The Batman spin-off was released on September 20, 2024 on the Max streaming platform. But what did the critics think of it? Press review.
One of the most anticipated series of the 2024 back-to-school season is finally out. Spin-off of the film Tea Batman by Matt Reeves, The Penguin focuses, as its name suggests, on the rise of Bruce Wayne’s enemy within the Gotham City mafia. Led by an unrecognizable Colin Farrell, the series also reunites Cristin Miliotti (How I Met Your Mother), Michael Kelly (House of Cards), Clancy Brown (John Wick 4) or even Theo Rossi (Sons of Anarchy). Prestigious on paper, is this program released from September 20 on Max worth watching?
With 72% positive press reviews on Metacritic and 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, the United States seems seduced. The opinions of the French press are also seduced on The Penguin. Widescreen hails a “successful” spin-off of The Batmanpraising its “narrative and thematic coherence” as well as HBO’s “exemplary production quality”, when The Parisian praises the episodes as “successful” but “very (too?) talkative”. For AllocineHBO signs “a captivating and violent thriller”.
Also conquered, First believes that if the series “avoids the hiccup”, it is thanks to “its frenetic story” and the “two solid performances” of Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti. Conversely, Release accuses the series of being “a sad Scorsese pastice”, “stupid and mean”, when The Digitals deplores “a promising statement of intent on paper but poorly orchestrated”, the fault of “terribly stereotypical characters”. Now it remains to be seen what the public thinks of the eight episodes, posted online every Friday on Max.
serial sheet
The Penguin is an eight-episode miniseries on the streaming service Max about Gotham City supervillain Oswald Cobblepot, known as the Penguin. The release of The Penguin on the streaming platform is scheduled to start on September 20, 2024, at a rate of one episode per week. The highly anticipated spin-off, which takes up the universe imagined by Matt Reeves in The Batman (2022), takes place just after the events of the film, to follow the rise to power of one of Batman’s most beloved antagonists.
Colin Farrell, whose portrayal of the Penguin in The Batman had made an impression, will reprise the role of Oswald Cobblepot in the mini-series. Alongside him, fans of the DC universe will find Cristin Milioti (the mother in How I Met You Mother) in the role of Sofia Falcone, legitimate heir to the criminal empire. It is Michael Zegen, (seen in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), who plays the role of his brother Alberto, while Clancy Brown (Highlander) plays Salvatore Maroni, the legendary capo, main rival of Carmine Falcone, sentenced to years in prison and thirsting for revenge.
What is the plot of The Penguin ?
The miniseries begins after the fall of Carmine Falcone and the flooding of Gotham. After years spent in the shadow of his boss, Oz Cobblepot, faced with a power vacuum, decides to seize his chance, but the different factions of the underworld are not going to make it easy for him… In addition, it seems that the series will be directly linked to The Batman 2 (scheduled for release in 2025) and the universe of Matt Reeves. The latter has indeed revealed that The Penguin would not only be an independent series: it would lay the foundations for the sequel to The Batmanmeaning fans wanting to fully understand Reeves’ BatVerse films will also have to watch the spinoff.
- Colin Farrell as Oswald Cobblepot (the Penguin)
- Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone
- Alex Anagnostidis: Ray
- Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni
- John Turturro as Carmine Falcone
- Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone
- Carmen Ejogo
- Shohreh Aghdashloo
- Michael Kelly
- Deirdre O’Connell
- James Madio
- Scott Cohen
- Francois Chau
- David H. Holmes
- Theo Rossi
- Rhenzy Happy
- Anthony Gullotta
The Penguin is available from September 20, 2024 on the new Max streaming platform, resulting from the merger between HBO Max and Discovery +. It is possible to watch HBO content (among others) in France on the available platform, launched in France on June 11, by subscribing to one of the three offers: the one with ads (5.99 euros per month), the standard one without ads (9.99 euros per month) and the premium one (13.99 euros per month).