Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) has some work to do with the mob. Hide HBO Captions
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Maybe you’ve heard: They’re producing another Batman show without Batman.
i know right? One more thing.
Conceptually, Batman without Batman is a big drooling tennis ball, and the culture is a golden retriever that drops it in your lap and keeps looking up at you expectantly. Who could blame you for getting rid of the mongrel? That’s enough.
Think about it. First there were the birds of prey. Then there was Gotham. Then there were the Titans. Then there was Batwoman. Then there was Gotham Knights. Somewhere in there, they made a whole show about Batman’s butler. Before he became a butler.
There was also a Batman without a Batman movie. Ham-handed Joker, of course. And future sequels. Suicide Squad and its sequels or reboots. One of the birds of prey. The Batgirl one that was shelved.
And now they are creating “Penguin”. Yeah, an entire show about the most C-list Batman villain of all C-list Batman villains. What’s next? Penny Plunderer: Rock Opera?
Maybe you’ve heard about this latest addition to the strangely burgeoning Everything But the Bat genre and said, “I’m done.” Totally understandable. It’s reasonable.
Next, you may have heard that this Penguins show is tied to the latest Batman movie directed by Matt Reeves. And maybe you liked this 2022 movie a little bit, in that it felt like a complete break from what came before and had a solid interpretation. Robert Pattinson was a more emo and wounded version of Batsey. The world of Gotham becomes richer and more seedy. And now that I think about it, Colin Farrell’s choice to play the Penguin in that movie as a mob boss with a toothy face stuffed with pounds of latex and a Brooklyn accent thicker than Bolognese , it was a big change. , it was quite interesting.
What I’m trying to say here, and I’m sure no one is more surprised than me, is that if you miss Penguin, you’re making a huge mistake and missing out on one of the best TV series of the year. It means that it becomes. .
“I’m screaming here! I’m screaming here!”
“Penguin” is set immediately after “Batman” in 2022, when the Riddler floods Gotham City and kills thousands of people. Mob boss Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) decides to take advantage of the chaos and take over Gotham’s criminal underworld. To do so, he must face off against the Falcone crime family, led by Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), and the rival Maronis, led by Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) and Nadia Maroni (Shohreh Aghdashloo).
He is assisted in this effort, albeit reluctantly at first, by Victor (Renzy Feliz), a young aspiring criminal who lost his home and family in a flood.
The arrival of Alberto’s sister, Sofia Falcone, complicates Oz’s position of power in a brutally entertaining way. That’s because Sofia is played by the great Cristin Milioti. Milioti plays the role of a woman who has just spent 10 years in Arkham Asylum for the murders of several young sex workers with raw emotion and dark humor.
Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) stares daggers. And the axis. And a sledgehammer. And a machine gun. Hide HBO Captions
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And at the center of it all is Farrell, who conveys holy hell in his every move and line reading, making Oz emerge as a deeply flawed, pathetic figure who just happens to delight in violence. . He is needy and impulsive at the same time, a combination of traits that puts him in danger many times, but he is able to talk his way out of the crisis with smart words. The usual.
I suspect Farrell’s commitment to this bit might offend some viewers. He grows up and his Oz is a surly, oversized creature with constantly changing moods. Nowhere is this more evident than when she dotes on her mother, played with keen intelligence by the great Deirdre O’Connell. I loved their scenes together, as the two actors brought a crackling intensity that momentarily made you forget you were watching Farrell through layers of prosthetics. . But for some, Farrell’s histrionic interpretation, comically broad accent, and fat suit will be too much. To them, Farrell will look like Ratso Rizzo with the BMI of Tony Soprano.
When I woke up this morning/I got Ganzel
Speaking of Big Tony: The superficial similarities between The Sopranos and Penguins are hard to ignore. Both stories are about rival crime families, betrayal, shifting loyalties, and revenge, and both revolve around traumatized characters who are violent, sociopathic gangsters. Like “The Sopranos,” “The Penguin” is a psychological drama in the costumes of a crowd. It offers pulpy and satisfying thrills as well as more esoteric and intellectual fun.
But the similarities don’t end there. There’s always been something edgy about The Sopranos. Despite its brutality and soapiness, even the most soulless acts found humanity and depth of soul in the inhuman. Its characters were crude, but the way the show understood them and presented them to us was elegant.
The Penguin doesn’t quite reach the heights of The Sopranos, but it similarly tries to explore the roots of violence, and comes up with some pretty ugly answers. Convincing, but ugly.
The secret to its appeal lies in the series’ willingness, or rather, its eagerness, to go beyond the comics to find something new in an 83-year-old character originally created for children. The first scene of the first episode makes it clear who Oswald Cobb is. He reminisces about Alberto Falcone of Zegen, a well-respected upstart in his old neighborhood in Oz. Farrell is perfectly calibrated here, showing just how hungry Oz is to be loved and admired, and how quickly and deadly he reacts when that love and admiration is denied. He will show you.
Oz is a mother con. If your mom was Deirdre O’Connell’s character, you would be too. Hide HBO Captions
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While shows like “Gotham” and “Batwoman” delight in making winking references to viewers about people, places and things from the Batcanon, “Penguin” relies on established lore. I like to give myself a lot of leeway and build my own world. When familiar aspects emerge, as in the flashback episode depicting Sophia’s mission at Arkham Asylum, the show makes them fresh and—in the case of Arkham, anyway—harrowing. I am trying my best to be good and do my best. (Seriously, that episode is painful.)
How to cure superhero fatigue?
There’s a certain sameness to superhero stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. And thinness.
Dramas like The Boys and Invincible (or, for that matter, movies like Deadpool and Wolverine), with their constant 14 The edgelord whose style feels like he’s dating his older self keeps laughing about how much he thinks he’s getting away with it.
But the CW and Marvel’s more upbeat, family-friendly superhero fare like The Flash, Superman and Lois, Stargirl, Echo and She-Hulk, and Secret Invasion , and many other works are bound by their own worldview. format. A relatively simple plot aims to create content that can fold laundry. When characters have dialogue, it exists only to convey information needed to advance the plot, not to define characters or reveal insights. . That’s because network executives value that these shows value absolute clarity, never leaving viewers even momentarily uneasy, confused, or, God forbid, challenged in any meaningful way. It’s thanks to you. The fear is that with an overabundance of streaming options, confused viewers will click away and be lost forever.
(The third category of superhero shows, which admirably avoids the trap of sameness and sparseness by behaving effortlessly or gleefully strangely, only includes three series) Crazy Pants: Legion ran for three seasons on FX, Banana Pants: Doom Patrol ran for four seasons on DC Universe, then Max, and Crazy Town’s The Umbrella Academy was on Netflix. The fourth and final season was released.
Penguins don’t fit neatly into any of these categories. It’s not glib, formulaic, or particularly weird. But it’s so great because it involves digging deeper and working harder beneath the surface than any superhero show has ever bothered to do.
This is a series that allows individual moments to remain as they are. Shared glances and conversational exchanges linger in the air for long seconds, doing absolutely nothing to advance the plot, but doing everything to define the characters involved. As a result, our understanding of these characters deepens and becomes more complex, and we become more invested in them and the world.
(Plus, the first episode offers some of the funniest, most deftly Dolly Parton-characterizing needle drops ever to appear on screen.)
But as the show hurtles towards an operatically tragic but satisfying conclusion, certain mechanical, recognizable elements of the comic book Penguin begin to creep in – a top hat here, a top hat here; There’s a cigarette holder etc. “References to ribs” have been a burden to previous Batman-less Batman shows, but they’re still frustrating. Oswald Cobb, who you’ve been watching for eight episodes, is a singular creation with his own demons and his own motivations. It may be inevitable to see him start conforming to corporate-mandated style guides, but I don’t have to like it.
Ultimately, The Penguin is a story about a thug who becomes the boss and the sacrifices he’s willing to make in the process. It may be surprising that it’s been so thoroughly successful given Warner IP’s origins as just another nugget of Batman without Batman, but the creators refuse to coast on what’s past. And there’s a willingness to let Farrell and Milioti dig it out. Dressing up as their characters, we can all sit back and watch them work with what they’ve unearthed, and that makes for very satisfying television.
Penguin may not be the cure for superhero fatigue, but he administers a powerful drug that can treat the symptoms.
