I wonder why I am not surprised to see the gloomy and gray shades in the new HBO series, Penguin. Though it’s an extension of the Matt Reeves’ Batman franchise, I guess I found some peculiar similarities to Bruno Heller’s Gotham. The characters are very similar and the dialog delivery is slow and poised just like in the series. That series failed with its charm only because Bruno tried too many things in the same way in every season and kept on adding more characters. The outcome was detrimental and the series became a laughing stock just like other DC’s CW series.

One thing that I particularly liked about Bruno Heller’s Gotham was the character development of Penguin. Season one started with his background and slowly paved the way for his success in the crime world. I believe that Robin Lord Taylor played that part extremely well. It’s sad that the script lost its stronghold and added too much goofiness in the storytelling. And, the character of Penguin was lost somewhere in the middle of the series. But, I always hoped to see the character of Penguin again. Many years later and thanks to HBO’s take on it, Penguin has been brought back to us in a much similar fashion. Colin Farrell did show his mantle in Matt Reeves’ Batman and the reason why the series Penguin doesn’t surprise me at all. To me, it’s an extension of Bruno Heller’s half done work with Matt Reeves’ unfinished story. 

Much like Bruno Heller’s Gotham, I don’t expect to see the character of Batman gushing in from any side soon. In fact, I would even prefer to not see Robert Pattinson at all in the near future. In the Batman movie too, he appeared as an extension of Bruce Wayne’s character from Bruno Heller’s Gotham. A teenager who is not yet groomed to be a fearful night crusader for many villains. I mean just compare that to the character of Marvel’s Daredevil, you would understand what I mean. He is neither as great of a man as in Christopher Nolan’s subject nor he is Ben Affleck’s muscular might. 

In Matt Reeves’ franchise, I believe it’s the other characters that I am more interested in to explore. The series, Penguin, lacks the character arc but it wouldn’t matter much as long as it follows the same path to lead him to be the boss of Gotham. The rise and rise of Penguin would eventually define its character journey. And, we would accept that due to all the previous attempts made on this character. It’s not a bad take at all, just not as surprising to me as to some of the critics around.

The beginning of the series is poised well to give space to the other side character, Victor Aguilar (played by Rhenzy Feliz), to groom. He could easily develop into Victor Zsasz that Penguin kept as his bodyguard in Gotham. I am also thrilled to see Hangman played by Cristin Milioti to an extent. She can be extremely dangerous owing to her psycho-abilities. In the series Gotham, I failed to recognize the character played by Crystal Reed to an extent. Not sure why the character was not given such a scale in the series. However, in this series, I believe the rivalry between Oswald and Falcone would reap only benefits for the upcoming Matt Reeves’ The Batman Part 2.

It’s kind of a cool idea to have spin-off miniseries for other characters of Batman and maintain the story of Gotham’s Dark Knight confined to big screens. I only wish that Sony and Marvel could have agreed to do the same for Spider-Man.