Colin Farrell’s performance as Oswald Cobb in The Penguin is outstanding.
Colin Farrell’s performance as Oswald Cobb in The Penguin is outstanding.
OPINION
When watching The Penguin it’s hard to see past James Gandolfini. This is odd because the great actor isn’t in the show. And because he’s been dead for 11 years.
Gandolfini’s performance as the emotionally damaged mob boss Tony Soprano in HBO’s acclaimed mafia drama The Sopranos is widely regarded as one of the greatest performances in television history. To even be loosely reminded of Gandolfini’s incredible metamorphosis is remarkable. Even more so considering we’re talking about a TV show that’s been spun off from a superhero movie here.
This is largely down to Colin Farrell’s outstanding performance/Tony Soprano imitation in the titular role. Buried deep under layers of prosthetics and body padding and speaking with a thick Noo Yawk accent he is unrecognisable. Unless you’ve watched The Sopranos, then he’s immediately familiar. Not so much in depth of character, but certainly in vibe.
The Penguin takes place a week after the conclusion of 2022′s psychological crime thriller The Batman. This film rebooted the caped crusader in a more grounded, less fantastical setting, focusing on his detective skills rather than his arsenal of Bat-gizmos and digging deeply into the trauma of seeing his parents murdered as a child.
The Penguin continues with that more grounded vibe and serves as an origin story for Batman’s famous foe, who only appeared briefly in that film.
The caped crusader himself does not appear here at all, much to the show’s credit. The focus is kept solely on Oswald Cobb’s ambitious, violent journey from mob middleman to crime lord of Gotham City.
The Penguin focuses on the ambitious Oswald Cobb (played by an unrecognisable Colin Farrell) and his transformation from mob middleman to crime lord.
The Gotham underworld is in disarray after the death of mob boss Carmine Falcone at the end of The Batman. The Penguin opens with a chance late-night meeting between the good-earner Cobb and Falcone’s arrogant, drug and alcohol-addicted son Alberto, who has inherited control of the organisation. Having been caught red-handed somewhere he shouldn’t be, Cobb is in a tense spot.
While trying to weasel out of danger, he accidentally overshares his dream to become a loved gangster in his neighbourhood. Alberto’s scorn and mockery is immediate.
As is Cobb’s overreaction. He pulls out his gun and shoots Alberto dead – a decision he almost immediately regrets.
But after sleeping on it, and disposing of the body with the violently coerced help of a teenage delinquent, he begins to see the opportunity he has created for himself. This sets the scheming, ambitious Cobb on a mission to snatch power away from the Falcone family and set himself up as the city’s criminal kingpin.
Of course, there are consequences to murdering a mob boss and the show gets ample entertainment milage in Cobb’s dangerous dance with the devils as they attempt to work out what he knows and what he doesn’t.
Complicating matters is the arrival of Alberto’s murderous sister Sofia, fresh out of a decade-long stay at Arkham Asylum for a series of brutal murders. She’s quick to deduce that Oz is somehow involved and their deadly cat-and-mouse game is a delight to watch.
Cristin Milioti plays Sofia Falcone in The Penguin.
In contrast to Farrell’s huffed and puffed performance as the slimy Cobb – dubbed The Penguin, thanks to a disability that causes him to walk with a waddle – Sofia is played with a lithe, wide-eyed menace by Cristin Milioti.
The dynamic relationship between the two characters makes for thoroughly engaging viewing. Farrell gives his scheming, plotting Penguin a hard edge with a vulnerable interior, while Milioti gives Sofia a questionable level of sanity and an unquestionably frightening bloodlust.
Limited to only eight episodes, the series shoots by at a fast clip, never lingering too long in one place and keeping the momentum high as Cobb’s rollercoaster ride to the top of the crime hierarchy sends him barrelling into and out of harm’s way through multiple hairpin turns, multiple times an episode.
Like The Batman, the show also explores the emotional trauma behind the character’s gangland facade. And like The Sopranos before him we spend a lot of time with Cobb’s unstable mother.
While The Penguin doesn’t reach anywhere near the lofty heights of The Sopranos – few shows have – it’s still a thrillingly fun watch and miles better than what you may expect from a comic book TV show.
