‘The Penguin’ TV Review: Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti Compete For Crime MVP of Gotham in the Best DCEU Series Ever

Gotham City is easily the first metropolis that comes to mind when thinking of the most dangerous and unlivable fictional places to live. Fans of the DC Universe will be familiar with the grunge and violence embedded into the streets of the city, which has never been shied away from in adaptations, but never executed in the style and darkness of HBO’s newest limited series, The Penguin. If the DCEU can continue producing adaptations that explore the complexities of the city while focusing on its residents (Matt Reeves’ The Batman being a turning point in the universe), it will enter a new era defined by narrative ingenuity. 

The Penguin follows Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell) and his dealings with the Falcone family, a group of people devious enough to betray one another as quickly as anyone else. The death of Carmine Falcone, the head of the family, has sent the organized crime mob into complete disarray. His children, Alberto (Michael Zegen, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Sofia (Cristin Milioti, Made For Love), are left to deal with the people their father surrounded himself with, the family that stays around searching for power. Johnny Viti (Michael Kelly, House of Cards), once Carmine’s right hand man, seeks to empower the family by continuing the legacy left behind by their leader. The gained legacy includes the inherited problems left by Carmine (Mark Strong, 1917) that are typical in such a family: there’s increasing tensions with the rivaling Maroni family. Salvator (Clancy Brown, Gen V) and Nadia Maroni (Academy Awards nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo, The House of Sand and Fog) head up the family with an intensity matching their foes. For the Falcone children, there’s already a discomfort that exists without their father that’s furthered by walking through the halls of a home filled with people they’re unable to trust and a warring family to deal with. Alberto becoming the new kingpin of Gotham also brings the attention of Oz, someone who compulsively protects himself through empathic words and manipulative phrasing. Newly equipped with a recruited sidekick in Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz, Runaways), a young man already too familiar with the unfair nature of his city (his family was wiped out by the flooding of Gotham in The Batman), Oz puts himself at the feet of the Falcones, assuring them of the necessity of having him around, but it’s harder to convince Sofia. A woman familiar with both Arkham Hospital and the local prison, Sofia Falcone’s intuition that borders on pathological paranoia of those around her keeps her at arm’s length from anyone that isn’t her brother. 

When Oz isn’t solidifying his dealings with the most insane family in Gotham, he’s busy tending to his mother, Francis (Deirdre O’Connell, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). It’s a frail relationship between the two unfurled over the eight episode season, a man whose mother means everything to him – she possibly could be the only person he’s able to love, if that’s what it’s called coming from him, slightly closer  to a sense of guilt assuaged by providing for her. The scenes between Farrell and O’Connell are painful, a man of his stature regressing in the presence of the only person who provides him a sense of security, but both performers keep a realism intertwined with the hyperbolic nature of the series. It brings wonder to Oz’s general feelings about Victor, someone much younger than him that has seen the harsh realities of the world already, and if he possibly feels a responsibility to assist him in the only way he can. Alternatively, Oz doesn’t actually care about him or anyone else surrounding him, which (mostly) seems like the perspective that makes sense. Eve Karlo (Carmen Ejogo, I’m a Virgo) provides emotional support and alibis for Oz when necessary, another person in his life kept around for the safety he feels around them. He doesn’t verbalize his feelings or thoughts, but a man like Oz doesn’t have to when he acts so hardened around everyone else. In Colin Farrell’s capable hands, he’s a man whose disappointment in the life presented for him sits under the surface of the facade he keeps up.

Farrell manages to keep his performance leveled and without hyperbole while providing an exact understanding of someone so tormented by life. He’s a big man unable to walk without swaying his body in a slight waddle-adjacent fashion, the make-up and prosthetics so perfect that extreme close-ups on Farrell don’t show any imperfections. Coupled with his performance, it evolves both the series and the performance to heights that enable the show’s greatness. Farrell disappears behind the stunning prosthetics on him, the gravelly voice erupting from his mouth so rugged and different from his normal speaking voice that it hides him, even in extreme closeup, allowing him to become Oz Cobb. He moves through rooms with a physicality that even providing only a dark silhouette of him would be blatantly apparent who’s being seen. While Farrell undergoes a transformation for his character, Cristin Milioti does less so for her portrayal of Sofia Falcone – well, unless some of the outfits count – but positions herself as the show’s secret weapon. When Milioti isn’t on screen, you want her to be. She tears through dialogue with such a nasty edge that it’s surprising poison isn’t falling from her mouth as she delivers some of her lines while wearing the most distressed wig imaginable. Sofia’s a woman jaded by her distrust of almost everyone around her because of her extended stay in prison that has recently lost her father. It only makes sense she could be a little stressed, but the madness Milioti unearths from the character works because of her commitment to the most realistic possible portrayal of someone like Sofia. She walks into scenes with fire on her heels and a crazed look in her eye, but it never feels overdone. Milioti’s performance is her best yet, hopefully adding her to the future of the cinematic universe in the process. 

The Penguin looks into the depths and inner workings of America’s most crime-infested (and fictional) city. It feels correct to compare the show to The Sopranos with its depiction of the inner-machinations of organized crime families. Another HBO series that found success in looking into the lives of those who feel less remorse about murder and violence than most, the two compare in both darkness and quality in storytelling. The pilot sets the tone for the rest of the limited series with graphic violence and a layer of filth lining every frame. Gotham City feels unlivable and unreal, somewhere so infiltrated by crime that everyone not involved is just an innocent bystander – ask Thomas and Martha Wayne. This is cemented by Victor’s arrival into Oz’s life and, thus, the series. He’s too young to be involved in something as dangerous as the dealings Oz is involved in, but the necessity of both having to work for him and needing the money he begins getting supplied with anchors the series with the weight of how lower-income citizens are pushed towards crime in a desperate attempt to do more than exist. Anyone earning money might feel important in how they’re accruing cash, so the monetary gain by sticking with Oz and the security added by staying around him only makes sense for someone like Victor. It weaves together character desires to do what they assume they should do and whether it be Victor, Oz, or Sofia doesn’t matter much since they’re all desperately seeking a place in the world that will offer slightly more light than their current existence. Even criminals feel stagnant in their misery.

It can often feel tedious to watch a story for a character introduced in a previous installment in a franchise, but The Penguin always feels like its own story while sticking to the world created in The Batman. In a series filled with spectacular performances, Cristin Milioti surpasses even the show’s lead in a rigorous demand for your attention when she’s on screen and an intense desire for her to return when she isn’t. The show’s calmer moments, though few, sprinkle a light through the drama like stars in the night that make the rest of the series feel the intensity of the story. It’s the best entry into the new DC cinematic universe that defies expectations while setting up stories to come. The Penguin is a marvel. 

Grade: A

The eight-episode limited series The Penguin will debut weekly beginning Thursday, September 19 on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.