Yes, HBO’s ‘The Penguin’ Is As Good As Reviews Say

HBO is spooling up further DC programming, a show that could not be more opposite to its previous offering, James Gunn’s Peacemaker. That would be The Penguin, a spin-off of Matt Reeves’ non-DCU, non-DCEU The Batman movie, a film which featured Colin Farrell’s Penguin as a supporting character. Now, he’s about to get ten times the screen time Robert Pattinson’s Bruce/Bats ever got in that movie.

The show aired on Thursday, but that will subsequently move to Sunday as HBO’s “premium” offering on that night, which previously featured House of the Dragon. And yes, it deserves that slot. Spoilers follow.

As of now, The Penguin is far removed from anything resembling actual superheroism, a pure mob drama that deals with the aftermath of the events of Riddler flooding Gotham which Batman is sure not going to singlehandedly clean up, and I’d be amazed if he even got a cameo. There’s a power struggle in the underworld after the death of Falcone Sr., and the show opens with the shocking execution of his son and successor by Oz, simply because he laughs at his dream of being a revered gangster.

The show then turns into an odd buddy drama with Penguin recruiting a kid to help him with his new plans, rather than executing him when he’s a witness to the disposal of Falcone’s body. He wants an apprentice, it seems. Now, Penguin is playing both sides, the Falcone’s and the Moroni’s, ending up escaping blame for the murder by the end of the episode with a surprisingly brilliant plan.

While I know we saw him do this in The Batman, it is almost impossible to believe that it’s Colin Farrell under that makeup and rubber in what has to be the most impressive prosthetic work I’ve ever seen. Do you know how hard it is to create a character in a grounded mob drama with a bunch of crap on his face while wearing a fatsuit? But it works, it really works, and Farrell is excellent here. He’s unrecognizable not just visually, but his acting, as well, which is unlike anything I’ve ever seen him do. It seems he will be far more interesting than he was allowed to be in The Batman, and it’s easy to understand now why they gave him his own series.

And though she has less screen time, it seems very clear that Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone, recently released from Arkham, is going to be a similarly excellent presence in the show, one who has Penguin’s number and understands his plays better than anyone. It seems she may be the villain in the show (well, Oz is a villain, but you get what I mean), and so far, she has earned that title.

We know that James Gunn is planning a lighter-hearted version of DC compared to both the DCEU and now this Reeves stuff, but it’s hard to deny that Reeves’ vision of Gotham here is close to the best we’ve ever seen. There will likely be a movie trilogy, this Penguin miniseries and at least one or two other HBO shows by the time all is said and done. And he and his team are two for two, and I’d be willing to bet they could go six for six, given the chance.

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