When watching The Penguin, it’s hard to miss James Gandolfini. Which is odd, because the great actor wasn’t in the show. And because he’s been dead for 11 years.
Gandolfini’s performance as the emotionally damaged mafia boss Tony Soprano in HBO’s hit mafia drama The Sopranos is considered one of the greatest performances in television history. Even widely talked about Gandolfini’s incredible transformation is remarkable. It’s even more remarkable when we’re talking about a TV show that was ripped from a superhero movie here.
This is largely due to Colin Farrell’s brilliant performance/Tony Soprano impersonation in the title role. Buried deep under layers of prosthetics and body padding and speaking in a thick Noo Yawk accent, he’s unrecognizable. Unless you’ve seen The Sopranos, he’ll be instantly familiar. Not so much in character, but definitely in emotion.
The Penguin picks up a week after the end of the 2022 psychological crime thriller The Batman. That rebooted the caped crusader in a more realistic, less fantastical setting, focusing on his detective skills rather than his arsenal of Bat-gizmos and delving into the trauma of witnessing the murder of his parents as a child.
The Penguin continues in that more realistic vein and serves as an origin story for Batman’s iconic nemesis, who only made a brief appearance in that film.
The caped crusader himself doesn’t appear here, largely due to the show’s credits. The focus is solely on Oswald Cobb’s ambitious and violent journey from mafia middleman to Gotham City’s crime lord.
Gotham’s underworld is in turmoil following the death of mafia boss Carmine Falcone at the end of The Batman. The Penguin opens with a chance encounter late at night between Cobb, a money-maker, and Alberto, the arrogant, drug-addicted, alcoholic son of Falcone, who has inherited control of the organization. Caught red-handed in a place he shouldn’t be, Cobb finds himself in a tense situation.
While trying to escape danger, he accidentally overshares his dream of becoming a beloved neighborhood gangster. Alberto immediately ridicules and belittles him.
As does Cobb’s overreaction. He pulls out his gun and shoots Alberto dead – a decision he almost immediately regrets.
But after falling asleep and disposing of the body with the rough help of a juvenile delinquent, he begins to see the opportunity he has created for himself. This sets the scheming, ambitious Cobb on a mission to seize power from the Falcone family and establish himself as the city’s crime lord.
Of course, killing a mob boss has consequences, and the show finds much entertainment in Cobb’s dangerous dance with demons as they try to figure out what he knows and what he doesn’t.
Complicating matters is the appearance of Alberto’s murderous sister Sofia, who has just been released from Arkham Asylum for a decade for a series of brutal murders. She’s quick to downplay that Oz is somehow involved, and their deadly game of cat and mouse is a joy to watch.
In contrast to Farrell’s huffing and puffing performance as the slimy Cobb – known as The Penguin, due to a disability that causes him to waddle – Sofia is played with wide-eyed menace by Cristin Milioti.
The dynamic between the two characters makes for a thoroughly engaging viewing experience. Farrell brings a hard edge to Penguin’s plotting and plotting with a dangerous inner core, while Milioti brings a suspicious level of sanity and an unquestionably terrifying bloodlust to Sofia.
Limited to just eight episodes, the series moves at a brisk pace, never lingering in one place for too long and maintaining high momentum as Cobb’s rollercoaster ride to the top of the criminal hierarchy sees him hurtling in and out of danger through many sharp turns, multiple times in a single episode.
Like The Batman, the show also explores the emotional trauma behind the character’s gangster exterior. And like The Sopranos before it, we spend a lot of time with Cobb’s unstable mother.
While The Penguin doesn’t reach any of the heights of The Sopranos – few shows do – it’s still a fun and engaging show, and much better than you might expect from a comic book TV show.
