No one has ever said the problem of a Batman movie is too much Batman, and yet artists have repeatedly tried to create Gotham City-related film and television projects without him, whether Gotham, Gotham Knight, Birds of Prey, Pennyworth, Batwomanor joker and its upcoming sequel. To this mix can now be added The Penguinan eight-part HBO series set in (and shortly after) the events of Matt Reeves’ The Batmanwhich describes the title character’s efforts to take control of the metropolis’s underworld after the Riddler’s reign of terror.

Unsurprisingly, the Dark Knight’s absence overshadows these grim and ruthless events, but thanks to Colin Farrell’s phenomenal lead performance as the iconic villain, the series proves to be as compelling and exciting as a Batman-like series can be.

As in Reeves’ 2022 blockbuster, Farrell plays Oswald “Oz” Cobb with one of the most convincing makeups in film/TV history, so thoroughly transformed into a bald, scarred, gold-toothed, leg-braced criminal that the dashing actor completely disappears into the role. With a New Yawk-esque accent and an outwardly respectful demeanor that hides his deadly cunning, Oz is a mid-level gangster who dislikes being looked down upon and, in response, uses others’ poor opinion of him to his advantage.

Farrell has never been better than in this television saga, in which he portrays Oz as a cross between Joe Pesci’s Goodfellas Psycho Tommy DeVito and James Gandolfini The Sopranos Patriarch, equal parts mad, hurt and ambitious. The latter figure’s influence is further felt in Oz’s tangled, unhealthy relationship with his dementia-stricken mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell), whose love and admiration he craves and hides from his enemies by promising her a future of penthouse wealth and luxury.

HBO

Despite the fact that a menacing vigilante dressed as a bat has just foiled a madman flooding Gotham (and killing dozens of less fortunate people in the process), Batman is invisible and is only seen once in The Penguin—a blatant omission, considering that gangsters like Oz undoubtedly have at least something concerned about his ominous presence and the threat it poses to their illegal activities.

Yet Lauren LeFranc’s series overcomes this obstacle by telling a gripping story of underworld intrigue and war, centered on Oz, who gets into trouble when he visits the office of the late drug lord Carmine Falcone to steal jewels and incriminating material on politicians and associates. Along the way, he meets Carmine’s son and heir to the throne, Alberto (Michael Zegen).

Oz tries to sweet-talk his way out of his predicament, but is mocked as a “little slut”; because he dreams of being as revered as the gangsters he grew up with, he freaks out and shoots the young man.

On his way to dispose of Alberto’s body, Oz catches a group of kids stealing the hubcaps from his fancy purple Maserati. He catches one of them, Vic (Rhenzy Feliz), and makes the stuttering teenager his accomplice and new driver. Over the course of The PenguinThey develop a kind of father-son bond based on their similar upbringings in the slums of Crown Point and their accompanying anger at being ignored by Gotham’s rich and powerful.

Class envy is prevalent throughout the proceedings, especially with Oz, who obsessively seeks respect, seethes with hatred for anyone who considers him inferior, and skillfully exploits the anger of others to earn their loyalty and persuade them to obey his orders.

Before killing Alberto, Oz learns of a groundbreaking new drug and tries to sell this “revolutionary” drug deal to his superiors. The problem is that Alberto was in league with his sister Sofia (Cristin Milioti). She has now been released from Arkham Asylum and suspects that Oz is up to no good. Sofia, nicknamed “The Executioner” for murdering seven prostitutes, is the fly in Oz’s ointment.

No matter how hard he tries to deceive her, she is a formidable opponent in The Penguinwhose story soon positions the protagonist as a de facto Yojimbo, seeking to exploit both Sofia and her rival, the imprisoned Don Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown), to his advantage. This proves to be a tricky endeavor, albeit one that Oz handles with enough composure to regularly avoid perishing from bullets, strangulation, or explosions – dangers that lurk around every grimy corner of the city.

Like its cinematic predecessor The Penguin—Director: Craig Zobel (Mare by Easttown, The hunt) – is grimmer than grim, the action wrapped in a red-tinged shroud of rain, shadows, dank dirt and decay. That mood suits a story about Farrell’s monstrously scheming villain, whose three-dimensionality (embittered and optimistic, terrifying and inspiring, sincere and unreliable) makes him a compelling center of attention, and whose plan to take over Gotham brings him into direct conflict with the fearsome Sofia.

LeFranc endows her comic book characters with a host of formative traumas and complexes related to their upbringing and families, while slyly reinventing the Penguin in a distinctly Batman-esque style – including a secret underground lair that was once his figurative birthplace.

HBO

In the last moments The Penguin sets the stage for the next Caped Crusader saga, but the most impressive thing about the series is that it stands on its own, a self-contained portrait of its villain’s rise to power. LeFranc stays true to Reeves’ source material (even with some not-so-perfect pop and rock music interludes) and her casting is excellent, particularly Milioti as the wronged, wild Sofia and Feliz as the stuttering, earnest Vic.

Given the mercilessness of this environment (and the fact that there won’t be enough room for all these characters) Batman2), not everyone is destined to survive the war that Oz has started. This fact lends the material a nervous unease that is heightened by its oppressive aesthetic and the growling, sneering and calculating behavior of Farrell’s great and terrible Oz.

The show reinvents its shambling “gentleman of crime” in unique ways as its characters attempt to reinvent themselves by fighting back against the forces that seek to suppress them. In doing so, the show reaffirms the menacing appeal of Reeves’ DC vision. Moreover, it suggests that if the director were smart, he would forget about the rest of Batman’s rogues gallery and center his upcoming film sequel around the Penguin.