Penguin

Source: Max

My most recent binge, which ended this week, has been Penguin, Max's spin-off of the current DCU. Currently, there is no Jim Gordon. Batman is mentioned as "that costumed vigilante," and the more comic book elements of the DCU are only mentioned in passing. This is a mash-up of The Godfather and The Wire. In lieu of Stringer Bell, we have Oswald Cobb, a partially crippled knockaround guy for the Falcone crime family. And boy do they have issues.

What makes Penguin and The Batman so different is they eschew the over-the-top supervillains for a gangster story. Falcone is very much Carlo Gambino with serial killer overtones. Their rivals, the Maronis, are almost the Montagus to the Falcones' Capulets in a Shakespearean rivalry that's undone about halfway through the season. All the while, an unrecognizable Colin Farrell plays a fat, crippled Oswald Cobb, aka "the Penguin," once a personal driver for the Falcone family now looking to take over himself. He's a schemer, and he's ruthless. 

Slowly, the source of Cobb's sociopathic drive is revealed over eight episodes. Some of this is reworking of the Gotham premise, where the Penguin is a naive kid looking to make his mark in the city's underworld. In both versions, Cobb's mother is his weak spot. But where the previous series depicted her as an aging immigrant mother (played by Carol Kane), we're treated to a woman in the throws of dementia trying to make sense of her son's bizarre moves.

Source: Max

But the most interesting character in the series is Sofia Gigante, nee Falcone. Played by Cristin Milioti, Sofia is the daughter of Carmine, and in the wake of his death, she is caught up in the power struggle to fill the void. At first, she and Oz (as the titular Penguin is commonly called), team up after her brother's death to overthrow the Falcone hierarchy and go after the rival Marones. Sofia has just spent ten years in the infamous Arkham Asylum, accused of being the serial killer Hangman. Only her father Carmine was the Hangman, and his first victim was Sofia's mother. When the rest of the family (both blood and mob) attempt to exile her to Italy, Sofia kills them all off. But now she's also in a battle with Oz for control. She declares to the remaining organization they are no longer the Falcone Family, they are the Gigante Family, based on her mother's maiden name and possibly a nod to late Genovese crime boss Vincent "the Chin" Gigante. She is a woman enraged, having her mother and her life stolen from her. It's not hard to sympathize with her.

But Oz is also carrying his own demons, some of his own making. His quest to be the top dog starts within his own family. By the finale, he has already dodged execution by Sofia three times, escaping from right under her nose. 

There is none of Burgess Meredith's dapper Penguin, with the monocle and the tuxedo. Maybe in a later Batman movie, but not now, and not with Meredith's quacking duck laugh. Neither is Oswald Cobb Danny DeVito's angry mutant. Yet, Farrell channels some of DeVito's attitude, look, and even voice in his Penguin. Writers improved on Gotham's "Kapelput," both attempts to make him more realistic. But whereas Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder made the Joker an evil version of Neil Gaiman's Lucifer, Penguin's evil is understandable. He repeatedly wins over our sympathy only to dash it against the rocks, especially in the finale.

But best of all, it jumps off The Batman showing the city recovering from the events of that movie and mentioning Bats in passing, goes full-on naturalistic, and only returns to the DC Universe at the end of the finale. Selina Kyle is introduced by letter, and the Bat Signal is seen in the closing scene, Batman somewhere else in the city, probably streaming Deadpool and Wolverine with Alfred. 

It doesn't really compare to Gotham after that show's first season. Gotham abandoned the realism for camp after mid-season 2. If I had to compare Penguin to anything, it would be Paramount+'s Tulsa King.