The Penguin

The Penguin: A Gripping Journey into the Ruthless Rise of a True Villain

I am writing this review after just finishing watching the first and probably only season of "The Penguin" today. For me, it's an 8/10 (which, on my scale, is a very good rating, though on IMDb that’s more like a 9/10). It’s an HBO series. While it’s not perfect (but what is, really?), I think the series is very, very well done. I don’t expect there to be a second season, nor is there a need for one; it works perfectly as a standalone miniseries.

The series builds on the movie The Batman (with Robert Pattinson in the lead role) and follows the Penguin’s rise to power, bridging the story between that movie and the planned sequel.

I can only recommend it — but I ask you, if it doesn’t grab you right away, please at least watch through the third episode and then decide.

You don’t necessarily need to have seen The Batman either, since the Penguin appears only as a side character there, merely a capo in Gotham’s mafia. The series does reference a few events from the movie (such as some neighborhoods flooding after a terrorist attack), but, as I said, you don’t need to know the specifics to follow the plot. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have seen the movie, especially since it’s quite good.

It’s also worth mentioning that we're dealing with an anti-hero here who is, essentially, a villain. I won’t go into more detail on that — it’s part of the experience to discover this character’s nature, and perhaps to be as deceived by him as the other characters in the series are by the Penguin’s manipulations.