HBO's The Penguin Is So Excellent, I May Just Like Colin Farrell's Villain More Than Robert Pattinson's Batman
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As excited as I am for all the upcoming DC movies and DC TV shows comprising James Gunn’s revamped DCU, the stoutest stretch of my fandom is wholly invested in Matt Reeves’ The Batman: Part II, even though I’ll be two whole-ass years older when it finally arrives. Thankfully, HBO’s spinoff The Penguin is almost here to fill the void with a Gotham City crime saga like no other, and at the risk of engaging in rampant blasphemy — Bat-sphemy? — Oswald Cobb puts Robert Pattinson’s Batman to shame.
Well maybe not “shame” exactly, since I’m not sure if Pattinson’s brooding Bruce Wayne is still capable of feeling such emotions. But after having watched the entire season of The Penguin, I feel weirdly secure in this belief: nothing that will happen in any The Batman sequels will make me genuinely enjoy watching the Caped Crusader in action more than I loved getting down and dirty with Farrell’s Oz. Two gnarled thumbs way up.
The Penguin’s Oz Is DC’s Most Well-Rounded Live-Action Villain To Date
Batman movies and TV shows have always succeeded in giving audiences engaging and chaotic villains, and we've seen plenty of excellent versions on The Penguin before. From Danny DeVito's weird li'l bastard in Batman Returns to Burgess Meredith's top-hatted sitcom cackler to Robin Lord Taylor’s more youthful Gotham crime boss. But as far as character studies go, even those couched in comic book movie spinoffs, very few superior format exists than "an eight-hour HBO series."
After being introduced to Colin Farrell's Oz and getting to know him a little in The Batman, I was expecting to watch a crime drama about an underling's rise to the top by any means necessary, and The Penguin absolutely delivered on that front. What I didn't expect, however, was such a fully three-dimensional approach that pulled the character into virtually the entire emotional and behavioral spectrum.
The Penguin is the rare comic book property that would 100% work just as well if every single comic book detail was removed, because at no point were showrunner Lauren LeFranc & Co. interested in crafting an elbow-nudging piece of fan service. This is Oz's tragic and sorded story through and through.
Colin Farrell Explodes With A Career-Best Performance
Let's be real, though. All the talented work that the writers and directors put into The Penguin might have all been for naught if Colin Farrell wasn't blazing along on all cylinders. But he puts on a masterclass acting clinic as the weasley underworld villain, oozing sleazy charisma and earning both disgust and reluctant sympathy in equal doses.
Following the events of The Batman, Carmine Falcone's death left a void in Gotham City's underworld, with his daughter Sophia hoping to fill it upon returning to the criminal-filled family home after being released from Arkham Asylum. But her efforts are made all the more complicated by Oswald's brazen attempts to secure his own underworld real estate, all while made man Sal Maroni (Clancy Brown) attempts to run things from behind bars.
Also starring Deirdre O'Connell as Oz's mentally frazzled mother Francis and Rhenzy Feliz as Oz's trauma-stricken driver Victor Aguilar, The Penguin is filled to the brim (or cowl ears) with acting talent, and yet Farrell still outperforms them all from behind thick layers of prosthetics and makeup that make it shockingly easy to forget that there's an Oscar-nominated (and soon to be Emmy-nominated no doubt) Irishman under there.
Oz Is Surrounded By Friends And Foes To Play Off Of Who Inform His History
While exceptions exist, The Penguin generally isn't one of Batman's more complicated villains, and often serves as an eccentric connection between Gotham City's hardcore crime families and its more colorful baddies. As such, this particular avenue of Batman's live-action mythos isn't beholden to myriad backstory details the way that Dark Knight tales inevitably fall back on the Waynes' murders and Bruce's years of training to inform the vigilante's mindset.
Batman Returns and Gotham each shined a light on Oswald's family life — Paul Reubens served as his father figure in both — and certain comics have addressed his backstory in fun ways. But The Penguin goes above and beyond in expanding and deepening every aspect of his story, from his personal connections with other crime bosses to his extremely complex relationship with his mother to what passes for romance in Oz's life with Carmen Ejogo's Eve Karlo.
To take nothing away from his contentious dealings with Miliotti's Sophia or his strangely paternal kinship with Feliz's Victor and others we meet along the way. It would have been very easy for The Penguin's creative team to introduce an endless line of nameless bodies for Oz to mow down while trying to become kingpin, but just about everyone here is necessary and worth their weight in [your favorite Gotham City party drug], all for the purpose of rounding Oz out.
Nobody’s Afraid Of The Big Black Bat Here, And I Totally Buy It
It'd be naive to think there won't be viewers who get upset that Batman doesn’t show up in The Penguin, even though the creative team has been pretty up front about that to date. The crux of this story rests entirely on Colin Farrell's Oz, who's spent decades rising up the ranks in the Carmine empire and beyond without ever having to deal with any rodent-themed vigilanties. So why would he start worrying about that kind of thing now?
Indeed, The Penguin uses Gotham City's geography and class divides in ways that, without being on-the-nose about it, justify the lack of Batman-related references and sightings. Because despite the series' timeline closely following the destructive efforts and eventual capture of Edward Nygma's Riddler, it's not as if the hero has cemented himself as a household name in his second year of vigilantism. And Robert Pattinson's Batman also doesn't have the surveillance scope and reach that come with time.
So maybe years down the line, after he's saved the city countless times from increasingly off-putting villains, R-Pat's Bat might feel like a fully realized character that viewers can understand and relate to even without 80 years of Batman lore to fall back on. But by the end of The Penguin, audiences can walk away feeling as if they truly know who Colin Farrell's Oswald Cobb is from mangled head to mangled toe. And for all that he pulls off some truly monstrous acts, I do kinda like the guy. Bruce Wayne? Not so much.
The Penguin will premiere on HBO and Max on Thursday, September 19, at 9:00 p.m. ET.
