A cold-blooded and riveting DC series.
“The Penguin,” the new DC series on Max, takes place after the events of “The Batman,” and focuses on Oz Cobb A.K.A Penguin (Colin Farrell), who is the first lieutenant to the deceased mob kingpin Carmine Falcone (now played by Mark Strong), and is poised to become Gotham City’s new kingpin.
If this were a movie, it would be rated R, because of the violence and intensity of Oz’s point of view in this Batman universe. So, the TV-MA rating really sets things in perspective. And in my perspectives, the Penguin’s death in the PG-13 “Batman Returns” is something I still can’t look at.
As the show begins, he kills Falcone’s son Alberto (Michael Zegen) and gains a new driver, a young thief named Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), who almost steals his car and convinces Oz not to kill him based on his ambitions. And as their collaboration continues, Oz and Victor agree the world chews and spits them out, and the violent man wants to make sure the boy is committed to his game.
Then, he has a meeting with the underboss Johnny Vitti (Michael Kelly), who is shutting down their operation given the flood and cops swarming the city. Oz, however, convinces him that he can fix things, and is given 48 hours to do so. But in actuality, he’s through with the Carmine crime family.
There’s also Cristin Milioti (“Palm Springs,” “The Wolf of Wall Street”) as Carmine’s daughter Sofia, who is also a serial killer and Arkham patient with the nickname-The Hangman. She starts to become suspicious about the whereabouts of her brother. This is a performance I never would have expected from her, and she delivers with searing intensities and dialogue.
Next, there’s Deirdre O’Connell as Oz’s dementia-stricken mother, who tells her boy he did the right thing taking out Alberto. She makes a promising intro, especially in the genre of someone coming from nothing, when she tells her boy to thrive on whatever turmoil Gotham has given them.
And Clancy Brown also comes in the incarcerated rival mobster Salvatore Maroni, whom Oz tries to become associated with so they can take down the Carmines. I’m eager to see how his side will pay off, especially when Oz has his ways of convincing him of his game.
So far on the streaming site, we’re given only given one episode, but I can already tell this is an epic series with “Sopranos” undertones and a “Once Upon a Time in America” scope. The look and feel of Gotham’s dark side-an underworld to be exact-and the direction by Craiz Nobel (“Z for Zachariah”) keeps things well paced.
“The Penguin,” sparked by showrunner Lauren LeFranc, also features Farrell getting more time and credit as the title villain, who looks threatening with the make-up, built, accent, and ambition. I remember some criticizing his performance in “The Batman,” but in my perspectives, he had some potential. And in this series, which he’s also credited as an executive producer, he pulsates in one of his best performances, whether we’re talking about movies or TV shows.
Some areas are a little slow, but there are payoffs that has us wanting to see how the rest of the series will pay off. And we’ll find out the rest up until November.
Streaming on Max
