The Penguin Season 1 Review : This eccentric crime drama keeps you on the edge

Story: The underworld saga is a spin-off of Matt Reeves’ 2022 film The Batman. The series works as an origin story of supervillain ‘The Penguin’ (an unrecognisable Colin Farrell as Oz Cobb), who hopes to rule Gotham with his unhinged ambition and ruthless pursuit of power.

Reviews: After a long wait, DC universe is finally making things interesting, ridding everyone from their superhero fatigue. While we wait with bated breath for Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga to match their freak in Joker: Folie à Deux, The Penguin comes an unsuspecting winner.

The eight part series follows Farrell's mobster Oz Cobb making risky moves to run Gotham’s underworld. It takes off where The Batman (2022) ended and in fact makes for a better watch than the Robert Pattinson movie even without the Batman.

Episode one, begins with the consequences of Riddler. A crime-ridden Gotham is devastated by flooding and there’s a scramble to fill the power vacuum following the death of mob boss Carmine Falcone. A henchman with the Falcones, the ambitious Oz hopes to rule the underworld with the drug trade and pit the Falcone and Maroni families against each other. Much against his prediction, he finds a formidable adversary in Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), who hopes to take the place of her father in the underworld. Back from Arkham Asylum, a dangerous Sofia threatens Oz’s rise to power as she can see through his hidden motives unlike the others. Along the way, Oz strikes an unlikely friendship with the young Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), who becomes his right-hand man.

Transformed by makeup and prosthetics, completing concealing Farrell’s good looks, the actor is having a ball of a time. You can tell he is having a blast playing a mercurial character who is whimsical, deceitful, humorous and clever. His zero tolerance for disrespect overshadows his rage for power. The politics and conversation between the characters give the series its thrill element that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

You also get a glimpse of Oz’s family roots and equation with an equally unhinged mother. With Sofia on his tail, the cat and mouse game only gets better. Reeves’ reimagining of Gotham with no fluff is intriguing. Bad guys have most fun and so does The Penguin but Sofia is equally deranged and creator Lauren LeFranc’s powerful female characters add to the madness.

With each episode dropping weekly, it will be interesting to see if this Gotham villain will continue to fascinate us with his cold-blooded antics.