Colin Farrell delivers an extraordinary, transformative performance in The Penguin, HBO’s new limited series based on the DC Comics supervillain in which he reprises his role in Matt Reeves’ 2022 film The Batman.

The eight-episode crime drama charts the rise of Oswald Cobb (Farrell) from small-time mobster to kingpin of the Gotham City underworld.

While existing in the same cinematic universe as Reeves’ film, the show eschews all the familiar comic-book trappings, and instead emulates the grounded, violent aesthetic of such revered gangster classics as The Sopranos and Scarface.

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