The Penguin Just Delivered One Of The Best Seasons In Television History
Hey Marvel, THAT is how you do a comic book TV show. Great acting, writing, and production that advances the story of your movies while also being able to stand on its own as a singular piece of content for the people that aren't sickos that will watch anything remotely superhero-adjacent. What a concept! Oh yeah and I have to shout out the music from The Penguin which ruled all season, including last night's incredible cover of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" as Sofia went full Woman On Fire.
I realize that headline may seem a little much for some people. But sometimes you gotta rip off a little hyperbole in the blog game. The Penguin was incredible in its premiere yet somehow got better every episode building out an entire world full of vibrantly fucked up characters in an extremely fucked up place (Gotham has never felt more depressingly real) is a truly impressive feat and a show that is worthy of the 9 PM Sunday night slot on HBO, even if Olds like me are the only people who remember when that used to really mean something since everything is just dumped on streaming apps these days.
The fact of the matter is that The Penguin is about to win a bunch of Emmys, The Batman 2 is about to be the most hyped comic movie in years when it finally comes out, and DC may actually become the good son for comic content now that James Gunn is in charge. Or even better, maybe we get a Monday Night Wars type of rivalry between Marvel and DC where two heavyweight franchises let their wallets and creative teams cook to one up the other, which hopefully results in incredible products for the fans. God knows we've earned it. After years of hearing excuses about why comic franchises have slipped, it was nice to see a show remind everyone how great a show can be if the right people are hired to make one.
I cannot WAIT to see how all of this pays off in The Batman 2 (Robbie is gonna blog his thoughts/predictions on that later this week). I hope Sofia has a role despite her fumbling more bags than, well, the Sofia who used to work here. I hope Penguin gets everything he deserves, even though I can't truly get mad at when he did to Vic because Penguin is what we thought he was (said in Denny Green voice). And I hope we get more Batman universe content if this is the type of quality they are gonna churn out under Matt Reeves, no matter how dark or creepy it is, which this scene/episode was until that UNREAL final frame.
For muchhhhhhhhh more on all things Penguin from the finale as well as our thoughts about the entire awesome season, check out KenJac's blog from last night and today's My Mom's Basement hot off the presses.
