In 'After Hours,' Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti elevate The Batman followup's generic crime-show beats.
—HBO’s gritty, tonally oddball new comic-book crime show—is the same question that’s haunted pretty much every series of its ilk since Tony Soprano first made thatCobblepott, the character having been stripped of half of his usual name, alongside his historical attachments to generational power or wealth, in the transition to TV) that’s worth spending eight hours with?
Those hoping to find the answer in the pages of the comics the show is ostensibly based on will likely come away scratching their heads. Set in the same rust-dusted version of Gotham City as Matt Reeves’ 2022 reboot project—a comic-book movie already so “grounded” as to be borderline subterranean—showrunner Lauren LeFranc’s show couldn’t be less interested in trick umbrellas, capes, or cinematic action of any but the most brutal and utilitarian varieties.
But it’s not as genuine as the barking laugh Cobb gives when, after Alberto mocks these modest dreams, he impulsively guns him down in the empty loft, setting the events of the series in motion. It’ll turn into flop sweat in a second, in the first of‘s genuinely good comedy beats.
‘s first episode: the bit where Cobb finds a solution to his problems while watching an old movie and the portion where he takes Vic out to meet his dementia-afflicted mom in the Gotham suburbs. Deirdre O’Connell is effective enough as Francis Cobb, but you can see the turn in her performance coming from a mile away: Of course, she’s the Livia Soprano to her son’s comic-book Tony, urging him to power with just aof incestuous overtones.
And if a lot of this sounds like a collection of basic-ass crime-show tropes elevated by a pair of great performances, well…yeah . It remains to be seen whathas beyond that, honestly, although we suspect the show’s sense of humor—including a moment when Cobb, apparently earnestly, critique’s Vic’s mutilation of a corpse that ends up saving his skin, Farrell leaning hard into the comedy of his “complaining about the rescue” pettiness—might be its ace in the hole.
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