'The Penguin' Is the Best Thing on TV Because It's Explicitly Not a Comic Book Show

The Friday High 5

HBO

Every Friday I share 5 things I enjoyed this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High 5. 🙏🏻

Holy smokes, Batman.

It’s no secret that of all the superheroes, Batman has the best villains. They’re quirky and bizarre and above all memorable. Here’s a quick test: How many Batman villains can you name?¹ Whatever that number is, I bet it’s higher than for any other superhero.

Batman’s villains retain the faint whiff of their origins in their live action incarnations better than most. The Nolan trilogy dispelled the camp and humanized the inherently inhuman, but even then, they still felt like carnival characters. Grotesqueries to marvel at from the safety of your seat. You can’t take your eyes off Joker, but he’s also at least 30% too unbelievable. You marvel at the show, knowing full well this is all fantasy.

One of the triumphs of The Batman (2022) is how real it felt. The villain is a deranged incel performing for an adoring online mob. Bruce Wayne is at least 3 kinds of screwed up. The Batmobile is a souped-up hotrod. The violence has a weight that is frankly disturbing, as it would be if this was all real. But one of the movie’s neatest tricks is how it made one of Batman’s long-time antagonists a real person.

The Penguin is one the silliest concepts ever devised. A portly man with a purple fetish who waddles around, usually with an umbrella that doubles as a gun, sometimes attended by an actual flock of arctic birds. Nothing about him is serious. Danny DeVito’s portrayal in Batman Returns (1992) leaned into the inherent tragedy of the character, but was never able to fully rise above the character’s inborn absurdity; the film opens with a sequence that implies he was raised by penguins.

The 90s were a different time.

The Batman introduced us to Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell) and it was immediately clear there was something deeper at work. There was a shiftiness to his eyes that hinted at greed and desperation, but he remained loyal to his crime boss. He didn’t cower when Batman beat up an entire club of enforcers to get to him; if anything, he had a sense of humor about the whole thing. He even gave Batman a nickname, calling him “Vengeance.” Because Batman/Bruce is trapped in an endless cycle of emo-fueled despair, the joke went right over his head, but we got it.

I’ll just come out and say it: The dude was super likable. Even though he’s a criminal and a murderer. You can’t help but like the guy. Maybe because he’s the only one cracking jokes in the sepia-toned wasteland called Gotham.

At the time, I thought it was a strange choice to cast Colin Farrell and then bury him under makeup and prosthetics. But now that The Penguin is airing, I get it. Mark my words: Colin Farrell is going to be nominated for an Emmy. And he should win.

What he’s doing in this show is simply masterful.

The first sequence involves Oswald relaying a story about an old-time gangster who ran the neighborhood he grew up in. It’s clear Oswald idolized this guy. He probably decided to become a gangster himself because of him. He was a Vito Corleone type, the kind of guy you went to with problems. He was beloved.

It’s a nice little story, but the acting is what puts it over the top. You can hear the reverence in Farrell’s voice. And when he’s mocked for harboring similar ambitions, the hurt and confusion in his eyes is painful. There are plenty of movies and shows that make you empathize with villains, but rarely has it felt so visceral.

It’s clear Oswald has spent his life being looked down upon. He’s not much to look at, which is a nice way of calling him fat and ugly. He has a physical deformity that makes him waddle. His New York street accent implies a certain low-level intelligence. His face becomes strangely rat-like when he smiles, eyes squinted and pointed nose prominent. On the surface, nothing about this guy is appealing.

His superpower is how quickly he extricates himself from messes just by being cool, by saying the right things, by employing his humor. This guy is a survivor.

What makes him so riveting is just how vulnerable he seems. Which is a weird thing to say about a drug-dealing gangster. But it’s true. He’s an underdog in a world ruled by powerful crime families. A cog in the machine, with dreams of being more. Who can’t relate to that? And how do you not love a guy who rides around listening to Dolly Parton sing “9 to 5”?!

The point of this show is to turn Oswald into the Penguin, the feared crime lord of Gotham, which will require toppling two different crime families. The question isn’t really whether or not he’ll be successful. It’s will we still recognize him after.

Don’t be deterred by the silly title—The Penguin is riveting drama. It’s smarty written and slyly funny, and all of it buoyed by Farrell’s standout performance. After only one episode, it’s too early to declare this 2024’s best show. But that’s on the table. Who woulda thunk it?

---

Become a supporter for $3 a month!

Subscribers gain access to an ever-growing list of exclusive articles.

---

The Batman (2022)

Warner Bros. Pictures

In order to prepare my body and mind for The Penguin, I decided to rewatch The Batman.

It’s totally not necessary. You could watch the spin-off without ever seeing The Batman. They are related but stand totally apart. I’d been wanting to revisit the movie and only needed a flimsy excuse to do so. Thanks, HBO!

It’s interesting how many different versions of Batman we’ve gotten through the years. I’m not even talking about the legion of actors who’ve donned the cowl. Tonally, the character is a bit all over the place, though he’s been stuck in the “darkly brooding” gear since the Nolan trilogy. The Batman gave us a different take on the same flavor, one that made a ton of sense in retrospect.

This Bruce Wayne isn’t a playboy billionaire. He’s a pasty white boy in heavy mascara listening to Nirvana’s “Something In the Way” on loop while writing tortured screeds in a battered journal. He’s an obsessive recluse employed in the nighttime vigilante business probably because he gets punched a lot. Maybe he thinks he deserves it, maybe he just needs to feel something again. Either way, you can understand why criminals are terrified of this Batman—he’s crazier than they are!

I kept drawing comparisons to Watchmen’s Rorschach, who is not considered polite society. But the likeness is undeniable.

The Batman is a grim take on the character, and offers an even bleaker rendition of Gotham. It feels more like the sequel to Se7en than a superhero movie. Darkness has always been at the heart of the Batman experience, but the horrific part of the story usually occurred off camera, implied rather than seen. This movie begins with a gruesome murder and that sets the tone for everything that follows.

It’s one of my favorite Batman movies. Actually, let’s do a quick ranking.

1. The Dark Knight (2008): not perfect but what a piece of filmmaking.

2. The Batman (2022): I really dig the brooding take and the dark tone.

3. Batman Begins (2005): the origin story we know so well, done right.

4. Batman Returns (1992): way better than you remember.

5. The Dark Knight Rises (2012): solid but a lot of missed opportunities.

6. Batman (1989): veers close to farce but does enough right.

7. Batman (1966): the camp is part of the charm.

8. Batman v Superman (2016): don’t even get me started, Martha.

9. Batman Forever (1995) / Batman & Robin (1997): train wrecks.

The Batman TV Series

ABC

This newsletter is lousy with Batmens.

The plural of Batman is probably Batmen, or maybe even Batmans, but in my house it will always be Batmens. When my son was little, he called his action figures his ‘mens’. Part of my soul died the day his first-grade teacher corrected it out of him.

I try to keep the memory alive. So: Batmens.

Going from The Batman to the Batman TV series of the 60s is one of the most bizarre vibe shifts I’ve ever attempted. One minute Batman is trying to find purpose in life through pain, the next he’s dancing at a disco party while trying to seduce the Riddler’s girlfriend. Both are equally shocking.

I grew up watching re-runs of this show. It lives fondly in my memories. I was content to keep it there because I suspected it does not hold up well. But last week I was offered the complete series on the cheap, and I thought there might be an article in rewatching it, nearly 60 years after it debuted. So now I own it.

After you write about something for a while, you start to develop an antenna for what might make an interesting article. I can’t explain exactly how it works. Sometimes I watch something and walk away when it’s over. Sometimes I have to pause to jot down notes because what’s happening onscreen warrants deeper thought.

I watched 2 episodes. The thing that kept jumping out at me was how sensually Adam West plays Batman. There’s no other word for it. It’s in the way he breathlessly delivers his lines. I kept expecting him to ask someone to shag. It doesn’t help that Bruce Wayne dresses like Hugh Hefner, and Batman’s costume is 50% silk.

Pertinent to all of this, and one of my favorite Hollywood anecdotes: West was once kicked out of a Hollywood orgy because he wouldn’t stop playing Batman.²

“So I immediately went into the Batman character, and Frank went into the Riddler character, because we were getting the big giggles. It was so funny to us, what we walked into. And we were kicked out. We were expelled from the orgy” West said.

If you’ve ever watched West as Batman, this admission falls under ‘surprising yet inevitable.’

D&D Triple Date

Wizards of the Coast

Though I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for longer than I’ve known my wife—which is a little while—she had yet to partake in the experience.³ I’d gotten her to roll funny dice once or twice on my birthday or Father’s Day, which seems like the most grudging of acceptances. But those were the only times I asked, because I knew it wasn’t really her thing. Some people like pretending to be elves while casting spells, others think it’s weird for some unfathomable reason.⁴

She actually liked it fine when we’d done it in the past, but it had just been a one-on-one scenario. For the true D&D experience, you need at least 4 people in my opinion: the Dungeon Master and 3 other players. Because the magic comes from seeing the nonsense the other players think of.

And laughing at them. At least that’s how we play.

Last weekend, two of my friends and I pulled off the con of the century: A Dungeons & Dragons triple date. They said it couldn’t be done! (Who? I dunno. Somebody. The world is full of naysayers.)

There will probably be books written about last weekend. Maybe a Netflix limited series starring Timothy Olyphant as me. Why not? I’m taller than him and used to be as skinny. He’d have to run back his look from Hitman, though. Not a dealbreaker.

One of the other wives had also never played but was D&D curious. We regulated it the only way we knew how: adventure, peril, shenanigans.

I crafted a short adventure to introduce the basics. I wanted to check all the D&D boxes: combat, exploration, role play, traps, treasure. I baited the hook in a way I knew my wife would respond to, and probably the other wives: I put a child in jeopardy.

You've tracked the demons to a tomb atop a hill.

Within wait unknown horrors and the girl they kidnapped.

If you hurry, she may still be alive...

And we went from there. The players met an elderly knight who could barely stand. They explored the cold depths of the tomb. They engaged in a few heated combats. Several players came close to dying. The newbies rolled dice and asked questions and used intuition and logic. They played the game.

My wife found a magic cape that allowed her to fly. Why not? It’s D&D.

Everyone had fun. There’s already been talk of “next time,” which is the second-best thing a Dungeon Master wants to hear. (The first, of course: Holy crap, that was awesome. You’re the best DM ever. Please sign my player’s handbook.)

This is even better: While we were out walking one night this week, my wife started asking questions about the game. Things that had happened. Decisions I’d made. She’d been thinking about it, days later.

Music to my ears.

Long-Distance Gaming With My Son

We kept joking that this guy was a D&D dwarf. Image: Microsoft Studios

Sometime in 2022, I started playing through the Gears of Wars games with my son. It’s actually pretty hard to find good games you can play from the same couch, which is a bit shameful. In the 80s and 90s, we had no shortage of co-op games to choose from. But since the advent of online gaming, such games are hard to find.

We defeated Gears of War 3 this summer, a few weeks before he departed for college. It’s weird when you’re used to seeing your kid every day and suddenly they’re just not around. So I suggested we install Gears 4 and play it together via the magic of the internet.

Last weekend we spent a few hours playing. I had him on speakerphone. Neither of us are really what you would call “talkers.” Thinkers, yes, always. Listeners, sometimes. Talkers, not so much.⁵

It wasn’t that different than if he’d been sitting beside me. We joked about stuff, and talked about the game, and yelled when we were getting shot and needed help. For an hour or two, it felt like he’d never left.

Some people poo-poo video games as childish or a waste of time. But I’ll never stop playing, and this is partly why.

---

That’s it for this edition of the High 5. What are you digging at the moment? Drop a comment and let me know!

1. Here’s my list, off the top of my head: Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Riddler, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Bane, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze. I can only think of 2 Superman villains (Lex Luthor and Zod). Does Flash even have villains? Apart from Sunday drivers obviously. What about Wonder Woman? No idea. Aquaman’s foe is probably climate change or oil spills or fishermen.

Spider-Man comes closest to Batman for memorable baddies: Doc Ock, Vulture, Venom, Sand-Man, Green Goblin… feel like I’m forgetting some obvious ones. Lizard man? Or was he just Lizard? The bipedal dinosaur-looking guy who dressed like he worked in a lab. But this illustrates my point. It’s hazy after the first 4 or 5.

2. Sorry, Mom. I don’t go searching out this stuff. It just finds its way to me. Maybe because I keep clicking on it?

3. Calling D&D a ‘game’ is like calling Star Wars a movie. Technically correct but totally undersells what it actually is. And it feels like a personal attack.

4. This guy is technically a LARPer (Live Action Role Play), which is just glorified pretend. Like most things, the fandom has layers to it. I love playing tabletop roleplaying games, but LARP is a nerdy bridge too far for me. Though I do like swinging lightsabers while doing Emperor Palpatine’s voice, so who knows.

As for that video: It’s a joke, a play on how some people seemingly can’t divorce LARP from real life. It’s also hilarious.

5. The irony of launching a podcast when I don’t really like opening my mouth is not lost on me.