I was impressed by Colin Farrell's performance, buried in prosthetics though he was, as the Penguin in 2022's The Batman. Even so, I wasn't sure how interested I was in watching a miniseries devoted to the character, in a Gotham story without the Batman or other familiar heroes or villains in the mix.

I'm glad I finally took the time to watch it. Farrell is amazing, if unrecognizable, in the role, and his gritty climb up the ladder of power in Gotham's crime syndicate is mesmerizing -- if at times difficult -- to watch.

The story begins shortly after the events of the movie, which ended with the Riddler detonating several bombs and flooding several highly populated regions of the city. There is also a power vacuum in Gotham's gang hierarchy, with crime boss Carmen Falcone having been killed in the movie by Catwoman.

The Penguin, an unappreciated nickname given to Farrell's Oswald Cobb because of his ungainly shape and awkward limp, is a mid-level grunt in the Falcone family's structure. But he guns down Carmen's heir, Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen), in the first episode, leaving the family in disarray as its members scrabble for power. Top contenders include Alberto's uncle Luca Falcone (Scott Cohen), Luca's cousin Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly), and Alberto's sister Sophia (Cristina Milioti), who has only recently been released from Arkham Asylum after being (wrongfully) incarcerated for a series of Hangman murders (described, albeit very differently, in the comic-book miniseries Dark Victory). Meanwhile, Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown) is grasping to regain his family's former power, and several other, smaller gangs are scrabbling for the scraps.

Although the series focuses primarily on Cobb and his at-times unwilling henchman Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), who was caught trying to steal hubcaps from Cobb's car, there is also a great deal of attention given to Sofia Falcone, and Milioti rises beautifully to the occasion. The story, which includes Sofia's torturous 10-year stint in Arkham, gives her ample opportunity to explore a great deal of emotion, pain, plotting, revenge and madness. Her journey is, while violent and at times disturbing, is also a little bit heartbreaking to watch.

But the center of attention is always Cobb, who is ambitious in his aims and brutal in his efforts to achieve them. He thinks fast and will use any means -- or people in his way -- to get what he wants.

Although the primary villain of the piece, Cobb does have a few glimmers of humanity. Most of them are focused on Victor, who quickly becomes a trusted and reliable right hand, and his mother Francis Cobb (Deidre O'Connell, Emily Meade in flashbacks), who suffers from a form of dementia and unresolved anger and sorrow from a past tragedy, and who drives her son toward success.

By the end of the series, Cobb will make decisions that turn him fully into a monster, utterly ruthless and ungrounded. Only a brief glimpse of the Bat signal reminds us that there's a hero in Gotham to stop him.

Farrell deserves a great deal of credit for his performance here, including his willingness to bury himself in a persona who doesn't look, sound or move like him. His Penguin is something new, unlike any previous incarnations of the character, and Farrell has made him his own every bit as much as Heath Ledger did for the Joker in 2008's The Dark Knight.

Wow. DC is finally on the right track ... although, given that this series is connected to Matt Reeves' Batman series (which is unaffiliated with the newly rebooted James Gunn DC Universe), it remains to be seen if this will have any lasting impact on the franchise.