SPOILERS BELOW for anyone who hasn’t yet watched The Penguin ’s season finale on HBO or streamed it with a Max subscription , so be warned! Even after its first episode, The Penguin seemed destined to become a beloved standout amidst everything on the 2024 TV schedule , and the hyper-dark crime drama from showrunner Lauren LeFranc never stopped delivering on that promise. Indeed, the season finale "A Great or Little Thing" featured a smorgasbord of emotional depth with tour de force performances from Colin Farrell , Cristin Milioti and Deidre O’Connell, not to mention Rhenzy Feliz’s gut-demolishing final scene. For over an hour, this thing is a solid A+.
But if I may be so flagrantly dramatic (though without spittle flying from my lips), the finale’s uncomfortably perfect ending is nearly blown to smithereens by the show’s final connective tissue to Matt Reeves ’ upcoming Batman film(s) : the Bat Signal. But like, only 1.5 seconds of it, short enough that I really wish it hadn't happened at all.
Why Give Fans The Bat Signal Now? Right from the jump, The Penguin 's creative bosses were clear and up front about Robert Pattison's Batman (or Bruce Wayne) not having any kind of presence in the episodic series, with the main thrust being to keep this world more grounded as a crime drama. But as viewers have seen through references to The Riddler and shared cast members, the HBO show didn't shy away entirely from showing it exists within the same universe. Even so, a l.