No one ever said that the problem with a Batman movie was too much Batman, and yet artists have repeatedly tried to create Gotham City-related film and TV projects without him, be it Gotham , Gotham Knights , Birds of Prey , Pennyworth , Batwoman , or Joker and its upcoming sequel. To that mix, one can now add The Penguin , an eight-part HBO series that takes place in (and shortly after the events of) Matt Reeves’ The Batman , detailing the efforts of its title character to seize control of the metropolis’ underworld in the wake of The Riddler’s reign of terror. Unsurprisingly, the Dark Knight’s absence looms large over these gloomy and ruthless proceedings.
However, thanks to an outright phenomenal lead performance by Colin Farrell as the iconic villain, it proves as engrossing and exciting as a Batman-adjacent show could hope to be. As in Reeves’ 2022 blockbuster, Farrell plays Oswald “Oz” Cobb under some of the most convincing make-up in movie/TV history, so thoroughly transformed into a balding, scarred, gold-toothed, leg brace-limping criminal that the dashing actor completely disappears into the role. With a New Yawk-y accent and an outwardly deferential demeanor that masks his deadly cunning, Oz is a mid-level gangster who resents being looked down upon and, in response, uses others’ low opinion of him to his advantage.
Farrell has never been better than he is in this small-screen saga, imagining Oz as a cross between Joe Pesci’s Goodfellas psycho Tom.