives me hope.
