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I’ve spent a lot of time writing about how terrible The Acolyte was and, having watched all of it, I have no doubt that it deserved to be canceled. But once in a while a show turns up that wasn’t even on your radar and surprises you. For me, that show is The Penguin which just premiered on Max (formerly HBO Max) last week. 

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The Penguin is a spin off of the The Batman, the 2022 movie starring Robert Pattinson as a younger, slightly emo version of the character. I thought the movie was pretty good but I really had no interest in watching a series based on the film.

As you’re probably aware, this isn’t the first time someone has done a Batman spinoff series. A decade ago Fox had a show called Gotham that ran for five season. I watched a bit of the first season and got tired of that show quick. It just wasn’t that interesting despite having some good actors in the parts. I tuned out before the end of season one. If this is one of your favorite shows, sorry, I just couldn’t get into it.

When Gotham ended, the same people created a show called Pennyworth about Batman’s butler which ran for another three seasons. I never watched any of that, partly because I just didn’t care and partly because I didn’t expect it to be much different from Gotham in style. I passed on Pennyworth. There was also a show on CW called Batwoman. The less said about that the better.

All that to say, when I heard there was yet another show being spun off from the Batman movie, my reaction was to shrug and quickly forget it was happening at all. But after the first episode premiered about a week ago I noticed it and decided to give it a try. 

I don’t want to get too excited about it, having only seen one episode, but already it’s much more engaging than a lot of other big budget shows, not just the Acolyte but also Rings of Power and a few others I could name. This is way more engaging that I expected.

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I won’t spoil anything about the plot but the main idea is that this is sort of a colorful mobster show, literally colorful in the sense that the Penguin drives around in a purple Maserati. But what works is that the show isn’t too colorful. There are some references to Batman in news clips, but this is mostly a show about a mid-level mobster who is smarter than he looks and is looking to move up rather than get squeezed out of his position by the top dogs.

The makeup in the show is incredible. Colin Farrell is a good looking movie star but in this show he’s an overweight, physically crippled man with a big nose and a huge scar across his face. The Penguin is really ugly but he looks like he could almost be a real person.

Here I have to say that I am not a fan of Colin Farrell. I feel like I’ve seen him in a bunch of things over the years, none of which I thought were very good. Even in movies other people like, he never stood out for me as more than passable.

But as of this week, I’m officially seeing Farrell in a new light. He is so good in this that it was hard for me to believe it was him. He has created what feels like a fully rounded character who is at times impulsive and murderous and at other times childish and charming. Granted a lot of that is a credit to the writers but even so, this could easily have not worked as well as it does. The Penguin is to Colin Farrell what Tony Stark was to Robert Downey Jr. Farrell just makes it look easy, like he’s having fun and not even working very hard. I’ve seen some reviewers already saying he will probably win some awards for this. Again, I’ve only seen one episode but on the basis of that I agree. I really hope, just for my own sake, that they can keep it up and not send the show off the rails in coming episodes.

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It’s getting really good reviews. Critics gave it a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes and the audience (which I trust more) gave it a 91%. The viewership numbers are also looking good. Variety reports “the show has landed the biggest 4-day audience for a new series on Max in every region globally since ‘The Last of Us’ in Jan. 2023.”

The second episode of the show was supposed to come out today but Max has decided to move the show to Sunday night which is generally where it keeps its high profile shows. If this kind of thing interests you even a little, check out the Penguin. 

And if you won’t take my word for it, here’s the Critical Drinker’s take. He goes into a lot of detail about the episode so if you haven’t seen it yet, you may want to save this review until after you’ve seen it.