Cristin Milioti, Colin Farrell
“THE PENGUIN’ (Max+)
Earlier this year I opined that Colin Farrell might never again be as good as he is in “Sugar,” a mind-bending Netflix series that blends the usual private eye tropes with “The Man Who Fell to Earth” weirdness.
But I hadn’t anticipated the jaw-dropping wonder that is “The Penguin,” a spinoff of the “Batman” franchise featuring Farrell in one of the greatest performances the small screen has ever seen.
Here Farrell takes his brief appearance as gangster Oswald Cobb (aka The Penguin) in 2022’s “The Batman” and fills it with Shakespearean depths.
This epic crime drama (it’s a very different show from “The Godfather” but carries much of the same dramatic weight) allows a famous actor to absolutely get lost in a character.
Usually when actors — especially handsome ones — submit to a latex-and-prosthetics transformation there’s a whiff of look-at-me-Mom cheese wafting through the proceedings.
Not here.
If you didn’t know it was Colin Farrell beneath that makeup you’d never guess. Hell, you’d not guess that it was makeup. It’s a metamorphosis so complete that even after watching the entire first season I can’t wrap my brain around it.
But it’s more than paint and putty, more than the avian waddling gait (Oz wears a leg brace, the legacy of a childhood injury). Farrell’s Penguin is an ugly duckling determined to be a king, a complex character who one moment can be a seemingly caring mentor to a young recruit to crime, and the next can immolate a mother and son.
This Oswald Cobb may be ugly, but he can be as charming as Iago. He’s a Machiavellian marvel, a self-serving plotter and killer, a liar on a Trumpian scale who in middle age remains a Mama’s boy. Every time you think you’ve got his number, he pulls the rug out.
Here’s the thing…Farrell’s Penguin is only one of two great performances in the series. The other belongs to Cristin Milioti, who plays Sofia Falcone, his sometimes ally, sometimes nemesis.
The heir to a criminal empire, Sofia was framed for serial murder by her conniving family and spent a decade in a madhouse for the criminally insane. Finally released, she has become an avenging angel — half ruthless killer, half broken child.
The bulk of the first season of “The Penguin” finds Oz and Sofia jostling for control of Gotham’s drug trade. Both are reprehensible, but also scarily compelling.
They’re backed by a deep cast of familiar faces, among them Theo Rossi, Clancy Brown, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo and, in a turn that has Tony written all over it, Deirdre O’Connell as Oz’s demanding, dementia-warped mother.
And where is the Batman in all this? Nowhere. There’s been absolutely no mention of the Caped Crusader in Season One…whether he exists in this timeline or will show up in later seasons I don’t know.
But he’s not missed…there’s more than enough to chew on in this bat-free wonder. At some point the series’ unrelenting darkness may start to wear thiin…but right now I’m nowhere near that point.
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Allison Janney, Rupert Sewell, Keri Russell
“THE DIPLOMAT’ (Netflix)
The new season of “The Diplomat” picks up with the car bomb explosion that ended Season One and never slows down.
For my money this Keri Russell starrer is a political thriller on the level of “The West Wing” (not only were both series directed by Alex Graves, but Alison Janney shows up late in Season Two to blow our minds).
This season finds Ambassador Kate Wyler (Russell) grappling with the aftermath of a London bombing that kills one of her staff. Meanwhile she ’s trying to decide if a fatal attack on a British naval vessel was actually a black flag operation approved by the British P.M. (Roy Kinnear) looking to shore up his failing numbers with a manufactured national crisis.
“The Diplomat” will keep you guessing with narrative twists and turns (it’s got one of the greatest end-of-season revelations ever), but while the big story arc plays out, there are all sorts of terrific little dramas.
Ambassador Wyler and her sexy/mansplaining husband (Rufus Sewell) continue to navigate their marital difficulties, while Embassy staffer Stuart (Ato Essandoh) hits a stone wall in his affair with CIA hard-ass Eidra (Ali Aha).
And Celia Imrie has a delicious recurring role as a shadowy British mover and shaker who may be the key to the mystery.
Great pacing, scintillating dialogue, dead-on performances, subtle characterizations and a tongue-in-cheek approach that manages to find humor even in the grimmest circumstances…they all come together for a hugely-satisfying viewing experience.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 