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The Penguin is one of the best TV shows of the year – and it has outrageously impressive stats to back it up.
When the spin-off to Matt Reeves’ The Batman was first announced, the news was met with an unenthusiastic response considering superhero off-shoots have become dime a dozen in recent years.
Since WandaVision was released in March 2021, Marvel has launched 10 new TV shows, with another seven on the way, and DC’s announcement of The Penguin in September 2021, seven months before The Batman was released, felt like another crafty way of luring in TV viewers.
However, under the guidance of showrunner Lauren LeFranc, The Penguin ended its eight-episode run as one of the most enticing shows of the year – a gangster epic that just happens to be set in the comic book world of Gotham.
Due to the excitable word-of-mouth that’s been heaped upon the series since its premiere on 19 September, it has experienced something rare in today’s TV age: every new episode of the series saw a single-day viewership increase, with more and more people switching on to the show as the recommendations grew in size.
While less than one million people tuned in for the first episode on the night it was released, each instalment that followed saw a substantial increase, with the finale being watched by 2.1 million people.
Variety reports that, when the stats include those who have watched the series since the premiere was released, it has now amassed ratings of almost 17 million.
Perhaps aiding this is the show’s extremely rare ratings on review aggregator sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb.
On Rotten Tomatoes, every single episode of The Penguin has a perfect score of 100 per cent, while on IMDb, not one episode has an average rating that falls under eight out of 10. In fact, the lowest episode score the series receives is 8.5, with the finale receiving 9.6.
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Watch Apple TV+ free for 7 days
New subscribers only. £8.99/mo. after free trial. Plan auto-renews until cancelled
Farrell has been praised for his performance as Oz Cobb but the show features a standout supporting turn from Cristin Milioti, whose role as Sofia Falcone has left many predicting awards success for the Palm Springs and Black Mirror actor.
Meanwhile, Rhenzy Feliz and Deirdre O’Connell are also receiving high praise for their roles as Cobb’s sidekick Victor and mother Francis, respectively.
Now the show is over, the question is: will there be a second season? While Farrell has confirmed he will don the prosthetics once again for appearances in the next two Batman films, starring Robert Pattinson and Zoë Kravitz, he has also teased a possible follow-up for the series.
He told The Hollywood Reporter: “If there’s a great idea [for season two], and the writing was really muscular and as strong or stronger on the page than it was the first season, of course I would do it.”
The Penguin is available to stream on NOW.
