‘The Penguin’ Series Premiere Review: Catch Colin Farrell’s Coat-Tails for an Explosive Ride

A still from ‘The Penguin’ Photo credit: HBO Max

What a brilliant performance by Colin Farrell Penguin! As Oswald Oz Cobb, Farrell devours his every frame, effortlessly going from calm to explosive in the blink of an eye. Apart from the amazing make-up and prosthetics, it’s his voice, mannerisms and demeanor that make you invest in this quicksilver version of Fredo Corleone.

Set a week after the event batman (2022), which saw the killing of mob boss Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong takes over from John Turturro) and the blowing up of the seawall, Penguin Oz Cobb finds a conspiracy to fill the power vacuum.

We learn more about Cobb’s motivations as he works with the Falcone siblings — drug addict Al (Michael Zegen) and Sophia (Christine Miliotti), a psychotic serial killer who has just been released from Arkham Asylum. Farrell said the spin-off will explore the character’s villainy and strengths as well as the “heart-broken man underneath”. And we get to see all of that in the fiery first episode of the mini-series ‘After Hours’.

“I’m an acquired taste,” says Cobb, and we believe it, rushing to acquire it, “plums, not purple” cars and all. There’s a new drug on the market, which Al and Sophia plan to use to take the business to the next level, while wary Johnny Vitti (Michael Kelly), the underboss of the Falcone family, wants to lay low until the heat cools. Anyone who underestimates Cobb does so at their peril; Although a middle lieutenant in the Falcone family, Cobb has dreams and ideas and steel in his spine to execute them.

A still from ‘The Penguin’ Photo credit: HBO Max

In an eerie twist, Cobb gains a teenager named Vic (Renzi Feliz), whom Cobb runs into with other juvenile delinquents and tries to rob Cobb’s tire rims. Vic proves himself to be a capable second-in-command, showing initiative and crucially knowing when to take his advice and admit his fears.

And he also has a very nice demeanor, when Cobb visits his mother, Frances (Deirdre O’Connell), who, for all her early-onset dementia, Cobb needs only one drug to set his plans in motion. Another crime family led by Salvatore Maroney (Clancy Brown) is also starring as it is thanks to Carmine that Maroney is in prison.

Like all noirs, Gotham City is as much a character as the mob bosses and the moles, with its constant rain, tired bright neon signage and gritty streets. The excitement is sustained as we zip along the Cobb at the last minute to avoid all those head-on collisions and red lights, including a pulsing hair’s breadth out of tender grace on a piano-wire. “Dad’s dead, and we’re unstoppable,” as Sophia comments about a scary, terrible lunch with Cobb.

Penguin is currently streaming on JioCinema with weekly episodes till November 10