OVER two years ago, Matt Reeves figuratively flew down from the heavens to save Warner Bros from self-cannibalising its DC Comics properties with The Batman. Introducing Robert Pattinson as a different, moodier take on Bruce Wayne and Batman, the film was a success and it paved the way to the upcoming The Batman – Part II being greenlit.
Before Pattinson returns in the sequel though, the world of The Batman has grown just a little bit bigger with HBO’s The Penguin, a spinoff focusing on the titular character that was introduced in the 2022 film.
Set not very long after the climactic events of the film, The Penguin is an eight-episode television series that chronicles the aftermath of The Batman, leading into the next film set to release in 2026.
The assassination of mob boss Carmine Falcone at the hands of The Riddler leaves a power vacuum in the Gotham City crime world, with various gangs seeking to carve more than a slice of the city for themselves.
For aspiring crime boss Oswald “Oz” Cobb (Colin Farrell), or The Penguin, he dreams of nothing more than seizing control and making his mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell) proud. However, Oz’s plans are threatened when Falcone’s daughter Sofia (Cristin Milioti) is released from Arkham Asylum.
Crime-fed drama
There is no doubt DC Comics’s Gotham City is a festering wound. As such, there are no “good guys” in The Penguin. Without mincing words, it is the illegitimate comic book television-movie child of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Like those shows, a big part of this series’s charm is its characters who are all alarmingly deplorable in their own ways.
Showrunner and creator Lauren LeFranc understands that Gotham City’s criminals are at their best when they embody the duality of their city. This is how she keeps the audience perpetually engaged in a love-hate relationship with The Penguin’s characters.
Oz is the best example of how LeFranc does this. Abhorrent in more ways than one, Oz is also shown to have a soft side to him whenever his mother is involved or with his protege of sorts Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz).
Even when he repeatedly gets himself into situations with no easy escape and then throws others under the bus to save his own skin, it is hard not to like Oz as Farrell’s charisma naturally oozes through the fat suit, makeup and prosthetics.
The same goes with Milioti’s Sofia as she flexes her acting in The Penguin, bringing the vulnerability of someone wrongfully thrown into an asylum, being broken psychologically and being released to carry out her menacing brand of twisted vengeance.
LeFranc’s choice to go bigger with Falcone’s “relationship” with women that was briefly seen in The Batman by weaving it into the greater tapestry of Gotham City’s exploitation of them and the abetment of it by corrupt men also brings a side of storytelling to the city that has not been seen in previous DC Comics films and TV shows.
The Penguin is the right tightrope balance between uniform, stellar writing, directing and acting across the board. Every piece of this mean machine roars and grinds together in unison to deliver the best television series of the year.
Vengeful future
For a spinoff to The Batman, there is almost no allusion the series makes to acknowledge the caped crusader’s existence. Sure, the series features one of the antagonists from the film, brings back another in flashbacks, has a fleeting cameo of a certain police figure and The Penguin is certainly a continuation of the 2022 film’s story but despite the connective tissues, neither Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne nor Batman make an appearance.
There are no news reports or fleeting images of newspaper clippings on Batman stopping The Riddler. No passing mentions of the vigilante aiding Gotham City during the floods caused by the former. It was almost as though the crimefighter and his billionaire alter ego suddenly ceased to exist after The Batman’s credits finished rolling.
However, by the end of the eighth and final episode, once the full extent of Oz’s evil and depravity have been laid bare, turning the viewer’s love-hate relationship of the character into one purely fuelled by hate, LeFranc reminds us Batman exists and that he will return to make the Penguin’s bum leg the only leg that works.
The Penguin is streaming on HBO Max.