Review: The Penguin, “After Hours” | Season 1, Episode 1
Oswald Cobb returns in the first episode of the new HBO series set in the world of the Batman
Welcome to Episodic Medium’s weekly coverage of The Penguin, which debuted this Thursday on HBO, before moving to its Sunday timeslot on September 29. As always, the first review is available to all, but subsequent reviews will only be available to paid subscribers. You can check out our full Fall schedule here (along with information about our yearly subscription deal going until the end of September), and learn more about the site and its mission on our About page.
“I’m an acquired taste.”
After the earth-shattering success of the 2008 film The Dark Knight, I remember feeling more than a little bemused at how its co-writer and director Christopher Nolan suggested that he hadn’t put much thought into the notion of making a third film. No doubt, the tragedy of Heath Ledger’s untimely passing had probably made Nolan a lot less willing to dive back into the world of Gotham City since his Joker could be no more, but as I recall, he implied that even before Ledger’s passing he hadn’t given a lot of thought to a follow-up film. What I found baffling is the very fact that, whether or not you like the film (it’s an all-time favorite for me, sorry if this is too aggressively normcore), it quite emphatically ends on a notable cliffhanger, in which Bruce Wayne’s alter ego deliberately takes the blame for the death of beloved public figure Harvey Dent and becomes hated despite continuing to be a force for good in a challenging metropolis.
The notion that Nolan wasn’t thinking about a follow-up was all the more baffling when I sat down to a press screening of The Dark Knight Rises, the 2012 film that has many compelling parts and a few solid setpieces but also felt like Nolan had bitten off way more than he could creatively chew. That film clocked in at 165 minutes, back when superhero movies approaching three hours in length felt like it was tempting fate. And as sacrilegious as it may sound, as the film flitted between a faux-origin story for Robin, and introducing Selina Kyle to Gotham as an antihero, and giving us the whole Bane backstory, and everything surrounding Talia Al-Ghul, I could not help but wonder to myself if either Nolan should’ve made four films and not jammed it all together in a single finale, or…if it almost would’ve worked better as a limited series. (Again, at a time when such things were not remotely common even in the start of Peak TV.)
Now, Matt Reeves—in spite of his recent blockbuster bona fides—knows from the world of TV. He was born in that world, and molded by it. Before he helped extend the life of the Planet of the Apes series cinematically, he was the co-creator of Felicity among other credits. He, like Nolan, has helped usher in a new era of the Caped Crusader with his mostly very solid 2022 film The Batman. He, like Nolan, worked with a remarkable slew of actors in his version of Bruce Wayne’s story. And he, like Nolan, kind of bit off so much more than could be covered in a single film that it’s enough to make you wonder if the story could’ve been told in a different medium. In rewatching the film a couple weeks ago, I was reminded of how thrilling it was at times, such as in a mid-film car chase in which the Batman chases down Oswald Cobb, an ungainly mid-level mobster with an unwanted nickname. And I was also reminded of how the film’s epic scope sometimes meant that it felt like watching a full season of TV compressed into three hours. (Technically 176 minutes.)
And thus, we enter The Penguin. It says something that a film like The Batman cast the immensely talented Colin Farrell, put him through the experience of sincerely impressive prosthetics so that you genuinely can’t see the Irish hunk underneath, made him craft a tough-talking American accent, gave him center stage in that action sequence, and then…had him vanish for close to half the movie. The Batman has arguably too much going on, and if there is a reward for Farrell, it is The Penguin. “After Hours,” the 65-minute premiere, is fairly laser-focused on Oswald Cobb, with very little on the periphery. Unlike some of my fellow critics, I haven’t watched (or been given access to) screeners for the show, so I can only say that if this series is going to rely heavily on the capacity for its audience to be compelled or swayed by Farrell’s immense, undeniable charm even when playing someone as odious as Cobb…honestly, sign me up.
Even more so than in The Batman, Farrell feels entirely at home in the role of Cobb, shrouded though he may be behind layers of makeup and prosthetics. As is sometimes the case with matinee-idol types, Farrell is much more at home in character-actor type roles, and is more than enough to make the extended runtime of “After Hours” palatable. As you may recall from the climax of The Batman, the devious Riddler set off a massive array of bombs, destroying Gotham’s seawall and flooding major parts of the city. Though the Batman eventually saved the day, the city is still home to looting and rioting in the aftermath. A week after the film ended, Cobb and others are left to pick up the pieces, with a vacuum of power left by the death of ultra-connected mob boss Carmine Falcone. But Cobb is the one to set the story in motion when he allows his anger to get the best of him, killing Carmine’s son Alberto (Michael Zegen) after being insulted. Cobb could almost get away with the murder, even after roping the shy and stuttering Victor (Rhenzy Feliz) in to help dispose of the body, until Alberto’s sister Sofia (Cristin Milioti) reveals that she’s been freed from Arkham Asylum after having committed a series of gruesome murders—and she seems pretty convinced that Cobb has something to do with her supportive brother’s disappearance.
I will note, watching “After Hours” so soon after rewatching The Batman does not automatically do the show a ton of favors in the style department. Like the film, The Penguin so far seems very comfortable in wallowing in the muck of Gotham City, but it does so with less visual panache than the film did. The episode’s director, Craig Zobel, has a number of notable credits to his name, but he wasn’t brought onboard to keep up the same visual palette Reeves utilized. Also, “After Hours” isn’t exactly bursting with action, short of a very brief late scene in which Cobb tries and mostly fails to evade capture by Sofia’s goons by driving through the crowded streets of Gotham.
But what the show may not have visually, it still has from a performance standpoint. Series developer Lauren LaFranc (who wrote this episode) may be trying to flesh out Cobb as a character and is sometimes successful, as in a key early monologue that leads to Alberto’s death, but she’s mostly being aided by the plain fact that Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti are so fascinating to watch. The notes that they’re being given to play are not, on their own, terribly unique or groundbreaking. As that monologue makes clear, Oswald Cobb doesn’t just want to be in charge of the Gotham City syndicate of crime—he wants to be seen by those within the neighborhoods of Gotham as some kind of perversely benevolent leader who looks out for his own. The story of the mobster who was kind to Oz is a selectively told one; as Oz described the vague acts of goodness that Rex Calabrese would perform, I was wondering how many devious crimes he would commit.
And Sofia Falcone seems like a much shrewder criminal than her father, who was more than happy to keep Cobb around because he would do enough of the dirty work without complaining too much (and while only taking a little bit of the cash for himself). Sofia seems very aware of the type of person Oswald Cobb is; the same way that Oz sees Victor as some kind of warped potential protege, Sofia looks at our title character and sees someone with the same deep well of violence just bubbling beneath the surface and ready to break out. The broad strokes of these characters may not be distinctive, but Farrell and Milioti make them seem singular because of their committed performances. I can’t know exactly how much of the next seven episodes will require me to value their work above all else, but for the length of “After Hours,” that is more than enough to keep me going.
If there is anything that may hold me back even slightly, it’s a type of question that has typically dogged Marvel with its non-Avengers films. I had to remind myself that while The Batman ended with Bruce and Selina Kyle going their separate ways (literally), Bruce is still fully ensconced in Gotham City at the conclusion. So, a person might wonder where the Batman is amidst all of the post-seawall-destruction chaos. As I understand it from the little I’ve read, we should not be getting our hopes up for a Pattinson cameo in this series, and while Oswald Cobb isn’t quite the Penguin that anyone who grew up with Danny DeVito’s version in their heads is familiar with, he’s fixing to be the next crime boss. Wouldn’t the Batman want to step in to stop him, especially with the possibility of some powerful new drug set to arrive and displace the Drops? It’s a mere trifle of a concern now, but as the show continues I may have to ask that question a bit more forcefully. For now, I’m content to watch Colin Farrell act circles around a panoply of character actors, but I do hope that giving the Penguin his own spotlight ends up being worth more than just reminding any doubters out there that Farrell is one of our most talented actors.
Stray Observations
Hello, folks! I’m excited to dive into The Penguin with all of you; as noted above, I will be taking the journey the same as you, screener-free.1
Coupled with the fact that Farrell and Barry Keoghan are both in The Batman, and that Brendan Gleeson apparently has a role in the upcoming Joker sequel, it’s clear that if you were in The Banshees of Inisherin, the world of Gotham is yours for the taking.
Also, I say this with no knowledge of future episode titles, but naming this after a Martin Scorsese movie is yet further proof that each time the great filmmaker politely criticizes superhero films, someone else just wants to reference his work within the subgenre.
Mark Strong now playing Carmine Falcone is…a bit of a downgrade, hot take though it may be. (John Turturro was very inspired casting in the film.)
I’ll also note that the grim-dark nature of the series plus the presence of Strong – who gets the “And” credit here in spite of just showing up in a stock photo – made me think of Low Winter Sun. You remember the AMC drama, right? Of course you do.2
I wonder if the differences in personality between Oswald and Victor will become a problem because Victor is eventually unwilling to go as dark as his new mentor, or because Victor goes further than even Oswald finds desirable. We’ll see!
Maybe you knew, but I didn’t: composer Mick Giacchino isn’t Michael Giacchino (who was the composer for The Batman), but the Oscar winner’s son.
While I did enjoy this, I would say that if you’re in the mood for something co-starring Clancy Brown and featuring a clip from the 1946 film Gilda, you might want to watch or rewatch The Shawshank Redemption.
A programming note that you may already be aware of (and which Myles added above): while this episode premiered on a Thursday (presumably to not let Disney+ swallow up too much attention with the premiere of Agatha All Along), future episodes will air on Sunday nights, starting on September 29.
Myles here to say that I’ll try to get Josh screeners, but despite some recent improvement on my ability to access screeners, still a crapshoot trying to get them for others. I’ll check on it.
Myles here again—I remember Low Winter Sun because a Film Commission employee from Michigan told me about AMC asking the state to cut them additional tax breaks for season two to film in Detroit and the state responding with “You are making Detroit look like shit and you want more money?”
This was okay. All felt a little predictable. Like no one had a story they were burning to tell about The Penguin so they just stitched one together out of the kinds of things you might see in a crime story.
The mob boss’s son being unqualified to take over. The domineering mom. Playing two families against each other. Yadda yadda The Penguin.
But I’d like to see more Cristin Milioti.
Grateful for the week and half between episodes as it gives time for word of mouth to spread and viewers to catch-up.
Apparently film critic Amy Nicholson is hosting the series' official after show podcast. Unsure if I'll be watching the series, kind of hooked on LOST at the moment, but I'll definitely keep abreast of what's happening through pods and of course Episodic Medium.