TV Review: Colin Farrell's The Penguin is murky and wet — like Cork during the Jazz
Colin Farrell in The Penguin (2024)
(Sky Atlantic and NOW) is dark. Not in the subject matter. It’s actually a plodding thriller about gangs looking to control the drug trade in Gotham City.
No. It just looks dark. It’s murky and wet all the time, like Cork during the Jazz Festival. That’s often the way in Batman movies, but the light there comes from panto villains and Michael Caine as a butler.
This Batman spin-off series doesn’t have either. What it has is Colin Farrell in heavy prosthetics, playing Oz Cobb, aka The Penguin, a ruthless criminal battling to take control of Gotham’s underworld.
This isn’t the waddling Penguin in a black suit, who was played for laughs. Farrell’s Penguin is Tony Soprano with a more pronounced limp.
There is no attempt to hide the Mafia nods in this show – Oz works for an Italian crime family, the Falcones. Their rivals are the Maronis. Oz is trying to play them off against each other so be the Boss.
Like Soprano, Farrell’s Oz is melancholy, cynical and sentimental for a lost age. His mother is controlling, another similarity. But this feels like a tribute show.
Farrell is compelling and convincing, but none of the other characters get a look in. He catches a young guy trying to steal his car and gives him a break rather than killing him because he sees some of himself in the kid. (That he’s just met!) If you’re going to blend and Batman, at least keep their sense of humour. But there is nothing here to lift the gloomy vibe. There are no comic characters like Paulie Walnuts, who could be incredibly funny and vicious in the same word.
And the dialogue isn’t exactly prime film noir. The first episode ends with Oz and ‘The Kid he sees a lot of himself in’ enjoying a moment over a couple of slushies. Oz tells the kid, “I’m going to run this god-dam city and I want you in on it.” I don’t know why he chose this kid, who seems about as vicious as dandelion. It’s like they’ve made this lavish show, with Hollywood royalty Colin Farrell, and we have to go along with it.
There are a couple of twists in the opening episode, so here is one for the review. I’ll keep watching The Penguin. There are worse things in the world than a Sopranos tribute. The only female character of note, Sofia Falcone, is well enough drawn to make you wonder how things will pan out for herself and Oz.
Sofia aside, Colin Farrell is just about good enough to make up for the lack of any other decent characters. So give it a watch, for now.
