Throughout Dan Gilroy’s film, a promising character study is smothered beneath lazy genre machinations.
The episode is, principally, a reconsideration of characters we believe we’ve come to know.
I’m excited by its proficiency with an unorthodox brand of suburban drama, part Left Behind and part Leave It to Beaver.
Compared to “Pilot,” “Penguins One, Us Zero” is more focused, but the ambivalence it provokes remains the same.