‘The Penguin’ Review: I Might Have Found My New Favorite Show

Move over, Batman. I want to see what your villain is up to. 

If you’re a fan of Batman, then you’ll know of one of his villains, “The Penguin,” a criminal kingpin in the city of Gotham. The Penguin could never quite compete with The Joker in terms of popularity, but he stayed relevant in the Batman universe enough to the point where he maintained his status as an A-list villain. 

In “The Batman,” Robert Pattinson donned The Dark Knight’s cape and cowl and gave what I consider a fantastic entry into the Batman cinematic lineup. Pattinson is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, and I very much enjoyed watching him be a young Batman. However, standing out in that movie was Oz Cobb, aka The Penguin, played so brilliantly by Colin Farrell that if you hadn’t been told it was him, you wouldn’t have known it. 

He did so good in his role that WB decided to give “The Penguin” his own spinoff series from the movie. I hardly knew it was coming as the WB didn’t really put too much marketing into it, so when the first episode debuted, I didn’t think to watch it. However, after multiple people began singing its praises, I decided to give it a shot. 

I’m hooked. In fact, my wife who is a lot more picky than I am, sat down and began watching it with me, and she didn’t take her eye off the screen either. 

“The Penguin” is a solidly written, character built gangster-based miniseries whose lead is so fantastic that if he doesn’t win some sort of award for this, it will be criminal. While there’s only one episode currently available, the writing is tight and the pacing is nigh-perfect. None of the characters are wasted. There’s no filler. It’s just well-written storytelling and superb acting all the way around. 

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The story picks up right where “The Batman” left off. The poorer districts of Gotham have been flooded by The Riddler’s terrorist attack on the city. Mob boss Carmine Falcone is dead, gang wars have begun to seize control in his absence, and left in charge of Falcone’s empire is his addict son who has no business running a highly successful crime empire. 

Amid all the chaos is Cobb, a sort of lieutenant in the Falcone gang. Cobb is much more clever and smarter than he lets on. He keeps his head down and follows orders, but underneath is the mind of a man who can run circles around those above him. 

One night, Cobb has an encounter with Falcone’s druggie son that ends with Cobb shooting him after being insulted. Cobb is forced to deal with the body and his bringing it to his car when he notices a group of teens attempting to steal it. The rest flee but one of the kids, Victor Agular (Rheny Feliz), is cornered. Feeling something like pity for him, Cobb takes the kid under his wing. 

From here, things go from bad to worse as Carmine Falcone’s daughter returns from Arkham Asylum. Sofia Falcone, played perfectly by Cristine Milioti, is a match for Cobb’s cunning, and she’s a psychopath to boot. Cobb, with the help of Agular, must use the city’s chaotic state to turn his enemies against each other so that he can rise to the top and become the city’s ultimate crime lord, navigating the pitfalls and dangers of the underworld all the way through. 

Normally, I’d tell I’m sick of the sympathetic villain angle, but in “The Penguin,” it actually does the story some good. You want Cobb to succeed because in a world full of psychotic villains and uncaring mobsters, Cobb is the only one who seems to truly have some moral framework. Moreover, you actually see where he got it from as you’re introduced to his mother, a woman clearly falling into dementia but still has the frame of mind to make sure her son gets the respect he deserves. 

Moreover, Cobb gives a very interesting monologue while talking to Carmine’s son about a gangster he once knew that actually was kind and helpful to the people. It was clear that Cobb admired him and wanted to be like him, which causes the insults to fly from Carmine’s son, resulting in Cobb killing him. 

If you want to get hooked on the show, just watch this monologue alone. Farrell demonstrates how good of an actor he actually is, but this scene is so tightly written and well done that it almost sets up Cobb’s entire character in one go. Superb scene.

Let’s be clear, Cobb is not a good guy. He is a gangster, but as you get to know that moral spark in him, and know that inside there’s actually a person worth rooting for, you can’t help but get invested in his journey. So much so, that I have more interest in his story than I do The Batman’s. 

I don’t have to tell you that there’s been a dearth of excellent television for years, with only a few shows here and there truly breaking through as solid. Good storytelling was replaced with messaging for so many shows, and have ruined so many brands and franchises as a result. 

Over the past few years, I think I can count the television shows I truly enjoyed on one hand. Shogun, Blue Eye Samurai, and Fallout, though some might disagree with me on the last one. 

But the good news is that those shows came out within the last year. As corporations are slow moving beasts and good art takes time to make, perhaps many studios recognized a little bit earlier than we thought that this whole woke thing wasn’t it, and they started putting in plans to actually make quality television again with quality writers. 

Now, Warner Bros. just released what I think is a promising start to a series that I might look back on as one of my favorites… if it continues to impress like its first episode did. 

Let’s hope “The Penguin” continues to impress. If it stays at this level, I see it being remembered as one of the greats.