Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Deirdre O’Connell, Theo Rossi, Clancy Brown, Carmen Ejogo, Daniel J. Watts, David H. Holmes, Michael Kelly, Myles Humphus, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Kenzie Grey, Robert Lee Leng, Hunter Enery, Michael Zegan, Jared Abrahamson, James Madio, Tess Soltau, Joshua Bitton, Jessie Pinnick, Daren Donofrio, Scott Cohen, François Chau, Ade Otukoya, Craig Walker, Ben Cook, Aleska Palladino, Mark Strong, Con O’Neill, Ryder Allen.

It should be exclaimed with full ferocity that fans of everything Gotham and Batman have never had a more exciting or dramatic version of The Penguin/ Ozwald Cobb; for all the sense of playful evil that Danny DeVito brought to the screen in Batman Returns as he immersed into the terrifying version set out by Tim Burton, the safe and less than satisfying version carried by Burgess Meridith in the 1960s Batman series on television and the obvious observational brilliance of Robin Lord Taylor in the thrilling Gotham series with Ben Mackenzie as Detective Gordon, none have truly seeped into the character as Colin Farrell in the eponymous eight-part crime drama, Penguin.

What gives this excellent drama its highest accolade is that chiefly it doesn’t treat the character as a comic creation, it is one born of the damned, the criminal in waiting, the epitome of the genre away from the heroes and the gadgets, for Penguin is up there with Chinatown, it arguably stands shoulder to shoulder with The Godfather and Gangs Of New York in respect to its sheer honesty to the culture of Mob culture and the family name.

The eight-part series carries on with absolute style from the 2022 film The Batman, and yet there is so much more to like with the television series that its large screen cousin doesn’t seem to understand; and in Colin Farrell as he reprises his role with fascinating aura, with an intensity rarely captured that does justice to the old Hollywood fables, what comes off the screen is in short, legendary.

The framing of menace is persistent, whether in the brutal and scarred Oz Cobb, through the sense of heightened female alure posing as madness in Cristin Milioti’s Sofia Falcone, and the youth of Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar adding potential to a world turned upside down by the actions of The Riddler in the aforementioned film, the persuasiveness of the piece comes full circle, it is an Ouroboros, the snake eating itself to be proclaimed ruler of the Gotham Underworld.

Through the eyes of The Penguin the city is his, and he takes every possible step to bring about his long-held conviction in the face of infirmity and low family name to bring his dream to reality, and with Ryder Allen adding context to the origin story as the young but equally dangerous Oz, and wonderful support from the likes of Deirdre O’Connell, Theo Rossi, Clancy Brown, Mark Strong, and Con O’Neill, the final obligation from the viewer is laid bare, to dispel other versions of the man and the mobster, and admit that Colin Farrell is ultimately, and progressively, the only Penguin that matters for the 21st Century.

A loaded weapon, a chilling thread in which to pull at, there is nothing that can prepare the viewer for Penguin.

Ian D. Hall