The Four Color Media Monitor

The Hollywood Reporter talks about why they think the new TV series based on the Penguin crook from Batman's rogues gallery is so great:

Dubbed one of the best comic book shows — a claim this writer will support — the series has been compared to The Sopranos for the way it lends its crime drama tropes to prestige television and to The Watchmen for its character-driven perspective and exploration of themes dealing with class, respect and disability. Though, as with anything, there is a demographic of viewers who, since the first episode, have claimed the series is embarrassed of the comic book material, with the change of Oswald Cobblepot’s name to Oz Cobb in the series being a major sticking point, along with the character’s lack of top hat, monocle, arsenal of trick umbrellas and bird puns.

There’s an interesting discussion to be had about why this series soars, not because it undermines the Penguin’s source material and prior adaptations, but because it utilizes and consolidates them to create a unified vision of the character that is grounded in emotional logic but never forgets it’s dealing with larger-than-life characters.

Considering these are villains the series is focusing on, wow, isn't that rich. Crooks are larger than life? Please. But I won't be shocked if they'd say the same thing about Doctor Doom, a far more technology and science-based villain. Why are crooks larger than life but not heroes? But if anybody believes the show is ashamed of its source material, that's certainly something to ponder. Indeed, if they believe outlandish costumes are that much of an embarrassment in live action, then by the same logic, they're bound to be ashamed of Superman's costume too. What good does that do? The article goes on to say:

The Batman took this same approach to comic books. While Batman: Year One and Batman: The Long Halloween are obvious influences, previously cited in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy, Batman: Ego was a fresh comic book reference that dove into the psyche of Bruce Wayne/Batman and arguably had more influence on the film and characterization than anything else. I’d argue that Oz’s rejection of aesthetics associated with the Penguin of the comics has nothing to do with an embarrassment of source material, but the need for there to be an emotional justification behind it. In the same way we understand the emotional reasoning behind why a wealthy man would dress up like a bat and call himself Batman, there must be a emotional reasoning why a man which a physical disability would submit to calling himself the Penguin and wear a tuxedo and top hat. And by the end of The Penguin, we see the reasoning behind Oz moving closer to his comic book counterpart.

And why is it such a big deal we care, emotionally or otherwise, about a criminal? All that aside, it's funny the hoops and hurdles they're jumping through to justify trying not to build a surreal world where odd costumes could be worn by heroes and villains in live action. In that case, why don't they make this an animated series instead, if they really can't do emotion with surrealism simultaneously? And then, what's this:

Rather than utilizing the post-Crisis comic book origin in which Oswald is a member of one Gotham’s wealthiest and oldest families, here he is impoverished — hence the more common sounding surname Cobb rather than Cobblepot — and left to fight for scraps, whereas Bruce has everything at his disposal. Where Bruce would have likely been healthier and happier if he had siblings to rely on, Oz rejects and kills his. Bruce is a recluse who hates the public spotlight, whereas Oz loves the attention, driving around in a flashy purple sports car and drawing attention to himself. And while Batman has yet to find a Robin in this universe, Penguin finds his own equivalent in Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) whose origin not only echoes that of second Robin Jason Todd, he’s also beaten with a crowbar later in series.

Over the course of the series, Oz brings Vic up like his would-be successor, further mirroring the role of Robin, only to brutally strangle him in the final episode, out of a fear of both loving someone else and someone else being more loved than he. Oz even has his own femme fatal in show-stealer Sofia Falcone (Christin Milioti), Selina Kyle’s half-sister who, while not drawn to Oz in a sexual way, proves to be his equal in the same way that Catwoman serves as Batman’s. What Bruce and Oz have in common is their inability to let go of their mothers, with the tragedy Martha Wayne nee Arkham defining Bruce’s quest for vengeance, and Francis Cobb (Deirdre O’Connell) being left in a vegetative state after a stroke at the end of the series, who is kept alive in a living state of hell by Oz who refuses to let her go. Even in Batman’s absence in the series, his presence is there and the series ends teasing a showdown between two boys who long for their mothers, caught in a cycle of playing dress-up.

I don't know whether scenes like the above occur in comics stories old and/or new, but if we're supposed to be sympathetic to a man who murders his brothers and sisters, to say nothing of his buddies, that's revolting. I'm sorry, but even the Godfather trilogy is no excuse for making something like this. And seriously, even if the 1988 storyline where Jason Todd perished at the hands of the Joker isn't the worst of mandates that here relied on unreliable voting measures by phone, what's so great about that either? Exploring villains' psyches has definitely gone way too far, and above all, note the telling reliance in TV shows and films like these on jarringly violent acts, as though adults literally cannot enjoy such a show without them.

And what next? Will we be seeing a TV show focused on Lex Luthor? Sorry, but even that's no substitute for focus on the lives heroes could live with family and friends. I think this Penguin show is drawing out the already overused trope that risks glamorizing villainy. At least they may not depict Cobb as a totally rich gangster. But it still doesn't compensate for the overuse of some of the most unpleasant tropes that have become far too common in modern entertainment.

Labels: Batman, dc comics, golden calf of villainy, history, msm propaganda, violence