This review contains major spoilers for “The Batman” (2022) and minor spoilers for the earlier episodes of “The Penguin” (2024).
For the last 40 years, the top hat-and-monocle-wearing Penguin has been swinging around his weaponized umbrella in bird-themed duels with Batman. Max’s 2024 miniseries “The Penguin” ditches these parts of the character to show a more revoltingly evil version than usual.
The show, a TV spinoff/follow–up to Matt Reeves’ 2022 oscar-nominated superhero movie “The Batman,” recently finished its eight episode run.
“The Penguin” quickly reintroduces its title character, a mobster named Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) who waddles like a penguin because of an untreated foot deformity. The ableist nickname constantly upsets Oz’s pride, one of the main drives and a frequent breaking point for his character.
“The Penguin” is yet another show starring an egomaniac in organized crime. But its shoulder-rubbing with the superhero genre gives it an excuse to be stranger and more eccentric than shows like “The Sopranos” or “Breaking Bad.” But that doesn’t mean that the Penguin is any less insidious as his crime drama contemporaries.
In “The Penguin,” Oz feels far removed from his 1941 comic book origin. Small changes like the truncation of last name “Cobblepot” to just “Cobb” lend to the reality established in “The Batman.” Ultimately, this version of the Penguin brings a depth to the character that feels honest to Oswald Cobblepot while still taking the creative liberties it needed to in order to create an incredible protagonist.
Oz works for the Falcone crime family, but after the death of patriarch Carmine Falcone (played by John Turturro in “The Batman,” but Mark Strong during flashbacks in “The Penguin”) he is emboldened to try and push his way to the top.
Oz’s goals contradict those of the new Falcone leadership: Carmine’s son Alberto (Michael Zegen) and Carmine’s daughter Sofia (Cristin Milioti), who was recently released from Arkham Asylum after serving a decade for a string of murders. This conflict comes to the forefront when Oz snaps and murders one of his fellow members of the Falcone mob.
To help hide the body from the Falcones and the police, Oz recruits a young man he finds trying to steal one of his tires. From that point on, Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz) becomes Oz’s sidekick as he pits the Falcone and Maroni crime families against each other.
As the show goes on, Victor, Sofia and Oz are all precisely characterized, each having their own dedicated arc. The slow and deliberate drip of new details keeps the audience in suspense as to the true motivations and origins of the three main characters, layering the past with the present to create an intense and focused drama.
Aside from the stars, one other performance that it would be negligent not to mention is Clancy Brown’s chilling portrayal of Salvatore “Sal” Maroni, the patriarch of the Maroni family and one of the main antagonists. Sal is scarily resilient and uniquely hateful, creating the feeling that his defeat would be impossible.
During “The Penguin,” Oz is constantly driven by a desire for others’ approval. This heavily influences one of the most fascinating and complex relationships in the show, the one between Oz and his mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell).
Francis is old and sick and constantly tells Oz how much more he could be doing for her. One warning sign of her more toxic traits comes when she calls him a “pussy” for being evasive with his mob enemies rather than killing them head-on. In the end, Francis and Oz’s mother-son relationship is irreversibly transformed by flashbacks in the final episodes of the show.
Throughout the show, Oz is given plenty of heartfelt and loving moments with those around him. He is an inspiration to kids like him from crappy neighborhoods who could barely dream of rising as high as Oz — or at least that’s what he tells himself. Despite these moments, as the final credits roll on “The Penguin,” it’s hard to think about anything besides how evil he is.
In the end, the only thing that really speaks to how evil the Penguin is the feeling deep in your gut as you watch the final scenes play out.
