The Penguin premiered on September 19, 2024, and consisted of 8 episodes which were released weekly until November 10, 2024. The show follows Oswald Cobb attempting to seize control over the world of crime within Gotham. The series takes place in the same universe as Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” (2022). The show takes place the following week after “The Batman”.
Cristin Milioti was a big standout in this series. Although I wasn’t the biggest fan of her character, I was extremely impressed by her acting skills and she especially shined in episode four. Cristin said that it had always been a dream of hers to play a Batman villain and she did a great job at doing so. Her character “Sofia Falcone” was a great written character because there were times when I hated her and also times when I felt bad for her.
My favorite character in the show is probably Victor Aguilar(played by Rhenzy Feliz). Victor is a kid who lost everything due to the floods that took place in “The Batman”. Victor has to resort to theft to get by due to his current situation. He meets Oswald after attempting to steal his rims off of his car. Victor sees the body of Alberto Falcone and instead of Oswald killing Victor to avoid any word of this getting out he decides to take him in and take a chance on the kid. I love the relationship between Oz and Victor, even though Oswald is such a bad person you feel like he truly cares about Victor which is great to see for a character like Oz.
The makeup in this show is very impressive. If I wasn’t aware that it was Colin Farrell playing Oswald, I probably wouldn’t even know. He does such an amazing job portraying this character and I’m very impressed. His acting skills are very good and I think he does the voice very well.
Even though Oswald is such a horrible person and in a lot of ways irredeemable, I feel bad for him throughout the show while his mother is slowly passing away. He loves his mother more than anything in the world and he states this multiple times. When he was young he told his mother that he’d get her everything she’s ever wanted so even though the things he’s doing are horrible you can’t help but root for him. There are times when he’s teaching Victor things, giving him support, and treating him like family, where you feel like maybe Oswald isn’t so bad.
I really like the world in which this series takes place. I appreciate references to things such as the jewelry store being named after the original penguin actor. This show does a great job at world building by introducing new characters that we grow to love such as Sofia Falcone, Victor Aguliar, and Francis Cobb.
I’m excited to see where the future of this universe goes as it seems like they’re setting up a story line inspired by the comics “The Long Halloween”. I was very surprised by one of the final scenes in the finale. I’m not sure how I feel about it even now. Even though this is a show based on DC comics I actually think you don’t need to be into superheroes to enjoy it. Me and my Mom really liked it and she’s not even into superheroes. This series takes inspiration from films such as Scarface, and The Long Good Friday. I think that this show is very good and I would recommend it to not only comic book fans but also fans of TV in general.
