The first tie-in with The Batman shows that DC can create an interesting cinematic universe, at least when it involves Gotham City.

Titles: “After Hours,” “Inside Man,” “Bliss,” “Cent’Anni,” “Homecoming,” “Gold Summit,”Top Hat,” “A Great or Little Thing”

Cast and Crew

Directors: Craig Zobel, Kevin Bray, Helen Shaver, and Jennifer Getzinger
Writers: Lauren LeFranc, Vladimir Cvetko, Breannah Gibson, Erika L. Johnson, John McCutcheon, Shaye Ogbonna, Nick Towne, Noelle Valdivia

Based on characters created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger (and others)

Cast:
Colin Farrell as Oswald “Oz” Cobb / The Penguin
Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone
Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar
Deirdre O’Connell as Francis Cobb
Robert Lee Leng as Link Tsai
Carmen Ejogo as Eve Karlo
Theo Rossi as Dr. Julian Rush
Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni
Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone
Mark Strong as Carmine Falcone*
Daniel J. Watts as Bruno Tess
David H. Holmes as Nick Fuchs
Michael Kelly as Johnny Vitti
Myles Humphus as Dom
Shohreh Aghdashloo as Nadia Maroni
Ryder Allen as Young Oswald
Jessie Pinnick as Roxy
Aria Shahghasemi as Taj
Kenzie Grey as Gia Viti
Hunter Emery as Leo
Jared Abrahamson as “Squid”
James Madio as Milo Grapa
Tess Soltau as Tina Falcone
Joshua Bitton as Mikey Stone
Craig Walker as Detective Marcus Wise
François Chau as Feng Zhao
Ade Otukoya as Zeke
Scott Cohen as Luca Falcone
Con O’Neill as Chief Mackenzie Bock
Berto Colon as Castillo
Louis Cancelmi as Rex Calabrese
Ben Cook as Calvin
Nico Tirozzi as Benny Cobb
Owen Asztalos as Jack Cobb
Emily Meade as younger Francis Cobb
Jayme Lawson as Bella Reál
Aleksa Palladino as Carla Viti
Ana Madelyn Trapasso as Young Sofia
Nadine Malouf as Summer Gleeson
Marié Botha as Margaret Pye / Magpie

* John Turturro was offered the chance to reprise the role. He turned it down, saying he was uncomfortable with the amount of onscreen violence against women involving his character.

Premise

A deformed gangster waddles his way to the top of Gotham’s underworld with the aid of several allies, including the kid who tried to jack his car.

High Points

The show makes a noir comic-book inspired world seem plausible, without eliminating every flourish and stylizations that makes Gotham City so fascinating.

The final episode goes dark, darker than I expected, and yet, without any damage to its tone, ends with the bat-signal and a note from one of of Gotham’s other most infamous residents.

The Penguin will appear in The Batman sequel, but only (reportedly) in a handful of scenes, and the ending suggests that a character from the original film will turn up in season two.

Low Point

“Oswald Cobb.”

Okay, it’s a small point. Seriously, though, we’re in a world where Batman exists, gangsters and lunatics become supervillains, and crazy and unethical events and experiments unfold daily at Arkham. Do the showmakers really believe it would lose its gritty, sort-of-realistic grounding if they’d kept the Penguin’s canonical surname?

Cobblepot, furthermore, is an actual surname.

The Scores:

Originality: 2/6 There’s not much new in Gotham or in making a supervillain story that’s, you know, all dark and gritty. The Penguin’s strength is in doing it rather well. Supervillain alla The Sopranos.

Story: 4/6 Each episode features its own story, while functioning as a chapter of the overall arc. However, the story and development relies a little bit too heavily on the stereotypes and hyperbolic plot developments typical of its comic-book source material. Fortunately…

Acting: 6/6 …The acting is excellent, and allows us to accept a stylized world as reality. Farrell fronts a cast that know how to deliver the show’s darkly comic, almost operatic tone, as best as it can.

Production: 6/6 HBO emptied a few dumptrucks full of money into this thing, with overall excellent results.

Effects: 6/6 The series features solid effects. The makeup used to transform Colin Farrell are extraordinary.

Emotional Response: 5/6

Overall: 5/6

In total, The Penguin, first season, receives 34/42