The Penguin (season 1)

The Penguin follows Oswald “Oz” Cobb, aka the Penguin, as he rises to power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld. Set one week after the events of The Batman (2022), the series explores Oz’s quest to fill the power vacuum left by Carmine Falcone’s death. As Oz navigates the treacherous landscape of Gotham’s crime scene, he faces challenges from rivals old and new, all while trying to give his mother the life he’s always promised.

The Penguin (S1:1) Review

Despite somewhat mixed reviews, the one thing that most who watched 2022’s The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, agree on is that Colin Farrell’s transformation from svelt Irish leading man to the twisted and bloated Oswald Cobb (aka The Penguin) was a cinematic achievement worthy of praise. Thanks to some incredibly talented makeup artists combined with Farrell’s well-established talent, audiences were treated to a transcendent performance which both parties have seamlessly transitioned to the small screen.

The story itself is fairly standard gangster fare with Cobb, a mid-level operator in the largest and most powerful crime family in Gotham, scheming his way to what he hopes will be the top. However, thanks not only to Farrell but also to a strong supporting cast, as well as a crisp directorial style and well-balanced dialogue that allows for both humor and terror, The Penguin rises above its rather clichéd premise.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the amount of heart had by an episode filled with hookers, drug dealers, and brutal murder. Much of that is thanks to the vulnerability brought to the table by the relative unknown Rhenzy Feliz, who plays Cobb’s protogé, Victor Aguilar. Between Farrell’s undeniable charisma (and surprisingly adroit comedic timing) and Feliz’s soft charm, the two exhibit an instant chemistry that carries much of the episode and likely the series.

Not to be undone is Cristin Milloti, who plays the daughter and heir to Don Carmine Falcone, Sofia. Milloti should teach actresses lessons in intimidation because, unlike so many of her contemporaries, rather than doing a bad impersonation of a man, this pretty and soft-looking 110-lb actress has tapped into the marrow of every man’s worst fear: a bat$h!t crazy woman who doesn’t know how nuts she is and has the power to do more than break your vinyl collection and key your car. The subtlety that she exhibits while her character balances between asylum-crazy, vulnerable and sad, and mob boss chic is Swiss clockwork fine and such a joy to watch that it almost overcomes the fact that this is yet another show that pits a newly invented strong, independent female against a legacy male character known for being at the top. Time will tell if both her restraint and that of the writers will prevail.

Overall, the first episode of The Penguin is a delightful surprise, especially considering some of the other streaming programs currently available. It’s a fine way to spend an hour of your evening, and happily Worth it.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Transideological Railroading

• There is a brief scene in which The Penguin makes his way to the Red Light District, and two obvious tranny hookers walk by. The couple greets Oz, who nods his head and says, “Ladies.” One then turns and flashes Cobb’s companion his surgically generated faux breast, and the scene continues.
  • I didn’t penalize the show too much because this scene is intentionally and thematically disturbing rather than affirming. Cobb smirks as he calls them ladies because he knows they ain’t. He is a degenerate in a degenerate part of town, and they are used as apex examples of degeneracy.
    • Could have really done without the anti-Viagra boob, though. I did ding the score for that.

Italian Mobsters: Well-Known For Their Acceptance of Other Races

• The Penguin’s companion/protogé is black and Hispanic, and while there have almost certainly been Italian mobsters who weren’t racist, the fact that Oz never even acknowledges or, in what he thinks is a good-natured way, gives the character a hard time rings false.
  • If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: one key way in which DEI destroys the very fabric of society is by undermining the talent and abilities of our melanin-enriched friends. Rhenzy Feliz was probably the best candidate for this role, but this wouldn’t be a question if filmmakers hired actors based only on talent and their appropriateness for a particular role.
• Ozzy’s go-to hooker also happens to be black. The one thing this does is establish that the character isn’t racist. However, it still feels artificial for a murdering dirtbag like The Penguin not to at least playfully racistly bust the kid’s balls from time to time.

She Loves To Be On Top

• Sophi Falcone looks to be the show’s primary antagonist. While, so far, the actress knocks it out of the park, there’s nothing natural about a deeply patriarchal organization like the mob breezily accepting a woman as their leader, especially one who is so emotionally unbalanced that she did time in Arkham. By extension, it looks silly when she orders huge armed goons around, and they jump. Just make these characters men, like they are supposed to be, or present a more believable story behind the woman’s rise to power and how she wields it.

Classist Flooding

• One of the episode’s weaker moments is when it opens with a heavy dose of exposition dumped on the audience via a news broadcast montage. That, of course, isn’t what’s woke. What is, one of the anchors makes certain to point out that the flood unleashed by the Riddler in the film did far more harm to the poor who lived downtown than it did to the “wealthier” Gothamites who lived in the suburbs. The only reason to even mention something like this, something completely out of the control of the victims or the suburbanites, is a hamfisted attempt to stir the class warfare pot. It’s like saying that California forest fires are biased because they don’t harm homes in Ohio. Yeah, literally everyone in the world who didn’t live or work in the area affected by the flood… wasn’t affected by the flood.

Sister Mayor

• The new mayor of Gotham is a black woman because, of course, she is. She’s on-screen for less than thirty seconds in the beginning news exposition, and it’s not as though there aren’t black female mayors of large American cities in real life. So, I didn’t actually remove any points. Now, if she ends up being a Chicago-style Beetlejuice in later episodes, that’s another thing.

The Penguin (S1:E2)

The Penguin (S1:E3)

The Penguin (S1:E4)

The Penguin (S1:E5)

The Penguin (S1:E 6-7)

Even though the program continues to be one of the better offerings streaming today, these last two episodes exhibit some tedious elements that, if not quickly pruned, have the potential to greatly diminish what has been an otherwise engaging and entertaining series.

Episode 6 opens with some incredibly amateurish exposition to fill the gaps between what appears to have been several weeks since Oz and Victor decided to launch their new empire from beneath Gotham City. While it’s only a few minutes long, it sets the tone for the rest of the episode and the next, which feel moderately rushed to get all of the pieces in place for the finale.

In general, the dialogue has begun to get a little repetitive, with Oz regularly going on about how the “haves” not caring about him or his “people” and the likelihood that they never will. Meanwhile, Sofia begins to fixate ever more on the weakness of men, fully embracing her cringy Spider-Man 3 emo look and going so far as to now be a sexual deviant who dominates and injures her male partners. It’s very affected and robs the series of some of its hard-earned gravitas.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Silver Spoon Enema

• Some of Oz’s haves-have-nots rhetoric has begun to become tiresome. The rich don’t care about us… blah blah blah.
• There’s a relatively minor subplot involving the Gotham power (i.e., electricity) distribution, with the “rich” neighborhoods receiving preferential treatment while the ghetto freezes. It’s contrived and adds nothing to the story except runtime.

Men Must Be Lowered to Raise Women

• The already pathetic psychiatrist is now Sofia’s sexual partner. Of course, she is now apparently into BDSM and, in one scene, has him tied to a chair where he sits shirtless and bleeding from injuries that she has inflicted. We’re also “treated” to a glimpse of his pubes and rump. Meanwhile, she is fully clothed.
  • I prefer that programs avoid sexualizing both men and women. However, there’s no denying that there is a modern trend to exhibit the male nude form while preserving that of the women.[/membership]

The Penguin (S1:E8)