‘The Penguin’ Review: The Perfect Way to See Gotham

When Matt Reeves gave us The Batmanit was the Gotham I longed for. Bruce Wayne was basically the best detective, and his Rogues Gallery was full of criminals who profited from a corrupt system. What The Penguin is to show what Gotham looks like through their eyes.

Colin Farrell returns as Oz Cobb, known in his mafia circles as “The Penguin.” The Penguin’s Italian coding isn’t exactly a new idea, as Danny DeVito played him in Batman returns, But The Penguin throws us into the Italian crime families of Gotham. It’s really The Sopranos of the DC universe, and I’m loving every moment of it.

Oz works for the Falcone family, but when Carmine Falcone died in The Batmanleft the family without their don. Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen) thinks he’s taking on the role, but his sister, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), is released from Arkham just in time, throwing the family into disarray.

A big part of the show is Oz trying to cover up what he does in the very first episode. While the crime families are all about protecting their own families and their own, Oz is all about himself and we see his slow rise to the Kingpin of Gotham that we all know. Farrell’s performance in The Batman left many of us wanting more. The Penguin give him time to shine.

It’s dark and the Gotham we know and love, but the show really leans into the New York comparisons, partly because of Farrell’s choice of accent, but also because of the city’s own past connection to the mob. What you won’t find in the show is much connection to the world of the Dark Knight. This is Oz Cobb’s story.

Sofia Falcone is the boss to watch

The Falcone daughters are not to be outdone. Sofia’s story is one of strength and Milioti plays her in such a way that you understand her motives at every moment. She is driven by anger over her father’s death, betrayal of those around her and she uses it all to find her own strength in her family.

Sofia Falcone and Selina Kyle are both Carmine’s daughters, but neither of them has Carmine’s evil or lust for power. Instead, they both have the same thirst for revenge that drives them. They are their mother’s daughters, and they both have moments (in The Batman (for Selina and in the show for Sofia) that make you feel sorry for Carmine’s children.

For all of Oz’s quest for power, Sofia’s name has it. The Falcone name gives her that sense of importance, but she wants it on her own terms, and that makes her a fascinating character to watch in Gotham. The legacy of families and their names in Gotham brings a lot of trauma to characters. Bruce Wayne has had to deal with Thomas’ legacy his entire life, and Sofia is no different. But how she gets out of Arkham and starts to move on with her life makes her a character I want to spend more time with.

She could have just been your typical mafia boss’s daughter, but Milioti really lets Sofia take control of her own choices and she’s my favorite character in the entire series.

Betrayal is sweet

Most of The Penguin is about everyone looking out for themselves. Especially when it comes to Oz. The show is filled with betrayal that showrunner Lauren Franc masterfully weaves into the landscape of Gotham. It would be so easy to just let the Penguin be a caricature, but the show lets the mafia genre drive the story and cast Gotham in a different light.

Early in the show, Oz betrays the Falcone family, and from that point on he has to keep trying to cover himself and that means betraying everyone in his path to do that. The only bit of loyalty Oz really has is to Victor (Rhenzy Feliz). Victor ends up in Oz’s world after his own mistake and instead of killing the kid or abandoning him on the streets, Oz takes him under his metaphorical wing and it’s a nice balance between the two of them.

Oz knows this world; Victor is new to it. He can help him grow and flourish in the underbelly of Gotham, but they are also kindred spirits in a way. Oz has a clubfoot that his mother couldn’t fix when he was a child, while Victor stutters and gets worse when he’s in these stressful situations with Oz. The two of them know what it’s like to be pitied. How people look at them.

That gives them a trust that Oz literally doesn’t share with anyone else on the show. If he had the chance, he would betray them all if it meant success.

Revenge is sweeter

Sofia’s entire motivation in the second half of the season is driven by revenge. Not to spoil anything, I’ll just say that I found her extremely refreshing as a Scorpio. But it does create an incredible counterbalance to Oz’s betrayal. It’s one thing to see someone constantly throwing others under the bus, and I think that The Penguin Would have been great if that was all too.

But what makes The Penguin so much better is the fact that Sofia’s motivations are rooted in her revenge. We see two sides of the same coin that play out throughout the series. That makes it possible The Penguin so as not to be just another mafia story that we have seen so many times before.

This is the rise of the Kingpin of Gotham.

Vic and Oz are the heart of the series

Victor lost his entire family in The Batmanso when Oz finds him, he’s a lost child. That allows the two of them to really be there for each other. Oz isn’t exactly what I would call an “ideal father figure” but he’s what Vic needs and in turn Vic teaches Oz to be more patient with things.

Seeing a softer side of Oz really helps The Penguin feels like a more human story than other Gotham stories in the past. He’s not a crazy guy with a top hat and an umbrella who really likes his monocle. But he still has the desire to rule and destroy Gotham in the way that version of Oswald did.

It was amazing to see him open up to Vic, protect him, and help this kid grow in Gotham, and it made the show so much stronger.

Farrell’s Tony Soprano-esque Oz is everything I expected from him

From the first trailer for The PenguinI have made comparisons with The Sopranos. I’m pleased to report that the show is exactly what I wanted it to be and more. Oz is very much Tony in code, down to his own strange relationship with his mother, played by Deirdre O’Connell. But more than just a carbon copy of the mob boss with anxiety, Farrell’s Oz uses his humor to warm people to him and build his own team.

One of the reasons I wanted more of Farrell in The Batman was because he had a fun energy despite working with the mafia. He was funny, charming and you could see why people kept him around. The Penguin uses that to his advantage.

There are little moments when I recognized the connection with things in my life. The Batman with Farrell’s Oz. He speaks Spanish (famously correcting Bruce’s Spanish in The Batman). But he also beats up a man and when he lets him go, he gives him advice on how to drive backwards.

It all serves to humanize Oz and make him the kind of mob boss you can understand Why people follow him. That’s the appeal of Tony Soprano for me and seeing Farrell channel that same energy into The Penguin I’ve been wishing for series like this for our Gotham villains.

The perfect way to see Gotham

Gotham has been seen in multiple ways, not only in Batman stories, but also in series such as GothamThe difference is that we see Gotham mainly through the eyes of the “good” guys. The Penguin let us see what the villains of Batman’s world are up to.

It’s a different kind of world and I think Matt Reeves’ creation of Gotham really lends itself to that kind of story. I don’t think we needed to see Gotham through the eyes of someone like Paul Dano’s Riddler, but I do enjoy seeing this darker side of Gotham. Why can’t we have a heist show with Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz) or maybe even an Arkham show from the perspective of Barry Keoghan’s Joker?

The point is that the possibilities are endless and the genius of The Penguin makes me want more stories like this. LeFranc has really done something special with this series and I just want to see so much more of these characters.