The Penguin (The Batman) limited series | HBO Max

[Wor-Gar]

Before the series started, I said that no matter how good it is if Batman is not in it I would consider it a fail.

Maybe I was wrong lol

I do think this is as close to a perfect one-off series as you can find. It's a classic now.

I wouldn't have believed it was possible. Keeping Bats out of it, I think, really helped.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Maybe this is the Golden Age for... Gotham City.

 

[Khev]

I can't believe how well they nailed every element of this series. Even freaking kid Penguin was awesome!

 

[sj2106]

Just finished the last episode. It's as close to perfect as we could have hoped for. A few times I was close to rooting for Penguin then the writers remind you just how despicable he is. A final shot of Batman on a nearby rooftop or at least his silhouette would have been the cherry on the cake but I guess what they did made the point.

It leaves me wishing we got a similar series for Batman rather than another PG-13 movie. His more gritty, detective take on the character feels better suited to an 8 hour series like this than a $200m+ movie focussed on big set pieces.

 

[jye4ever]

Just finished the last episode. It's as close to perfect as we could have hoped for. A few times I was close to rooting for Penguin then the writers remind you just how despicable he is. A final shot of Batman on a nearby rooftop or at least his silhouette would have been the cherry on the cake but I guess what they did made the point.

It leaves me wishing we got a similar series for Batman rather than another PG-13 movie. His more gritty, detective take on the character feels better suited to an 8 hour series like this than a $200m+ movie focussed on big set pieces.

Batman….on TV…..used to be a sacrilegious thought for me.

But I’ve softened up on that idea over the years.

 

[Khev]

Just finished the last episode. It's as close to perfect as we could have hoped for. A few times I was close to rooting for Penguin then the writers remind you just how despicable he is.

This show did an amazing job of making me change who I was rooting for from episode to episode, sometimes from scene to scene! Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti were fantastic!

 

[jye4ever]

This show did an amazing job of making me change who I was rooting for from episode to episode, sometimes from scene to scene! Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti were fantastic!

View attachment 737558

MILF!

Maroni I like to Fight!

 

[Wor-Gar]

A final shot of Batman on a nearby rooftop or at least his silhouette would have been the cherry on the cake but I guess what they did made the point.

You did see the Bat signal in the very last shot, right?

 

[jye4ever]

You did see the Bat signal in the very last shot, right?

That’s what he meant with “what they did made the point”.

 

[sj2106]

You did see the Bat signal in the very last shot, right?

I did.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I rather like the simplicity of the Batsignal.

 

[Nick D]

Wolf of Wall Street her.

 

[karamazov80]

Wonderful show with great characters and a great ending. Can't ask for more than that. This is definitely one of the best comic TV shows I've seen. Up there with Legion and the better parts of Daredevil.

 

[jye4ever]

It was Penguin all along.

 

[Johnny1378]

Not enough vomiting of sewer sludge at the end. And the guy didn’t even have flipper for hands!

Just kidding, I liked it. Actually, I liked it better than “The Batman.”

 

[Khev]

They went out with a bang all right, and IMO dethroned Netflix DD as the best comic book series ever.

 

[intothevoid]

Not enough vomiting of sewer sludge at the end. And the guy didn’t even have flipper for hands!

Just kidding, I liked it. Actually, I liked it better than “The Batman.”

It certainly was an improvement upon The Batman for me. The film has higher production value which is natural and one of the best DoP's working today, but the show has an outstanding storyline and characters that get you invested in them a lot more than any of the characters in the film do.

 

[Buttmunch]

I think we’ve really started to see a shift in storytelling in Hollywood over the last several years. For the longest time film was the medium to tell character driven stories and TV was a home for game shows, cartoons, and meaningless entertainment. Now I think they are starting to get that film is more of an event type experience and television can have the spacing for great character development. Taking an hour out of a movie for a flashback on the antagonist doesn’t work but was used very effectively here for a TV show. The series was stronger for it but a movie would have suffered and gotten bogged down.

It’s more important than ever to choose the right medium for the story being told. So many books were done a disservice by being adapted into movies instead of TV mini series or full series. Not everything can be told in 2 hours. But not everything can be stretched into an 8 episode season of television either. The Penguin didn’t need to be a movie to be impactful or meaningful. TV isn’t a lesser medium because it’s not a theater presentation. I so love that we are seeing programming for TV at the same, or sometimes even better, caliber as a film.

 

[intothevoid]

I think we’ve really started to see a shift in storytelling in Hollywood over the last several years. For the longest time film was the medium to tell character driven stories and TV was a home for game shows, cartoons, and meaningless entertainment. Now I think they are starting to get that film is more of an event type experience and television can have the spacing for great character development. Taking an hour out of a movie for a flashback on the antagonist doesn’t work but was used very effectively here for a TV show. The series was stronger for it but a movie would have suffered and gotten bogged down.

It’s more important than ever to choose the right medium for the story being told. So many books were done a disservice by being adapted into movies instead of TV mini series or full series. Not everything can be told in 2 hours. But not everything can be stretched into an 8 episode season of television either. The Penguin didn’t need to be a movie to be impactful or meaningful. TV isn’t a lesser medium because it’s not a theater presentation. I so love that we are seeing programming for TV at the same, or sometimes even better, caliber as a film.

100%
It’s extraordinary how much quality of TV shows have gone up in the last 10-15 years and equally extraordinary how the quality of the average film has plummeted

 

[Wor-Gar]

how the quality of the average film has plummeted

That's the saddest part for me... coming from the generation that relished movies and movie-going.