Upon the release of Matt Reeves’ The Batman in 2022, DC Studios was in quite a state of flux. Before Reeve’s enthralling vision of the Caped Crusader – and the Gotham that came with him – became a reality, the movie was originally intended to be a continuation of the Batman played by Ben Affleck and created by Zack Snyder in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Affleck was tapped to write, direct, and star in the movie, but this proved too much of a commitment for the actor and filmmaker, and Reeves was consequently brought in to create a Batman outside of the DCEU. By that time, the DCEU was essentially dead in the water anyway, and James Gunn and Peter Safran were brought in to run DC Studios seven months after The Batman’s March release, with the intention of creating a new cinematic universe (almost) from scratch. However, they wisely chose to keep standalone properties such as Joker and Reeves’ Batman, labelling these offshoots of the upcoming mainline universe as “Elseworlds.”
The new cinematic universe, this time simply labelled the DCU, has yet to be launched by the animated series Creature Commandos next month, and it will be followed by the first live action entry in July 2025 with Superman, which is written and directed by Gunn. However, I would argue that it is HBO’s The Batman spinoff show, The Penguin, that truly kicks off the Gunn/Safran era at DC, and it has certainly made quite the impression.
While the depiction of the Penguin in The Batman was well-received by audiences and critics alike, having been reshaped from the aristocratic “Gentleman of Crime” into a gritty gangster named Oswald “Oz” Cobb, bolstered all the more by a scene-stealing performance from Colin Farrell, fans were nonetheless wary of a series focusing on the character’s rise to the top of Gotham’s underworld.
As it turns out, we need not have worried. Showrunner Lauren LeFranc and executive producer Matt Reeves have crafted a series which takes full advantage of the Gotham seen in The Batman, while very deliberately avoiding the bat in the room, if you will. Too often, cameos and references are used as a crutch in comic book shared universes, but even then, The Penguin never really comes off as either, much to its benefit. Make no mistake, this is as raw, edgy, and violent a show as I have seen all year, with a central character that LeFranc and Reeves have no qualms about making us loathe, yet he is utterly engrossing all the same. Even Tony Soprano, who has been frequently compared with this rendition of the Penguin, has more redeemable qualities than Oz Cobb.
In fact, the most sympathetic character in the entire show is Sophia Falcone/Gigante, who is portrayed with Emmy-worthy complexity by Cristin Milioti. In the show’s fourth and best episode thus far, “Cent’Anni”, it is revealed that Sophia was sent to Arkham Asylum for ten years without trial by her own father, Carmine Falcone (played by Mark Strong, who replaces John Turturro from the movie). Carmine was not only a merciless crime boss, but also a serial killer the media labelled “The Hangman”, and when Sophia figured this out, along with the fact that he murdered her mother when she was a child, she was framed and soon arrested by Gotham police officers on Carmine’s payroll. What follows is a harrowing but brilliant hour of television that ranks amongst the highest rated episodes ever on IMDb, with a score of 9.5. Of course, it also helped that the episode was directed by the veteran Helen Shaver, who is one the most prolific TV directors to ever hail from Canada.
Born and raised in St. Thomas, Ontario, Shaver originally began as an actress, having prominent roles in films such as Desert Hearts (1985), The Color of Money (1986), The Believers (1987), Tremors 2: Aftershock (1996), and Down River (2013). However, ever since the 1990s, Shaver has focused largely on TV directing, and has since worked on dozens of shows, with one estimate being over 50 in total, which includes Judging Amy, Joan of Arcadia, The O.C., Medium, Law & Order, Person of Interest, Orphan Black, and Westworld, to name just a few of her various credits, often directing multiple episodes of the same show. Shaver has been nominated for many awards for her work both in front of and behind the camera, and even has a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
Shaver also directed a second consecutive episode for The Penguin, “Homecoming”, which I would argue is the next best episode of the show so far, after “Cent’anni” of course. The Penguin is already generating a lot of Emmy buzz, particularly for its acting and writing, but if there is one director deserving of a nomination on the show, it’s Helen Shaver, which, if she were to be named in the category, would mark her second nod at television’s most significant award show of the year.
There is only the finale left to air for The Penguin, and in a rare occurrence for television, viewership has only grown with each new episode. Though, Helen Shaver has already left her indelible mark on a show bustling with artists at the top of their game. The actress and director has little to prove by this stage of her illustrious career, yet there will surely be many calls made for her directorial services in the near future because of her outstanding work on The Penguin.