*Spoiler Warning*
The Penguin is a new show, out now on Max, that’s getting lots of attention. The Penguin follows the rise of Oswald Cobb – nicknamed the Penguin because of his waddling limp. His goal: to become the new mob boss of Gotham City by taking over the city’s gangs. The show follows his rise to power as he tries to overcome the two main crime families controlling city. They want vengeance because of Oswald’s double crossing, manipulating schemes.
The Penguin takes place a week after the events of 2022 The Batman in the DC universe as Gotham is still suffering from power outages and some streets are still flooded with debris. The first two episodes really dive into setting up key characters like Vick and Sofia, and setting up a conflict. We learn Sofia will be the main antagonist and Vick begins to work for Oswald, and the two become close like father and son. I would say the first two episodes are good, adding new characters and bringing new life to the city of Gotham.
It’s not until episode four when we learn about the traumatic backstory that Sofia had in Arkham Asylum, and we are introduced to a new character, Dr. Julian Rush who is a psychiatric doctor who helps make Bliss, a new drug that they gave at Arkham to the patients to make them feel better.
The last two episodes, episode 7 and 8 give us background on Oswald and the truth for how he became so heartless and how dark his childhood. At the end of the show, we see the parental love between Vick and Oswald. Vick and Oswald are talking late at night in a park and Vick mentions how him and Oswald have grown to be like family. However, this tender moment is abruptly ended when Oswald strangles Vick to death, Oswald, seeing family as a weakness. We can see he is truly heartless, setting him up as a fantastic villain for the Batman in a later film. Oswald gets the penthouse he has always wanted, and finally becomes the new King of the Gotham underworld ruling over the crime.
This show does something a lot of modern media has been afraid of doing recently which is letting their villain stories be villains instead of anti-heroes. Movies like Black Adam had this problem, leaving a bad taste in audiences mouths. The only other modern movie that has done this well is The Joker 2019. The penguin has a score of 8.8 on IMDb, which is well deserved. This show also sets up future characters with the Penguin being the new mob king and people speculating that Dr. Rush could be the Scarecrow in future Batman media as he is using drugs to instill fear from his patients in the show.
The Penguin is truly a modern masterpiece, and I would definitely check it out. Even if you aren’t a superhero fan it is a perfect stand alone show about crime in big cities and a mob action thriller. I really enjoyed the show as the ending was a twist. Killing off Vick and making The Penguin get everything he has ever wanted through violence and corrupt dealings cemented him as a truly irredeamable villan.
