Review of Episode 1 of “The Penguin” – “After Hours”

The following review contains spoilers for the first episode of The Penguin, “After Hours”

The Batman ended with Gotham City being hit by a flood thanks to the Riddler and his followers. Now, just a few weeks later, The Penguin picks up amidst the rubble. News reports speak of a power vacuum in Gotham's organized crime scene, opening a narrow window of opportunity through which Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) must squeeze his hulking frame if he wants to take what he believes is his. With the stage now set, it's time for The Penguin (the guy) and The Penguin (the show) to say “yes, and” to the events of The Batman while maintaining what made the film so atmospheric and compelling.

And they do so to great effect, hampered only by a significantly smaller budget. Wide shots of Gotham don't seem as convincing when the eye is drawn to obviously computer-generated buildings and street signs. Seeing Gotham in daylight doesn't help either, as After Hours shows the city in daylight far more than The Batman ever did. But what matters is that the continuity between the film and the series feels intact. Thankfully, it does, helped by Craig Zobel's noir direction and the thrilling, understated score by Mick Giacchino (the son of Michael Giacchino, who composed the music for The Batman).

Going into the premiere, I assumed (like everyone else) that The Penguin would share a lot of its DNA with The Sopranos. And it does: With all the brutal crimes, sweaty men, sex workers, New Jersey accents and mom complexes packed into the premiere, there's obviously a lot of inspiration from the classic HBO series. But I was surprised by how much it reminded me of another of the premium cable channel's beloved franchises – Game of Thrones and its current and future spinoffs – with its shaky loyalties, big reveals and the one person who thinks they were born to rule. It may not prove as high-quality as those shows, but from the first episode, The Penguin puts the pins in their place and gets the ball rolling quickly down the track at the end. Putting up these pins is a lot of work, with the introduction of the characters and storylines of Oz, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), Sophia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), and a few other members of the Falcone family whose names will definitely be hard to remember (which also reminds me of Game of Thrones). After Hours may be a little cluttered, but it definitely never gets boring, and it doesn't introduce a character I don't want to know more about.

To no one's surprise, this also leaves a lot more time with Oswald Cobb. While Farrell only had a few (albeit spectacular) moments on screen in The Batman – despite the hours in the makeup chair those few scenes required – now that he's in it for the long haul, he's able to delve deeper into the prosthetics. Farrell really embodies this character now, and it's amazing to watch the emotions and gestures he can convey through all that silicone. The torture scene at the end of the episode is a particularly impressive display of both acting and hair and makeup artistry. Not only because it's the only moment we see Oz in a full body suit, but also because the barbed wire he was tortured with, with cuts through his armpit, is rendered with a disturbing level of realism. It's impressive on a horror movie level.

“After Hours” is an episode with plenty of physical and emotional violence, which is all the more jarring when we see it onscreen through the eyes of our stand-in, Victor. Not based on a comic book character, Vic has the most freedom of anyone in The Penguin to chart his own course, and so far he’s like a gangster Harry Potter — a lower-class newcomer to this life of crime with a natural penchant for it. He’s a lovable character, which means that if more of Game of Thrones are adopted, he’s in for some tough times. Sophia Falcone is a force all her own, and a methodical, calculated contrast to Oz’s wilder and more frenetic style of problem-solving and leadership. The casting of Cristin Milioti — who you may know from Palm Springs, the “USS Callister” episode of Black Mirror, or the last few seasons of How I Met Your Mother — is pitch perfect, playing the “repressed craziness waiting to break out.” very Well, the first episode only gives a taste of what this outbreak might look like.