by Sean T. Collins for Decider
“A live-action television series about the Batman villain the Penguin, starring Colin Farrell.” Describing The Penguin, the new series from showrunner Lauren LeFranc and director Craig Zobel, makes you sound like you’re doing a bit.
You have to start with The Batman, the Matt Reeves–helmed Bat-reboot that introduced Farrell’s version of the character. He’s a good actor, of course, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what made director Matt Reeves cast Colin Farrell as a bad guy famous for being a funny-looking little short fat dude. Were there no funny-looking little short fat dudes available? Some guys wouldn’t have to put on about twelve square feet of prosthetics to make the role work?
And why is he getting his own TV show? This isn’t the Joker or Catwoman we’re talking about here, it’s the villain the Joker and Catwoman make fun of in their group text with Two-Face and Poison Ivy. And what is up with this weird era where baddies like Penguin and Harley Quinn and freaking Kite-Man get their own shows on Max while the Caped Crusader himself gets his new cartoon drop-shipped to Amazon to air on Prime Video instead? In the absence of the help of the World’s Greatest Detective, alas, we’ll have to muddle through without these answers.
The inscrutable mystery of its very existence aside, the premiere of The Penguin does one thing right: It tells a little story, more than it simply sets the table. The movie, and many viewers’ broader base of Bat-knowledge, have already done the work of establishing the setting and several of the major players. This frees writer-showrunner LeFranc, who takes full advantage of the extra legroom here, to make a sort of mini-movie. It’s a night-and-a-day in the life of ambitious mafia soldier Oz “Penguin” Cobb, as he impetuousouly murders his newly crowned boss Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen) for laughing at him, then attempts to dispose of the body and cover up the crime while acting like he’s just going about his business.
Read the rest of the recap, HERE.