Fresh from its debut last September 20th on Sky and Now, the spin-off series “The Penguin” is finally ready to bring to life on the small screen the emotions of mystery and unease known in the Gotham of the previous “The Batman” by Matt Reeves , with a particular focus on the controversial character of Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin played by Colin Farrell, called upon to assume a predominant role in the power games and daring machinations of the criminal nuclei that infest the city.

Focusing on the gangster movie genre even before the TV adaptations based on comics, “The Penguin” shows the rise of the villain immediately after the final events of the Batman film, from Carmine Falcone’s henchman to the first candidate in the running to replace him at the helm. But the interests of Sofia Falcone, who escaped from the Arkham Asylum after ten years of imprisonment, will make Oz’s plans more difficult than initially expected.

Now that it’s out, the series has received its first reviews from the specialized press, with a positive rating of 91% on the Rotten Tomatoes website. An initial result that is nothing short of comforting, even superior to the first critical responses received by the 2022 film. Journalist Aramide Tinubu of Variety called it “a masterful examination of crime, twisted, disturbing and deeply enthralling.”

This is joined by the feedback of Glen Weldon, who on behalf of NPR called it "one of the best TV series of the year". Less comforting is the opinion of Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone magazine: "The Penguin is a mafia drama with a lot of carnage, but without a compelling or complex enough character at the center of all its chaos. Farrell is a dark, bitter and two-dimensional character whose perpetual ability to outdo the competition becomes frustrating because he doesn't have enough depth to devote all this time to him".

Among the most interesting curiosities, director Craig Zobel revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that he expressed his admiration to Matt Reeves for the work done on “The Batman”. According to the director, the email sent to Reeves complimenting his film would have been used in retrospect to earn him a job on the television series: «I don’t know, I hope so and I think so. He certainly knew that I liked it. When Matt Reeves’ film came out, I went to see it the first weekend of its release. I didn’t really know him, I had his email, so I contacted him to say: hey, The Batman was the superhero movie I wanted to see. You did a great job. That was my first time saying something to Matt».

In order to maintain the film's signature atmosphere, Zobel worked closely with Matt Reeves and cinematographer Greig Fraser, using the same technical elements, lenses and cameras used previously. When it came to directing Farrell on set, the director was extremely open and accommodating, starting with the care taken to preserve his aesthetic appearance: "We were shooting in the winter, but he was getting so hot because he literally had a pound of plastic on his face and he's wearing a suit and everything. We ended up turning on the air conditioning on set and all of us had to wear gloves and ear muffs because we had turned the temperature down as low as we could just to make it comfortable for him. There was also the constant threat that if he got too hot, he would start sweating and that would cause his prosthetics to fall off. That never happened, but we had to think about it."

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