"The Penguin", and how to be the most amoral comic-book adaptation out there 

I love you, Matt Reeves. You make me so happy. The Batman was an amazing movie, one of the best experiences I had in a movie theater in the last half decade, and the promise of a series was kind of worrying me. I usually do not watch series, most of the time is just filling without substance, but The Penguin is nothing like that.

Colin Farrell's Oswald Cobb, The Penguin, is trying to put his life and criminal position back into place after the death of Carmine Falcone (here played by Mark Strong during flashbacks). With this purpose, and doing his best to protect his mother (Deirdre O'Connell) and give her an amazing life, he allies with Victor (Rhenzy Feliz), an orphan he found trying to steal his car. But, when Sofía Falcone (Cristin Milioti), also known as The Hangman, is released from Arkaham, the power families in Gotham start to became more aggressive and paranoid.

This serie is really engaging, thrilling and just a pleassure to see. The aesthetic really wants to replicate what The Batman did. This is a weird situation, because it does in fact looks pretty cool and make this series feel connected to that universe, but at the same times makes it lack any personality of his own. It depends a lot on Pattinson's movie, it could not really stand on itself, many plot points develop from what happen in that film. Also, the direction and the cinematography are trying so hard to be The Batman, but, even when looks and works perfectly fine, these creators are far away from being Reeves and Greig Fraser.

This is not helped by the fact that you could notice de lower budget. It still has some great production values, a cinematography superior to the one of your average series for streaming, even some theatrically released movies, and the locations are multiple and well decorated. There is some fakeish CGI in one flashback, but in general everything looks like there was money invested to bring this Gotham to life. Yet, it is far from being as gothic and stylized as the city presented by Reeves and, even with multiple locations, they all seem kind of trapped and living isolated from the rest of the city. This is not really a problem, of course you could not match the budget of a feature film, and the creators manages to find ways to make this smaller scale work and feel epic. But, what is really not so good is that there are some long scenes of dialogue, filmed in shot and counter-shot, that felt like a way to patch runtime in an easy and simple way to film, because this scenes could have been resolved with minimum dialogue or even with purely visual storytelling.

Even though, the attractive and well rounded characters make you not only tolerate, but most of the time kind of enjoy these scenes. Oz Cobb (I found ridiculous they changed his lastname to be more "realistic") is this absolutely son of a b*tch, who is willing to betray anyone and kill half the city to achieve his goals being this pathetical and egocentrical maniac with heavy mommy issues. Sofía Falcone is this tormented soul that wants to be a good person, but her family betray her and the sociopolitical system forced her to act like a mad person. This two actors, Farrell and Milioti are amazing in this parts, they grab all the attention to them in every scene they are and could go from the most blind raging anger to the saddest introspection with great effectiveness. Feliz, whose characters works as a sidekick serves its purpose, it is an embodimient of the theme of the dangers of joining to the crime world, and trough some details like his sttuter you could notice change in him by just the was he talks. Even Oz' mother is amazing, is this sad and senile old woman, but when it is needed is a cold manipulator that makes you feel bad with yourself. The most amazing is the fact that the show does not try to redime Oz, he does not have a typical sad story and we are not meant to see him as the hero of his own story. It is an attractive character because of how well acted, complex and a fully fleshed bad person he is; a villan in all the extension of the word.

Also, exploring this Gotham city, prisions, other Arkham Assylum's aspects and the fights between the Falcone and Maroni families to control little gangs, even with its limitations, is a really great experience. The shows manages to keep scalating the stakes, presenting new conflicts and changing constantly the character dynamics to make it something that does not gets old easily. Like, instead of being group A vs. group B, there are half alphabet of groups that ally, betray and fight for and against each other all through the season. This is something that could only be explored in this way thanks to the fact of Oz being a villain without morals. It is irrelevant if what he is doing is good or bad, if what others do is justifiable or not, is just about who could I manipulate now.

But, even with the fact it depends a lot on The Batman, what it sets up for the sequel is very promising. The ending of the show (spoilers free) is in itself really dark, eerie and gives you chills. You really cannot believe they have the b*lls to do something like that, is very disturbing and f*ck you up in a way so satisfying that you thank the writers for it. And, if this serie ends up like this, setting this new Gotham criminal and political landscape, I cannot wait to see what Reeves is planning to do with next.

The Penguin was a very surprising experience. I was afraid it would be nothing but a cash grab, but truly explored, with its limitations, The Batman universe. It has complex characters, a modern vision towards morality and crime underworld, presents changing character dynamics and conflicts, and supports itself on a very unique aesthetic. The series is not scared of being dark and uncomfortable to watch, but at the same time is really addictive, it makes you feel like a drophead.