The Penguin (2024) is the mature Batman story we have been looking for for decades. The future of the Batman universe is bright.
I was a fan of the 2022 Batman film and was excited about The Penguin (2024). I thought it was a great way to start a new Batman universe. But I didn’t know that they would completely blow me away with The Penguin (2024) television show. The Penguin (2024) is a show that’s going to be talked about for a long time, reaching the height of shows like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos.
Breaking Bad and The Sopranos are my two favorite shows ever, and I do think that they are better than The Penguin (2024). However, this is probably the best show we have seen since Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Other shows that come to mind are The Last of Us and Fallout.
I think The Penguin (2024) will also have all the awards locked in for 2024. Critics agree as this is one of the highest-rated shows on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes in a long time. HBO has already all but announced season two and confirmed other spinoffs are in the works in this new Batman universe.
What makes The Penguin (2024) so great and unique are the characters and the way the story is told. In a world where we see the good guy prevail over and over again, sometimes it’s cool to see the bad guy in the show. It feels more grounded in reality.
Speaking of grounded in reality, people might have preconceptions about this being a show in a Batman universe. There’s nothing comic book about this show at all. The show is also TV mature and not recommended for any kid to watch. I think a kid wouldn’t understand what was going on anyway because it deals with such adult themes.
Finally, this is a show made for adults, not just another superhero movie made for children. Now, there’s nothing wrong with superhero films made for children, but as we have seen, plenty of adults enjoy superhero content.
So why not give them a little something? With that being said, the show has a lot of balls. It reminds me of the Sopranos, with how we have a protagonist that is such a piece of crap, but we still watch them. What I mean by that is that the character does vile and horrible things (the Penguin/Oz).
In The Sopranos, Tony Soprano does vile and horrible things over and over, but the show keeps going on forever, and we keep watching. With The Penguin (2024), we have a similar scenario. We follow Oz/Penguin, who is played by Colin Farrell, and his quest to run the underground crime world in Gotham City.
Instead of him being the very easy-to-root-for type of guy, he’s a complicated but horrible person. He has a lot of charisma, which makes it easy to somewhat root for him, and he also never goes completely over the edge until later in the show as far as being a character that you despise and don’t want to watch on screen.
The Penguin (2024) does a great job of giving you just enough to want to root for the penguin and see what he does next, but just enough to still hate them and understand that he’s a horrible guy. That goes with most of the characters in the show as well, and we can relate to some of their struggles, but at the same time, we would never want to go through the horrible things that they have done or did.
The performances are incredible in the show and some of the best I’ve seen in a long time. This is one of those lucky cast ensemble shows. You have every single actor or actress giving it. They’re all in this show. There isn’t a weak link in this show at all; everyone is just guns blazing and doing their best. I will be shocked if this doesn’t sweep the Emmys and Golden Globes. Everyone’s already talking about how great Cristin Milioti was as Sophia Falcone.
They could’ve easily made a show just about her, and it would’ve been just as popular. There’s an episode all about her in the show, which shines and shows how great this cast is. I think she will have to be used for more Batman films and shows, as fans love her.
It reminds me of the Sopranos and how they could jump around characters and give them a lot of screen time, and you wouldn’t feel like you wished you were seeing what the other characters were doing. I hope there is more with these characters, and it seems like there probably will be, as the show ends up with a couple of cliffhangers that will probably be answered in the next Batman film or spin-off television show.
It’s hard to go into what makes the show so great without giving away certain things that come as a surprise when watching. I went into the show not knowing anything besides seeing the Batman film from 2022. I was expecting an entertaining show, but I didn’t expect to be blown away at all. I saw that people were enjoying the show online, but it’s hard to tell what’s good just like that because everyone’s opinion is different. But this is a case where it’s hitting off with the audience and critics alike.
This is kind of rare because if you look at history, you have shows like Breaking Bad that didn’t hit their peak until later on in the show. Which people think comes as a surprise. But Breaking Bad’s first couple of seasons weren’t that popular as far as numbers go. But with The Penguin (2024), its season finale ended up doing better than the season premiere. This is insane because most shows always peak at their premiere.
Some of that might just be because it’s streaming on HBO Max and airing on HBO television, making it easier for most people to watch. HBO must be happy, as The Last of Us’s success isn’t their only great show in recent years. They can also add more Batman shows for years to come.
I really can’t say enough great things about The Penguin (2024), and I think it’s the best show of the year. It might even be the show of the decade. I feel like this is the show that Batman fans have been waiting for. Batman is all about the dark, gritty, and realistic world that Gotham is.
But now we finally have a television show that is made for adults. The Penguin (2024) is such a smart show and goes beyond what fans expect. You’d think it’d be a bunch of fan service stuff, but there is little to no such thing in it. It’s a show that does its best to tell a great story, and it does just that.
I think if it weren’t for the Joker film that came out in 2019, we would not have had this new wave of dark, more mature Batman stories. Because of that, we have gotten a complete television show that is the greatest representation of the Penguin I’ve ever seen and one of the best Batman stories ever, which is crazy because Batman is not even in the show.
It shows how great the Batman universe is and how there are so many pawns and pieces to a story that you can make other stories of. People still enjoy it as long as they keep the same creative minds around. I think the future is bright for Batman and Batman spinoff stories.
