I'm a really cranky guy when it comes to TV, my house-mates thought I was a snob when it came to this stuff, they were probably right.
It doesn't help that I'm rewatching the wire, which is probably unfair to do to it.
What I liked
Alfred as much less posh sounding butler
The costumes and look of the city
The penguins actor
Bruce standing on the roof looking like he is going to kill himself but was actually being goaded on by his psychotic butler
What I disliked
The clunky exposition, with emphasis on the repeatedly using each new characters name as they come on.
The riddler, nudging the audience in the ribs
Anything the penguin was used for
The seeming lack of purpose
In the space of a day Gordon meets (and gets the name for) the penguin, the riddler, poison Ivy and batman this makes me feel like less like the show is world building and more that were seeing a small incestuous group of criminals
The idea of a chain reaction set off from the murder as you say is a cool idea, but in some cases they are better off leaving the character out for the time being. Part of batmans thing is escalation and crazy people popping out of nowhere. It was too much too soon.
Shield was a show I just couldn't get into, though I have heard it improves greatly towards the latter half of the first season I just wasn't into it.