So here we are. Finally, after reporting on it for what seems like forever, we are into the launch week for The Penguin. The HBO and Max series, a spin-off from 2022’s The Batman, will fill in the gap from that movie to the sequel.
Referred to as a “dark mob drama” and a limited series, it will tell the tale of Oswald ‘Oz’ Cobblepot and the power vacuum that engulfs the underworld of Gotham City in the weeks following the events of The Batman. This universe is billed as “DC Elseworlds” – separate from the main DCU.
The professional reviews have now dropped, and the results are positive with a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes. A theme in the reviews is the some of these sniffy, high-brow critics were surprised by just how good it was and how much they liked it.
Here is the summary:
“Farrell’s wild, go-for-broke performance makes the series a must-watch, even as it goes down more brutal, dark avenues than you’d ever expect from a Batman spinoff.”
Hoai-Tran Bui, Inverse
“A masterful examination of criminality, the show is twisted, disturbing and deeply enthralling.”
Aramide Tinubu, Variety
“LeFranc’s unsentimental sidelining of Batman allows The Penguin to thrive in his absence, revealing new textures of a Gotham we might have thought we already knew everything about.”
Roxana Hadadi, Vulture
“I’m here to tell you — and no one is more surprised than me, I assure you — that if you skipped The Penguin, you’d be making a big mistake, and missing out on one of the best television series of the year.”
Glen Weldon, NPR
“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.”
Martin Robinson, London Evening Standard
“It manages to tell an entertaining crime saga without leaning too much on the absent Dark Knight.”
Christian Holub, EW
It is not all glowing though. There are some that weren’t completely enthralled:
“Like entirely too many shows of this type, it treats us to cycles to colorful threats, sadistic torture, predictable betrayals and subsequent body disposals, delivered with professional polish but not enough creativity.”
Daniel Fienberg, THR
“If The Penguin just wants to use the former Oswald Cobblepot to tell a traditional Mob war story, it needs to tell a much more interesting version of one, with a more compelling protagonist, than what we get here.”
Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone
A lot of the reviews say the show starts slow, and the first few episodes lay the groundwork for a conclusion that builds.
The Penguin series launches on September 19th and runs for eight episodes.