The Penguin Is Following HBO’s Formula for Prestige TV Success

The strongest sign that The Penguin, the TV spinoff of 2022’s The Batman, would be a good show was when it was announced that the series would switch from Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max to become an HBO original series. The decision was likely a combination of the generally confusing identity of Max to the public consumer and the desire to hitch The Penguin onto a brand name that has historically stood for being the peak of premium TV and that launched the Golden Age of modern television: HBO.

From the start Max—formerly HBO Max—has embraced its parent company’s comic book property in live action. Shortly after launching, HBO Max was home to the extremely funny John Cena led Peacemaker. They became the home for shows from the earlier DC Universe streaming service, like the dark Titans and the unpredictable Doom Patrol. But The Penguin marks DC Studios’ first major attempt at prestige TV, and DC’s first major TV launch after recently coming under James Gunn’s creative leadership.

For the past 20 years live action DC TV was dominated by the offerings on The WB and later The CW. Smallville and the Arrowverse embraced the lighter side of comic books with adventure-of-the-week 22 episode seasons (remember those?) and large casts. Even when the shows took a darker or more serious edge, like the earlier seasons of Arrow or even aspects of Black Lightning and Batwoman, there was always a strong connection to the story structure of comic books that embraced one-off villains and The CW’s famous interpersonal melodramas. 

The Penguin breaks with tradition and fully embraces a newer era of TV, an era that originated with HBO. HBO was the American network that pioneered shorter seasons with late ‘90s shows like The Sopranos and Oz. The episodes are longer since there are no commercial breaks, now a standard practice among streaming shows. But The Penguin falling under the HBO heading also shows a clear alignment with the series’ creative direction: emulating HBO’s past to make it fit in with its present.

The most obvious HBO comparison for The Penguin is The Sopranos. Besides focusing on mobsters operating in a major city, both series build themselves around a central criminal figure in the context of his personal relationships. Within the Falcone family we see a crime family fighting for leadership as well as fighting the family roles built up within the machismo mafia society.

The other major HBO inspiration is Boardwalk Empire. Both series embrace the aesthetics of dark seedy corruption and main characters who are defined by their own power-hungry ambitions. While the series didn’t receive the same level of popularity as The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire helped support HBO’s identity as the premiere destination for gritty, detailed dramas. I’m sure The Penguin also drew inspiration from the format of a crime show starring a beloved and critically acclaimed character actor who doesn’t shy away from weirdo roles.

HBO was the best destination for gritty crime TV. The Sopranos, The Wire, and Boardwalk Empire showed a side to criminal enterprise that network shows like Law & Order never could. They could be violent and use strong language and depict a city’s underbelly in an unsanitized and more gruesome manner. 

The Penguin also embraces one of the structural hallmarks of 21st century TV: an intense focus on character and character arcs. The Penguin has a relatively small central cast, essentially two co-leads and two supporting characters with a handful of recurring cast members. 

This format allows The Penguin to pull off a fan-favorite prestige TV episode type: the single character showcase. Episode 4’s “Cent’Anni” is a Sophia-focused episode that shows her perspective on her time in Arkham and the shift in her strategy towards the violent person she was forced to become. It’s a captivating turn for Cristin Milloni (a delight in everything she’s in) and the type of episode prestige dramas love to do to showcase one actor’s talent and range. HBO is no stranger to this structure; The Leftovers produced several individual character-focused episodes that are among the show’s best. These episodes are also great hacks to present one episode for an actor’s Emmy’s consideration, a strategy that led to The Bear’s multitude of nominations including a win for Ebon Moss-Bachrach in “Forks” and a nomination for Lionel Boyce in “Honeydew.” There’s no doubt that “Cent’Anni” will be Milloni’s submitted episode.

For the past 20 years we have commonly accepted Batman as a serious superhero in audio visual media. Gone are the days of spandex and Bat-nipples. The Batman did not take a far leap from what Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy established 15 years prior. In fact, The Batman’s closest relation in how it depicts the style of the caped crusader is the Arkham videogame series, especially 2011’s Arkham City and 2015’s Arkham Knight, down to the eternally slick road. And like how The Dark Knight trilogy ushered in a new age of gritty superhero media, the Arkham series came at the beginning of a new age of dark and violent Triple A videogames. The Penguin is simply continuing the trend into the world of television.

So far DC Studios is making smart TV decisions. The canceling of The Batman’s other spinoff series, Gotham P.D., was a smart move to allow DC Studios to focus on quality over quantity. It learned a lesson that another comic book studio that tried to venture into prestige TV failed to. Netflix’s attempt at a Defenders universe in the Marvel Cinematic Universe had high highs (Daredevil and Jessica Jones Season 1) and low lows (Iron Fist and The Defenders). By focusing on one project at a time, there is a greater feeling of intentionality behind The Penguin’s creative choices.

The Penguin is in many ways a trial run for the new DC Studios. It’s a no-brainer to draw inspiration from shows and strategies that have worked for HBO before. And the strategy is working; The Penguin is a tight, entertaining, and well constructed piece of TV that fits well in the current state of HBO’s programming. But what’s most exciting is The Penguin also has a vision beyond its inspiration. It feels like its own work, separate from The Batman and from a wider attempt at making a shared universe. It’s genuinely good TV. In fact it’s not just TV, it’s HBO.

Leila Jordan is a writer and former jigsaw puzzle world record holder. Her work has appeared in Paste Magazine, the LA Times, Indiewire, Business Insider, Entertainment Weekly, Gold Derby, TheWrap, FOX Digital, The Spool, and Awards Radar. To talk about all things movies, TV, and useless trivia you can find her @galaxyleila

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