Over the long 85-year history of DC Comics Batman many of his rogues gallery have captivated the public imagination as we journey through Batman’s crusade against crime in Gotham City. While Joker gets a lot of the limelight, and Catwoman seemingly always has the Bat’s heart, no other rogue challenges Batman, much like the Penguin. First appearing in 1941, The Penguin set himself up as a different foe for Batman as in he’s not a villain that has some psychological ailment but is just a career criminal, a brilliant one and one that likes the finer things in life but not one destined for stays at Arkham. Over time, the Penguin is an outcast of the upper-crust society for his looks and stature while still dressed in a tux, top hat, and signature umbrella. In the Arkham games universe, he’s a cockney Brit like that from a Guy Richie crime movie of a similar background, leading us to an even more different take. In 2022’s The Batman from Matt Reeves, we are introduced to Oz Cobb, played by Colin Farrell, as a New York/New Jersey Italian gangster working with Carmine Falcone. The film, taking significant influence from Frank Miller/David Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One and Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale’s The Long Halloween, put The Penguin in a new light that even the longest fans of Batman haven’t seen before.
The Penguin miniseries takes place a week or so after the ending of The Batman, and it chronicles Oz’s attempt to take over the crime world of Gotham after the death of Carmine “The Roman” Falcone. In his path is the Falcone family and their rivals, the Maronis, with Oz using all his wits to outwit and manipulate each side to his advantage to corner the drug trade and, with it, the city. Colin Farrell reprises his role as Oz Cobb from the film in an even more profound reinvention of the Penguin, a name he despises as it’s a pejorative used by the Italian crime families to belittle him. Farrell gets to put a lot in his performance as Oz thanks to the longer story. Here, we get to see a very well-rounded and working class get it out the mud version of the Penguin. Always on a hustle of some sort, he is more comfortable with the underclass of the streets than the somehow upper crust of crime. His scenes with Deirdre O’Connell, who plays Francis, Oz’s mother, who he promises the world to. In the beginning, I think people will compare the relationship between Tony Soprano and his mother. Still, it goes to some very different places, and the scenes between the two feel very natural. And Frances is a very charismatic character.
In this tale, Oz gets a sidekick named Victor Aguilar, played by Rhenzy Feliz, as a sad-eyed, good-hearted kid who tries to steal his car outside of the still messed up Iceberg Lounge with friends. Their relationship is very reminiscent of the modern origin of Jason Todd, the second Robin. It is interesting how everything plays out with Victor learning the ropes of being a good career criminal. The characters around Oz are really humanizing him, and the connection between these two is interesting as Victor has a stutter and is from the same neighborhood and Gotham Borough as Oz is from. The stutter connects him to Oz’s leg disability, and sees him as a kindred spirit of being underestimated. Their bond will make you root for them over all the criminals they deal with, even as the reality of the show about a bad guy snaps back into your head.
Cristin Milioti plays Sofia Falcone, Carmine’s estranged daughter who’s been locked in Arkham for a decade after being accused of being a serial killer. They take the character away from its previous source material interpretation in a pretty complex character within her family. Through Sofia, they delve into the misogyny and patriarchal structure of organized crime. How’s she passed over and her resentment at her father and every other family member as she notices things in the business, especially Oz, with whom she shares a history that no one listens to. She’s his chief rival in this story and feels like the tipping point in Gotham as it turns from organized crime to the wild characters of danger we know of the city. Milioti is engaging and fun to watch in this role. Her Sofia is vulnerable and filled with rage at all times. You can see the effects that being inside Arkham Asylum has had on her. I can see many viewers understanding her and preferring her as their hero, as her reasonings for her actions are pretty valid, as most of the Falcones are very trash people.
For some, an HBO prestige crime show with Batman world trappings might not be enough for people who want a lot more – fantastical elements. We got that with Gotham some years back. That show wasn’t my taste but this show is definitely in my wheelhouse. This show also gave me something that I wanted from the comics. I love crime shows, and I love mafioso shows. On top of that, this show has drug show stuff, too! Lauren LeFranc, the showrunner, has taken the feeling of The Batman film and expanded that world tenfold. With this show, you start to understand the people of Gotham more than any of the media I’ve seen outside of the comics. This show shows the people living their lives and how they are affected by the extreme crime elements. They engage with the idea of terror and cataclysmic events that affect whole communities. The show deals with class on many fronts, not just Oz and his issues with the crime families but also with regular people and others in similar situations as Oz’s. Generational strife looms large in his as well. While the show doesn’t openly talk about race in dialogue, they do well in communicating it through those forced to live in a worse situation and the crime-ridden areas that are ignored. I feel this setting up things for the next film and how it might show a different type of conflict the heroes of Gotham will have to deal with.
I want to acknowledge how good it was to see Clancy Brown in this as Salvatore Maroni. He’s so famous for voicing the best Lex Luthor of all time in the DCAU. I’m glad he’s still part of the DC family especially with such a meaty role. Shohreh Aghdashloo plays his wife, Nadia Maroni, and that was also a welcome surprise, changing up some of the makeup of who we see in Gotham as well. Carmen Ejogo plays Eve Karlo, a madame and Oz’s romantic partner, as much as one can be in the streets of Gotham. She fills some of the void that the comic book year one version of Selina did in the streets. For those who catch that, don’t look for many easter eggs based on her last name. This series, I feel, sets a new precedent for how the DC shows will be different than some of their competition, especially with the MCU and how they choose to continue stories from the big screen to the small screen. The Penguin continues the legacy of HBO DC adaptations being excellent prestige television. With stellar performances, art direction, writing, and directing, this crime drama will give people a great saga to watch on TV and prime them for whenever The Batman continues in the near future.
Score: A
P.S. Here’s video of my trip to the Iceberg Lounge activation at this past July’s San Diego Comic-Con. I’m not the best video documentarian but I hope you enjoy it anyway.
