Doctor Who fans may remember that after the show’s triumphant return in the early 2000s, we found out that showrunner Russell T. Davies had agreed with BBC mandarins to rid the franchise of some of its more unwieldy elements in order to make it palatable to casual viewers.
Gotham City has long been the perfect backdrop for old-fashioned noir, and the city is on fine fettle here
Watching the debut episode of The Penguin, HBO’s new crime series (available on Sky Atlantic), based on a popular Batman villain, I suspected a similar game was at play. The series might be visibly set in the Batman universe, but it’s also very much detached from the nerdiness that emanates from DC Comics. Think the film adaptation of The Joker, only much less pretentious.
For the uninitiated, the titular Penguin is Oswald Cobb, a lumbering and heavy-set mobster who goes from lowly enforcer to becoming one of the most powerful villains in Gotham City.
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