HBO's "The Penguin" Is Brutal And Awesome

Anyone who knows me knows I love Batman. Specifically, I love The Batman, the Matt Reeves film from 2022. I've already talked about that movie enough. I'm not going to come on here and give another monologue about how I think it's one of the defining interpretations of the character. Still, I was intrigued when it was announced that they planned to expand this universe to television. Marvel has had trouble bringing their characters to streaming, but with Matt Reeves at the helm, I did have faith that this grounded Batman universe could thrive. The first course of action was giving Collin Farrell's Penguin a series. Farrell was a scene stealer in the 2022 film, and I looked forward to seeing his character expanded in this new HBO series.

This may come as no surprise, but the series is fantastic. It is almost exactly what I expected, which is a good thing. Matt Reeves has His finger on the pulse here. He knows exactly where he wants this universe to go. As much as I have loved other interpretations of Batman (God knows the Nolan movies are my Nirvana), I don't know if any series outside of the animated version has ever properly utilized Batman's Rogue Gallery of Villains. As amazing as they are, the Nolan films introduced a villain only so that that character would not appear in the next movie. Cillian Murphy's Scarecrow made a few cameo appearances, but that doesn't count. Television is a perfect opportunity for this universe. It really gives you the feel that Gotham is just overpopulated with criminals and lunatics, and Oswald Cobb is no exception to that.

The series is brutal, and I mean that in the best way possible. One opportunity that any TV show is given when they go to HBO is that they're allowed the opportunity to be as violent as possible. With James Gunn expanding the DC universe and doing a separate, more fantastic version of Batman, can we please make The Batman Part Two rated R? It's time. The first walked that line, and this series is absolutely R-rated. It is violent, but beyond that, it features psychological violence. They show you enough, but not too much, where the brutality becomes numbing to a certain extent. You feel every death.

If you've been following along on social media, you know Cristin Milioti's performance as Sophia Falcone is very well received. Yeah, believe the hype. I've always liked Milioti as an actress, but in this, she is on another level. She uses those big eyes to full effect. You're never really sure what emotions you'll get out of her, and I give the series a lot of credit for taking its time, especially with episode four to explain her backstory.

Farrell is mesmerizing as The Penguin. This is far and away the most development we've gotten from this character in any live-action interpretation. I don't want to spoil anything, but by the time you get to the end of the series, the idea of this guy just being a small-time crime lord is out the window. He's a raving psychopath who will double-cross anyone to get what he wants. Despite his wickedness, he's still undeniably charismatic. This series has succeeded in doing something no version of Batman has ever done. It's made the penguin genuinely scary.

There are things I can nitpick. Of the eight episodes, I don't think all of them were extremely necessary. It takes a while to get going, but by the end of the series, I found myself completely satisfied, and considering that we have to wait so long for the next installment of the Matt Reeves series, I hope that we get more Series like this to hold us over until the next film.

The Batman was very well received when it came out in theaters in March 2022. Still, I feel like it's garnered a much stronger following over the last few years, probably in large part because it's so fucking good that it's borderline masturbatory. Is it Dark Knight good? No. Is it closer than it has any right to be? Absolutely. I don't think Nolan would've wanted to go to television, but you can't tell me you would've liked to have seen a Harvey Dent miniseries or a Joker spinoff. We live in a much different time where directors are allowed to take their time with these characters, and because of that, we're getting much more layered villains. There isn't much else I could add. I highly recommend the series and wish I could fast-forward to 2026 so I could see the next Batman movie.