SPOILER FREE REVIEW

The long-awaited spin-off series to Matt Reeves’ hit 2022 film ‘The Batman’ is finally here. ‘The Penguin’ is a crime-tale limited series that takes massive inspiration from the likes of the Sopranos and Scarface… perhaps too much.

Synopsis: Directly following the events of The Batman (2022), Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. the Penguin, makes a play to seize the reins of the crime world in Gotham.

‘The Penguin’ is helmed by Lauren LeFranc as showrunner and executive produced by Matt Reeves, Dylan Clark, and Colin Farrell. The show stars Colin Farrell as the title role, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, and Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar.

‘The Penguin,’ first and foremost, is a culmination of many better works of film and television. The show tries to assemble as much as it can as fast as it can and never truly reaches its potential, nor makes the headache worth it.

‘The Batman’ introduced us masterfully to ‘Oz’ just as he was on the search for power while being undermined by his peers. His rise to power in the series is a justified story, but the tackling of Oz as a character treads far too much on the like of The Sopranos’ storytelling — even Colin Farrell attempts to do a botched James Gandolfini impression at times. This urges the question: was this series necessary to continue the tale of The Batman universe? Or, could we just skip this story all-together and find Oz on the criminal throne at the start of ‘The Batman: Part II?’

In the series, we get a Penguin rooted in trauma, again harkening back to similarities with the Sopranos, and feels like the overall story lacks in originality in almost every aspect.

A far, far better Penguin origin story was already done in CW’s ‘Gotham.’ In the case of ‘The Penguin,’ the title character has more fascination as a mysterious figure whom we only see a hand full of times (such in ‘The Batman’) rather than a lead role which dilutes the intrigue.

The best this show has to offer is the character of Sofia Falcone, played by Cristin Milioti. She’s essentially a scene-stealer, tinkering with calm, sporadic, and frightening emotional beats on a whim — the perfect unstable antagonist on her hunt for revenge and control of Gotham after the death of her father Carmine Falcone (played by John Turturro in ‘The Batman’).

Sofia seems to be the only one who realizes Oz’s potential as a criminal mastermind. Funny enough, Oz used to work for her as her father’s driver. Now, Sofia’s been released from Arkham Asylum, using her past persona as a serial killer known as The Hangman to spread fear and descend chaos among the city. Things get ugly, and somehow Robert Pattinson’s Batman is never mentioned or seen. Some may say that Sofia’s arc is too familiar, as a woman whose intense path is directly caused by the undermining of the patriarchy against her. However, this is the one character of all that you learn to care about, and Milioti’s performance keeps you hooked all the way through the series.

The set-design and city aesthetics are still gloomy and submerged in a bleak noir atmosphere, keeping similar tones to Matt Reeves’ ‘The Batman.’ This is of course accompanied by the cinematography by Darran Tiernan, who does his best to mask the fact that we’re just looking at New York City with a few removed buildings and new ones added with glaring CGI.

Sometimes, ‘The Penguin’ wants to show off its heavy budget but more often than not showcases cheap shots that feels like you’ve just turned on a new, less visually impressive show.

Where the series really struggles is in the fleshing-out of story and characters (a.k.a, the writing). Everything feels fast but not so fluid. We sprint through the 8-episode series that jarringly gives us (what feels like) multiple seasons of heavy plot. Considering this is a limited series, a more focused narrative was the way to go. They gave us 8 seasons of Game Of Thrones and 6 seasons of The Sopranos all at once, generating a confused and muddy slop.

The show introduces more and more villains throughout each episode, all in which offer the same threats, all in which fail in similar ways. It’s redundant and boring. This also leads to wooden character interactions — even with Sofia and Oz. Unfortunately, this series is not fully thought-out and becomes predictable from episode one.

The makeup effects are solid for Colin Farrell’s Penguin, but only falter occasionally when exposed to brighter lighting as the prosthetics indeed look like prosthetics and not facial features part of a unique character. At least Farrell is able to emote with his full facial range. The actor does a lot with his eyes, in which of course, the makeup leaves untouched.

Overall, ‘The Penguin’ doesn’t think outside the box, and is a hack-job of far better crime shows.

‘The Penguin’ releases September 19, 2024.

Our score: ★★
(out of 5 stars)