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« on: December 01, 2024, 04:14:48 AM »
I've watched The Penguin. It's good. It's stylish and well-directed, the production design is great and helps build on this version of Gotham, which feels like a unique, distinctive city without being outright fantastical, and as much of a cliché as it is to say this, Colin Farrell really is unrecognizable in the lead role. I'll also say that I never quite knew where the story was going from episode to episode, and that's generally a good thing. It's also surprisingly funny at times, and has some nice examples of humor that don't rely on quips. So yeah, the short version of this review is that this is a fun watch. I recommend it to anyone who liked The Batman.
And now here come the criticisms. This is the latest dark and gritty DC adaptation to borrow very, very heavily from older, well-regarded properties. In this case, it's clearly The Sopranos and Breaking Bad. Oz has a toxic, creepy relationship with his ailing mother because Tony Soprano did. Oz and Victor team up to manufacture drugs and take over the underworld because Walter and Jesse did. The latter bugs me more, because at least with the mother subplot, as blatant a lift as it is, it's still justified within the show's story. Oz and Victor's partnership, on the other hand, makes no sense, especially in the first few episodes. Oz has no reason to recruit and confide in Victor, especially not after Victor repeatedly messes up his tasks and proves himself to be an inept schemer. And Victor himself has no reason to hang out with someone he already knows is a psycho and has contemplated murdering him. It isn't until a few episodes in that Victor suddenly finds his ambition to rise to the top. None of this is helped by the fact that Victor looks like a choir boy and radiates innocence, making him even less convincing as an ambitious hustler. They partner up for no better reason than the fact that Breaking Bad was a beloved show and a big hit, and the writers really wanted to create another Walter and Jesse. Being derivative isn't inherently a bad thing. But you've got to make sure that the elements you borrow fit properly into the new story. Oz and Victor's partnership is something that doesn't fit.
There's been a lot of praise aimed at Cristin Milioti over her performance as Sofia. I can't really agree with it. There are elements of a strong performance there, like her manic eyes and abrupt transitions from being strong and assured to frightened and vulnerable, but the effect is all but ruined by her ridiculous exaggerated accent. Apparently I'm the only person who's bothered by this, but I couldn't take a word she said seriously. It's far too hammy and over-the-top, and it's incredibly obvious that she's deliberately pronouncing the er sound in words as oi (as in words like certain and perfect) rather than simply creating that impression by slurring her words slightly the way actual New Yorkers do. Real people don't talk like this. Bugs Bunny talks like this, the Three Stooges talk like this, Harley Quinn talks like this (and incidentally, I think one of the biggest stumbling blocks of Margot Robbie's portrayal of Harley is that the accent doesn't translate well into live action). Again, maybe it's just me, but I don't hear a real person when I hear her talk, I just hear an unintentional caricature in what's supposed to be a serious, dramatic story. On a related note, Sofia becomes far less interesting in the latter half of the series once she becomes all empowered and whatnot and turns into a more generic villain. I much preferred the unpredictable version of her in the first few episodes.
My previous points are totally subjective and I'm sure that plenty of people disagree with me on them, which is totally cool and not something I can really argue. However, I will die on the hill of my next criticism being a major flaw - the show goes down the Nolan route and uses dialogue to explicitly spell out the themes of the story and the hidden depths of the characters in a direct pipeline from the writers to the viewers. Just so there's no confusion, right? No ambiguity. No need to interpret anything or use a little critical thinking. It's awful, and it happens multiple times, the most obvious being in the final episode, when one character straight up explains Oz's character to the audience by saying that he presents himself as x, but he's really y, although he'll never admit it, and it's all because of z. And make no mistake, despite being a spinoff of a PG-13 movie, this show is rated TV-MA and is definitely intended for adults, with plenty of swearing, smoking, and bloody violence, so it's not like they even have the excuse of wanting to dumb things down for younger audiences. I almost suspect that the writers were hoping to avoid having chuds idolize Oz and turn him into an edgelord icon like Tyler Durden or the Joker, so they made a point of saying explicitly as they could that Oz is a bad guy and we shouldn't like him. I can understand that desire, but it's not worth compromising the show. They should have just let the art speak for itself.
Despite my criticisms, the show is good. It's far, far from being one of the best TV shows of all time, or even one of the best HBO shows of all time (I strongly suspect that much like how Joker used capeshit trappings to lure in an audience that seldom watches non-blockbusters, this show also used its capeshit trappings to lure in an audience that seldom watches prestige TV shows, which might account for the people raving about it being the best show ever), but it's still worth a watch. If nothing else, it's nice to see capeshit that doesn't fit the Marvel mold and also isn't coming from Zack Snyder or Todd Phillips.
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