One of the many things I love about HBO’s The Penguin, its Batman-adjacent mob drama starring a perfectly cast Colin Farrell, is that it’s kind of like the Andor of DC TV shows.
That is to say, there’s nothing remotely superhero-related about showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s moody, atmospheric, and violent spinoff of Matt Reeves’ 2022 Batman movie in which Farrell’s Penguin was a side character. Just like how Disney+’s Andor is set in the Star Wars universe but features no lightsabers or usage of The Force, choosing instead to focus on regular people fighting a war.
If you’re a fan of TV shows that offer epic crime sagas, you’ll be right at home with The Penguin — which is as good as the reviews say and features a remarkable performance from Farrell. He turns the cartoonish Penguin into a compelling gangster who’s out to make a name for himself in Gotham’s criminal underworld (and who’s also a dead ringer for Tony Soprano, thanks to some impressive prosthetic work). And if you needed a further reason to tune in, the show is also the #1 streaming TV series this week, according to the folks at Reelgood.
Honestly, that shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, the eight-episode drama has incredibly strong critics’ and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes (94% and 91%, respectively). “Depicting Gotham through bone-breaking punches rather than popping onomatopoeia,” the site’s critics’ consensus reads, “The Penguin is a grounded crime saga given gravitas by Colin Farrell and a scene-stealing Cristin Milioti.”
Reelgood, by the way, monitors 20 million viewing decisions each month across every streaming platform in the US, from Apple TV+ to Max, Peacock, Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, Paramount+, and more. For the 7-day period that ended on Sept. 25, the 10 TV shows that topped Reelgood’s latest weekly ranking are as follows:
- The Penguin (HBO/Max)
- Agatha All Along (Disney+)
- High Potential (Hulu)
- The Old Man (FX/Hulu)
- The Perfect Couple (Netflix)
- Slow Horses (Apple TV+)
- Only Murders in the Building (Hulu)
- From (Prime Video)
- Kaos (Netflix)
- Matlock (Paramount+)
There are several great shows on the Reelgood ranking this week, like FX’s top-tier spy drama The Old Man which I’ve raved about in the past, as well as Apple’s own spy drama Slow Horses (which is arguably the best show, period, on Apple’s small but mighty streamer).
One more brief word, meanwhile, about The Penguin: Episode 2 of the season airs this Sunday night on HBO (at 9 pm ET). That’s after the debut episode premiered on a Thursday, ahead of the rest of the season shifting to HBO’s much more important Sunday night schedule. You’ll now be able to catch The Penguin every Sunday night on HBO through the finale on Nov. 10, in addition to being able to stream it on-demand via Max.
