First announced back in 2021, we’re happy to report that the much-anticipated series is worth the wait.
The Penguin, the much-anticipated series spin-off to the hugely popular 2022 blockbuster The Batman, has just premiered via Sky and NOW.
Starring Irish Oscar-nominee Colin Farrell, reprising his role as Oz Cobb aka The Penguin, the show follows the title criminal as he hustles to try to fill the power void left in Gotham’s underworld and ultimately become the city’s top gangster.
Standing in his way, however, is Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti, Palm Springs) – the daughter of Cobb’s much-respected late boss and someone who is more than meets the eye.
Co-starring Rhenzy Feliz (Runaways) as a poor teenager that The Penguin takes under his wing, the show is partly directed by Craig Zobel (The Hunt, Mare of Easttown).
It also features amongst its cast Carmen Ejogo (True Detective), Clancy Brown (Highlander), Deidre O’Connell (Outer Range), Mark Strong (Kingsman), Michael Kelly (House of Cards), Michael Zegen (Frances Ha) and Theo Rossi (Emily the Criminal).
And having seen all eight episodes of the series, JOE is happy to report that it is a triumph.
Farrell is unrecognisable and utterly mesmerising – effortlessly finding ways to make viewers root for his thoroughly unsavoury character – while Milioti makes for an excitingly unpredictable adversary.
While viewers should be drawn in by the show’s many scenes of backstabbing, betrayal and warfare amongst Gotham’s disputing criminal factions, the more the series goes on, the more it becomes a gripping character study.
This is as it gradually peels away the layers of The Penguin character in order to explore what makes a person like that tick.
Comparing Oz Cobb to Saul Goodman – another criminal figure who got a spin-off show – The Penguin is to The Batman what Better Call Saul was to Breaking Bad.
Many seem to be in agreement with us about The Penguin’s merits as the show currently holds an excellent 90% Rotten Tomatoes score.
You can read a sample of some of the raves for the show right here:
The Daily Beast: “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.”
IndieWire: “A spin-off that makes this return to Gotham feel both necessary and earned, with excellent performances from Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti.”
London Evening Standard: “This is a five star series that mafia film fans will adore. It’s very much an Italian-American gangster Penguin, with Farrell finding the sweetest of evil spots between Tony Soprano and De Niro’s Vito Corleone.”
Los Angeles Times: “With its class consciousness and sentimental streak, it stands on the shoulders of Depression-era films like Scarface, Little Caesar and The Public Enemy.”
Observer: “The Dark Knight is totally absent from The Penguin, and, honestly he isn’t missed for a second. The Penguin is a riveting, stylish, and fun-as-hell gangster drama that makes use of both film and comics source material, but never feels beholden to it.”
The first episode of The Penguin is already available to watch on Sky and streaming service NOW. Its second episode will be released on Monday, 30 September, with the rest of the eight-episode series dropping weekly on Mondays.
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