As far as movie tie-in shows and franchise spin-offs go, The Penguin is a lot more successful than it has any right to be. Picking up a week after the events of The Batman, the HBO series follows its eponymous criminal (a still-unrecognizable Colin Farrell) as he tries to climb up the criminal underworld's ladder and claim the top spot left open by his former boss, Carmine Falcone. It's a pulpy crime drama that mixes comic book storytelling with prestige TV classics like Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos.
To its credit, The Penguin also works as a continuation of The Batman. It effortlessly bridges the gap between its story and that film's in its opening minutes, and it already looks like it is going to set an even more interesting stage for The Batman Part II to play around on. That said, The Penguin does fall short of The Batman's standards in one important way.
