‘The Penguin’ series premiere review: Grab on to Colin Farrell’s coat-tails for an explosive ride

What a virtuoso performance by Colin Farrell in The Penguin! As Oswald Oz Cobb, Farrell devours every frame he is in, switching effortlessly from placid to explosive in the blink of an eye. Apart from the marvellous make-up and prosthetics, it is his voice, gait and demeanour that have you investing in this quicksilver version of Fredo Corleone.

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

We learn more of Cobb’s motivations as he deals with the Falcone siblings — the drug-addled Al (Michael Zegen) and Sofia (Cristin Milioti), a psychotic serial killer newly released from Arkham Asylum. Farrell has said the spin-off would explore the character’s villainy and strength 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 am an acquired taste,” says Cobb and we believe it, rushing to acquire it, “plum, not purple” car and all. There is a new drug on the market, which Al and Sofia are planning to use to take the business to the next level, while cautious Johnny Vitti (Michael Kelly) the Falcone family underboss, wishes to lie low till the heat cools. Anyone who underestimates Cobb, does it at their peril; though a middle lieutenant for the Falcone family, Cobb has dreams and ideas and the steel in his spine to realise them.

A still from ‘The Penguin’ | Photo Credit: HBO Max

In a fearful symmetry, Cobb gains an understudy in Vic (Rhenzy Feliz), a teenager, who Cobb runs into as Vic with other juvenile delinquents is trying to rob the rims off Cobb’s tires. Vic proves himself a worthy second-in-command, by showing initiative and also crucially knowing when to keep his counsel and acknowledge his fear.

And he has nice manners too, when Cobb goes to visit his mother, Francis (Deirdre O’Connell), who for all her early onset dementia, is just the medicine Cobb needs to put his plans in motion. The other crime family, headed by Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) is also in play as it is thanks to Carmine that Maroni is in jail.

Like all noir, Gotham city is as much a character the mob bosses and molls, with its constant rain, the tiredly bright neon signboards and slick roads. The tension is kept up as we zip along with Cobb swerving at the last minute to avoid all those head-on collisions and red lights, including escaping the tender mercies of a piano-wire by a palpitating hairsbreadth. As Sofia comments over a scary, ravenous lunch with Cobb, “Daddy is dead, and we are untamed.”

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

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