I really enjoyed 2022's The Batman, but I was still cautious about the idea of movie stories set in that same world. Especially a television series that focused on the Penguin. He's a cool character, but I didn't see why this needed to exist or what story they could tell.
I didn't realize that this would be an origin story.
Taking place a week after the events of The Batman, Gotham is a city very much in a state of transition. Not only because there's a new mayor-elect, but because the Riddler assassinated a lot of very important people and blew up the seawall. Gotham is still flooded. At least, the poorer areas of the city are. The wealthier areas managed to escape most of the damage, which, of course they did. There's a not so subtle class commentary going on here.
A lot of this commentary is done through set dressing. I'm happy to say that Gotham still looked like the Gotham of the movie. Mostly. They're clearly not working with the same budget, so you see the seams and edges a lot more. It's a smaller, more cramped world. We don't get any sweeping shots or any extensive sets. Even when we go to large buildings, we only see small parts of them at a time. It's a little claustrophobic at times, but it works for the general vibe of the show.
When a show is named after a character, it needs to be a very strong character to be able to carry it. Luckily, we have that here. Colin Farrell deserves a lot of praise. It almost feels cliche to say that he's completely unrecognizable in the role, but... he is. Really great makeup work by Mike Marino, who also did the makeup for The Batman. But besides the physical transformation from Farrell to Cobb, Oz himself is something of a chameleon.
No matter what situation he finds himself in, he always tries to talk his way out of it first. He puts on whatever persona he thinks that the other person wants to see and tries to leverage that. The interesting part, though, is that he didn't seem to be that successful at it. Almost everyone called him out on his manipulations. No one trusts Oz, but that might just work in his favor. They don't trust him, but they underestimate him too. They think they've seen through him, and that's enough to keep him under control.
Of course, the events of this episode prove that he's not under control at all. He's murdering newly crowned kingpins because they laughed at him and taking random teenage delinquents under his wing instead of disposing of the evidence. He's not a cold and calculated gangster. He is incredibly emotional, and that makes him unpredictable. He wants to be an almost benevolent Godfather-like figure to the people of this city, but I don't know how possible that is. Not if he also wants to be as powerful as the Falcones and Maronis. That may not bode well for Oz's newest protege.
Victor is a question mark for me. I really like him as a character, but I'm just not sure if he's meant to be a comic character or not. There isn't a Victor Aguilar, but last names have been changed before. That's why we have Oz Cobb instead of Oswald Cobblepott. Either way, the dynamic between the two men is primed to be the emotional core of the show. I'm fully expecting betrayal and death/dismemberment somewhere along the line.
Maybe at Sofia's hands. Sofia is another character that I'm unsure of. She's an incredibly intense presence, and she very clearly isn't nearly as "rehabilitated" as Arkham says that she is. But that's kind of it. There doesn't appear to be any depth to her whatsoever beyond "Crazy Psychopath." And that's a little disappointing. But who knows? Maybe she'll surprise me. It was implied that Oz is the reason why she was locked up in the first place, so that could be promising.
While a lot of things happened, I still feel like I don't have a great handle on the actual plot yet. There are a lot of balls in the air between the mysterious, new drug shipment, the dueling crime families, Alberto's murder, Sofia's return, Oz's clear hunger to rise in the ranks while also becoming a kind of folk hero, Victor's recruitment... it's a lot. We have eight episodes, which both sounds like too many and too few to deal with it all.
But I'm fairly excited to see where it goes. I'm sticking around for at least another episode or two.
Random Thoughts
I would recommend watching The Batman first before diving into this. While the episode does spend some time getting everyone up to speed, this is still a direct sequel to the movie.
Oz's little waddle does look a little silly. It made me laugh the first time I saw it.
I do love his plum colored car, though. I want one. Especially in that color.
Also really love his music choices. They're a little cheesy, but fun.
How great is Oz's mom? I was so pleased when she ended up being just as ruthless as her son.
The next episode will be on Sunday, September 29th, and will continue to air on Sundays after that.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
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