It should be a stunt, hiring a man of Colin Farrell’s particular good looks and physicality to play the Penguin, a venal creature of the Gotham City underworld. Not because the Penguin is actually subhuman, mind you, but because his literal stature and appearance in various comics, cartoons and movies — short, squat, bald, pointed nose — features any number of physical attributes lacking in Farrell. (And present in countless character actors; Danny DeVito still required tons of makeup to become the “Batman Returns” version of the character, but he sure wasn’t snaking the part from a shorter man.)
And to some extent, Farrell’s version of the character, first seen in the 2022 feature film “The Batman” and revived for HBO’s eight-episode companion series “The Penguin,” does come across as a feat of make-up, transforming a leading man into a supporting mobster.
The real magic of “The Penguin,” though, is how it then transforms Oswald Cobb (no longer “Cobblepot,” presumably for quasi-realistic emphasis this version’s humble roots) back into a lead, albeit of the antihero variety. Despite all of the accouterments that come with playing Oswald — scarred face, a limp on a disfigured foot, receding hairline, stereotypically gangster accent located somewhere on the New York/New Jersey border — it’s Farrell himself who really inhabits the character in all of his grasping, conniving, sometimes disarmingly funny anti-glory. And as impressive as his transformation is, it’s all the more delightful when the lighter touch of Farrell’s natural mannerisms — his pauses, his audible shrugs, the airiness of his natural Irish accent — slip through the heavier affectations. It’s a perfect match for the way Oswald frequently oscillates between bravado and panic, between cruelty and surprising charm.
That’s present in the very first scene of the series, set in the immediate aftermath of the floods unleashed upon Gotham at the end of “The Batman,” where Farrell performs a miniature symphony of criminal maneuvering: He breaks into the nightclub he used to run in search of important documents; confronts a rival mobster who gets the drop on him; tries to talk his way out of the situation by buddying up to his enemy; acts impulsively and, finally, curses to himself about the life-saving mess he’s just made, as the show cuts to its opening titles.
Variations on this progression continue throughout the series, which attends to the power vacuum created by the death of Carmine Falcone (John Turturro’s character in the film). Oswald worked well underneath Falcone, and spies an opportunity to climb further up the mob ladder. But to do this, he must navigate the return of Carmine’s daughter Sofia (Cristin Milioti), recently released from a stint in Arkham State Hospital, and consider the diminished rival family led by Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown), who Oswald hopes to manipulate to his benefit. Oswald also takes on an accidental apprentice of sorts, in the form of goodhearted Victor (Rhenzy Feliz), a young man who has turned desperate after losing his family in the floods.
Some of these characters and elements come from various Batman comics published over the past quarter-century, though the show isn’t concerned with slavishly recreating story beats. Like “The Batman,” “The Penguin” is more loyal to the general tone of pulpy crime-fiction luridness, while affecting a more grounded approach to the material that often bypasses the striking visual sensibilities of great Batman comics. That’s another way of saying this series isn’t exactly “Sopranos”-level stuff, a TV-level comparison to match how “The Batman” wasn’t exactly “The Godfather” or “Zodiac” or any number of movies it might have hoped to imitate.
In that sense, the show feels like an odd fit for HBO, which used to produce the genuine prestige TV that other outlets would attempt to imitate with big-budget stuff like this.
As a comics adaptation though, “The Penguin” is well-produced fun, acted and designed with vigor. If it’s nowhere close to the crime-show pantheon that it superficially resembles, it also handily outstrips most of its true peers, the Marvel Universe spinoff shows, in its understanding of how to parcel out a short TV season into satisfyingly serialized episodes. (Be thankful for small favors.) Oswald’s tragic-weakness backstory involving his mother (Deirdre O’Connell) may be a little canned (though, again, its particulars do feel very much like something out of a gritty comic book), and the constant “Breaking Bad”-style squirming out of seemingly no-win situations isn’t handled with that show’s malevolent elegance.
It’s also not solely a showcase for Farrell. Show creator Lauren LeFranc has an obvious affinity for Sofia — and who wouldn’t, with a charmer like Cristin Milioti allowed to go full Italian-American Princess of Vengeance? Her own harrowing pulp-comics backstory is fairly ridiculous, and Milioti plays the absolute hell out of it. While Farrell lets his charm emerge from a rough-hewn exterior, Milioti uses hers to barely conceal her ruthlessness.
The extent of the various mob-war showdowns tests the plausibility of the show’s determination not to mention Batman by name; the show’s eventual allusion seems awfully light, considering his public visibility in the events leading right up to the series. It may also be a misguided stab at respectability that LeFranc and her crew need not have pursued. “The Penguin” is an entertaining, good-not-great companion piece to an entertaining, good-not-great blockbuster. There’s no shame in that, nor any reason to slather the production in prestige makeup.
“The Penguin” premieres Thursday, Sept. 19, on HBO and Max.