The Penguin (2024)

‘The Penguin’ has charismatic performances but also a lot of gangster cliches. The limited –– so far –– series is spun off from ‘The Batman’ and features Colin Farrell as the club owner/criminal fixer with eyes on running his own empire. Launching on HBO and Max with its first episode on September 19th, ‘The Penguin’ marks the first (and so far only) series to continue the story of Matt Reeves’ 2022 superhero movie ‘The Batman.

’ Switching the focus from the suited vigilante played by Robert Pattinson (who the producers have been at length to point out won’t appear in case you were waiting for the hero to flap in and deliver some “kapow” punches to our wannabe kingpin), the story here is told at street level, with the machinations double-crosses of the criminal world at the forefront.