More than a decade on from Christopher Nolan’s definitive Dark Knight Trilogy, we keep finding ourselves back in Gotham. Next month, for example, will see the release of Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips’ audacious prison musical starring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga.
Here, too, is The Penguin, a TV spin-off that gets under the rubbery skin of Colin Farrell’s mafioso creep Oswald ‘Oz’ Cobb, a role he famously first undertook in Matt Reeves’ rain-lashed noir The Batman (2022). How does Cobb become The Penguin, a figure so fearsome he demands his own definite article? To answer that question, showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s eight-episode series picks up soon after the events of the movie, landing us back in a grisly metropolis still reeling from the mass flooding instigated by a now-incarcerated Riddler.
Life might be peachy in the wealthy suburbs, but the inner-city has descended even further into violence and chaos. In a sign of Gotham’s apparently intractable problems, one of the biggest catalysts is that its water-logged inhabitants are struggling to access ‘drops’, an illegal drug that’s somewhat comically imbibed through the eye like contact lens solution. Cobb, though, has been made aware of a big shipment coming in. If he can successfully play off the city’s two opposing crime families, he might just navigate his way out of the proverbial slum and into a position of serious power.
Like Joker and its aforementioned sequel, The Penguin doesn’t feature Batman and instead explores the origin story of its titular character. Cobb’s greatest foe at the start of the new series is Sofia Falcone (a quietly menacing Cristin Milioti), the daughter of slain crime boss Carmine Falcone, who suspects he might be up to something. Luckily, The Penguin has help in the form of Victor (Rhenzy Feliz), an impressionable kid who unwisely agrees to become Cobb’s lackey.
LeFranc has successfully created a Gotham distinct from Reeves’ – hers is slightly less rainy and, thankfully, better lit – but retained the cynicism boiled into the corruption-infested city. A TV budget, though, can’t hope to compete with cinema: when Cobb’s cruising through town and mutters, “Look at this – what that fucking madman did,” the camera cuts to what seems like a pretty normal freeway. The pacing can also be sluggish, with an overly talky first episode dragging at 66 minutes.
Yet things pick up after that, and what carries The Penguin is the richness of its characters and the complexity of its storytelling. Cobb could be a mere archetype – a mafia man who loves his mum – but the roots of his ambition and seething resentment at the world are gradually teased out, forging a compulsive narrative. And it transpires that there’s more to his ailing mother (Deirdre O’Connell) than we might first imagine.
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As in The Batman, the soundtrack pops with choice cuts (Dinah Washington’s aching ‘Tears And Laughter’ is used to gorgeous effect), while LeFranc cleverly builds momentum through Cobb’s chess-like moves. In one scene, he’s promised the city is his for the taking, but asked: “What are you gonna do to get it?”
The ensuing journey from the gutter makes this show more compelling than it perhaps should be, and a heavily made-up Farrell is as astonishing as ever in the role. With a sequel to The Batman confirmed, though, Gotham is getting mighty crowded.
‘The Penguin’ premieres September 20 via Sky Atlantic and NOW TV