The Penguin, Binge review: a captivating character study

‘Never provoke the flight or fight response of the flightless bird’ … is what the tagline for The Penguin should’ve been (HBO, call me!).

Colin Farrell is back in the prosthetics for The Penguin, a punchy, noir crime series based on Matt Reeve’s 2022 film The Batman. Taking place a week after the Riddler and Batman went head-to-head, and destroyed much of Gotham’s lower-class district in the process, the story follows one Oz ‘The Penguin’ Cobb (Farrell, deep in character), Iceberg Club owner and gangster, whose desperation to climb the crime ladder will see him make a few interesting friends … and many more enemies.

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The Penguin: spreading wings

While loyally recreating the aesthetics of Reeve’s film (that orange colour wash is still omnipresent, as is the droning orchestral soundtrack), showrunner Lauren LeFranc has more in mind for Gotham, especially when it comes to exploring its rogues gallery, and the regular citizens most affected by their villainous actions.

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Carmine Falcone, Oz’s former boss, is dead. But Oz is still very much in the employ of the Falcones, and family tension is high. Carmine’s children, Alberto (Michael Zegen) and Sofia (Cristin Milioti), are both expected to make a run at being the next family head. But Alberto is missing, and Sofia is fresh out of Arkham Asylum with a whole lot of grudges to resolve. Top priority? To find her brother. Now, Oz wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would he?

To complicate matters even further, Oz has just been caught in a compromising situation by a delinquent teen. Rather than smoke him there on the spot, Oz agrees to take on the kid (Victor Aguilar, played by the suitably innocent-looking Rhenzy Feliz) as an apprentice/ errand boy. Little by little, we see the world of The Penguin open up beyond the borders of Oz’s nightclub, into the city streets, the strip where his sex-worker friend Carmen walks, the stinkingly wealthy Falcone mansion grounds, and the outer suburbs where his ageing mother Francis (Deirdre O’Connell) lives.

The Penguin: minor details

In Oz and his hatchling Victor there are strong echoes of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from AMC’s Breaking Bad. Sensing a kindred spirit due to both his tenacious drive and, perhaps, his fear, Oz employs Victor in a role that’s half mob trainee and half foster son. Victor has been orphaned and displaced ever since the flood happened, and his vulnerability is ripe for exploitation. While Oz’s human motivations for his crimes might garner sympathy from audiences, it’s Victor who we watch with bated breath to see how far he will actually go.

We also come to know Oz Cobb in the details: he drives a purple car (‘plum’, actually), he hates coriander, he listens to Dolly Parton, and he loves combining slushy flavours. He also has a very sensitive self-image, and will explode at anyone who demeans him or his appearance. Farrell completely disappears into the pointy-nosed, hobbling Oz Cobb, thanks largely to Michael Marino’s makeup work. Just don’t even think about calling him ‘The Penguin’ and you’ll be fine.

Aptly, The Penguin owes a lot of its dialogue stylings to 1930s and 40s film noir, and with that, Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone plays the Femme Fatale to perfection. Beautiful, deadly, and certifiably insane, Sofia Falcone, aka The Hangman (we won’t know why she earned that name until later), is a force to be reckoned with. Milioti has a remarkable ability to quietly unnerve with just a look, making every scene of hers a fascination that crackles with psychological tension and murderous intent. She’s definitely a show-stealer, and one of the series’ best draw cards.

Bordering somewhere between cool grit and and chewy cheese, The Penguin does what any good Batman story does best: it leans in to the weirdness of it all. Oz is certainly a frightening figure, towering above most of his colleagues and tongue-lashing at his nemeses, but his idiosyncratic way of dressing and wisecracking are more reminiscent of a cruise liner MC than a threatening mob boss. My emphatic opinion is that this rules, and makes for a far more interesting character study than a deadly serious dramatic interpretation would.

If The Penguin was a slushy, it would be one that combines the flavours of The Sopranos and The Godfather with Gilda and The Maltese Falcon. The ingredients are all familiar, sure, but the end result is something new and interesting enough to satisfy.

The Penguin premieres on Binge on 19 September.