The Batman brought a grungey new take on DC's Dark Knight and reopened Gotham City for business, HBO's The Penguin is back to remind us all why we loved that movie so much. That episode 1 achieves that while expanding the world and turning the light of the Bat Signal onto Colin Farrell's Oz Cobb without Robert Pattinson's Bat is a hugely impressive start.

An opening montage reminds viewers about the state of things in Matt Reeves’ version of Gotham City, and the short version is: Batman kind of beefed it. The Riddler bombed the city, flooding its streets and turning its poorer districts into a disaster zone.

Every second of The Penguin should be eye-roll-inducing. The series is, on paper at least, an exercise in pure franchise expansion. Coming two years after Matt Reeves’ The Batman hit theaters, the new HBO drama picks up almost exactly where that film leaves off.