DC TV Series The Penguin MAX show

[emielaen]

3 penguins clearly means tirlogy! 3 seasons of Penguin! 3 films! 3! 3! 3!

 

[OrbOfConfusion]

3 penguins clearly means tirlogy! 3 seasons of Penguin! 3 films! 3! 3! 3!

Three Penguins?

 

[Arachnerd]

How dare you leave out Burgess Meredith?

 

[OrbOfConfusion]

How dare you leave out Burgess Meredith?

Oh, I thought of including him! But I just wanted to go with folks who are still with us right now!

 

[DKDetective]

Bro, you need to be a judge on Project Runway. That is some deep insight that I never would have noticed.

Thanks, that is too kind, but not really a fashion guy. I just like men's tailoring due to watching too many Bond films as a kid and watching the LOTR special features made me really appreciate the work of costume designers.

Jacqueline Durran is seriously the best. I would love to see her on the next Bond. She put Pattinson in Savile Row and Japanese bespoke as Bruce Wayne, which is super classy and cool.

 

[B]

Damn, even if this was just a random teaser trailer for a TV show I'd stumbled across not connected to anything DC or Batman, I'd be interested in seeing more.

 

[Enriquespy]

Classic Penguin. He wants a parade.

 

[Lily Adler]

Four Penguins?

I had to correct this grave error.

 

[Filmfreak]

What happened to his De Niro voice?

 

[Invader Joker]

Before I go on to list all of my thoughts on the trailer (I have many) let me just say that it's really, really funny that for all the lecturing I got over how the In-Production Teaser from a year ago was """oh it's just the raw footage man""" ""oh it hasn't even been color corrected"" this trailer cames out and all the scenes from that teaser featured here STILL look exactly the same (which is to say they look extremely dull)








So the scenes that looked terrible in the first teaser (particularly the daylight ones, I don't know what the hell they were thinking) will probably still look terrible in the final show:







That being said I do think this teaser did a much better job at tying the whole look together in the editing. That doesn't mean it's perfect, mind you, as I think the bit we saw of Arkham looks incredibly bland, boring and uninspired visually which is a shame since in the universe Matt created there were plenty of things to do with the Arkham setting from a visual standpoint.



You could tell me this was from the CW show "Gotham Knights" and I'd 100% believe you. Hell the Arkham showcased in Titans of all things looked way more atmospheric which I just think is flat out sad as that show is one of the worst-looking I've ever seen:


That being said...


This little bit here is hands down their best attempt at recreating The Batman's look so if they have stuff like this sprinkled in the episodes I do think that'll make its visuals way more bearable.

This nanosecond shot also reminded me of some of the second unit footage on The Batman:



So overall I'm a little more convinced by its visual presentation. I don't think it's gonna particularly look like the best television has to offer from a visual standpoint, and it still looks so visually inferior to The Batman it's kinda laughable at times, but at least they're managing to bridge the gaps to The Batman somewhat better which I appreciate and I do think will go a long way for the show.

And well, I've recently began watching Lauren's last show, Impulse, and so far I think it's great and well written, so if she kept up that quality for this I do think we could be in for something special, especially with the talent of the actors involved. Yeah it'll probably look really visually bland to boring most of the time ("but it's a TV show!" it's not an excuse. Hannibal looked amazing and beautifully gothic and atmospheric in every single episode and that was a network show) but then again Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos had their fair share of episodes which looked ridiculously bland and they were great shows so hopefully it'll be the same here. I just find it really noticeable here because the entire show is begging to be visually compared to The Batman.

In the end I'm excited though and really, really hope it's good. This universe has a lot of potential, as small of a universe as it is, I think if this succeeds then we'll likely see Gotham PD and even Catwoman. Also I loved Oz in the movie. Not to mention, after so many losses with DC last year it'd be highly embarrassing if their "prestige Elseworlds show" also got badly received as well.

 

[Invader Joker]

As for the "will/should/could Batman show up" question, I'll just say this:

Are you kidding?

1. Of course he will and our dear DC Studios CEO basically inadvertedly confirmed as much last year:



2. Not only should he show up, but I'll go as far as to say that the way that this show uses Batman will be what reveals whether this show justifies its existence or not. And by that I mean: If they were to use him in a Luke Skywalker in Mandalorian fashion where he shows up only at the end for a "OMG BATMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" moment that'd be so, so ****ing lame I don't even have enough words to describe it.

The fact of the matter is that in the world that Matt created, he showed us a Batman that deals primarily with threats of the criminal underground and that not only that, ended the movie with this lovely conversation that directly foreshadowed the events of this show:









So he ended the movie setting up the fact that there'd be a power grab gang war in Gotham and that not only that, Batman would have to deal with it (which... duh!!!! What else is he gonna do? Organized crime is what lead to that mess in the first place. If anything it'd have be his #1 priority at this point) and what is this show about? That exact power grab. That exact gang war in which every single Gotham City gang and mob boss is gonna be participating.

I'll make this very clear: There is no way to justify Batman being absent for all of the show except the finale. None. Within the universe Matt created it's impossible to justify this show happening and Batman not showing up in at least a couple episodes.

And unlike, Titans, Batwoman, Gotham or any of the "non-Batman" shows that came before, there's not even a good excuse for him not appearing. The show takes place directly in Gotham, in the criminal underground where Batman constantly fights. There is nothing you can say or do to justify him not appearing.

And you can't bring me the whole "But Pattinson's too busy" because he wasn't. The show began filming 2 months after Mickey17 ended and all throughout he was completely and totally free. Not only that but he was spotted in New York several times when the show was filming. Maybe you can say he'd be expensive but streaming hires expensive stars, guest stars all the time. So I'm not buying it.


Also I ****ing hate this idea that just because you use Batman in the show you're somehow taking away from Penguin. Batman is a crucial part of Penguin's story. He always has been. You cannot do a show about him where you're dissecting his character and not explore his relationship with Batman and how he evades getting incarcerated by Batman. Batman, in this show, would serve the same purpose every other character except Penguin serves: A side character. So no, just because you put him in this doesn't mean it'll suddenly become a Batman show. (Also I know people are gonna bring up Joker and Venom but Joker takes place BEFORE Batman was a thing, and Venom takes place in San Francisco and they completely removed Spider-Man from the equation in that take. Same can't be said for The Penguin, in which Oz already met Batman several times, takes place right in the middle of Gotham and right after the movie so there's no reason Batman would not keep his eyes on him)


What's the best way to use Batman here, then?

Well, maybe there are other ideas out there, but the way I'd do it, and the way I think they'll do it, is this:

Batman makes a deal with Penguin. Penguin agrees to serve him information or something about the criminal underworld in exchange for protection or something of that kind. Batman shows up every couple episodes in small scenes so Penguin informs him, and ocassionally steps in when things get particularly messy (I'd imagine things are gonna get /extremely/ messy in the final episodes, where a whole building gets blown up. I imagine Batman will be a lot more involved there and maybe we'll even see some action) Throoughout the show we mostly hear and are shown the consequences of him intervining on other criminal operations as a result of the information Penguin feeds him.

This would tie in nicely with the whole "Rata Alada" of it all. Oz does become a stool pigeon of it all.

But Oz abuses this deal.

He eventually uses it in his favor so he ends up becoming the new kingpin of Gotham. By the end, he is kingpin, and Batman has to deal with the fact of knowing he got outsmarted and played by Penguin, who he previously understimated. It's the true victory for Oz: He won over all his criminal adversaries, the police and of course Batman. Ties in his character entirely.

Hell maybe we've already seen what Batman's first scene in the show is...



And after he leaves, some poor sob overheard...




But that's just a theory...

 

[TheSmoothKnight]

Oh, tons of violence, abject darkness and a man and a great struggle to try and claw his way to the top" he teased. "You know, there’s a power grab in Gotham now. It’s dark, man. Lauren LeFranc with her room of writers wrote eight extraordinary episodes."

"I mean, just really, really bold stuff. I couldn’t believe that it got as dark as it gets." Farrell would go on to say that The Penguin, "would be a Hard R."