The Penguin review: DC mobster series is barely a comic book show

When is a comic book show not a comic book show?

When it’s The Penguin — which, if not for the names and places (Oswald Cobb, Sofia Falcone, Salvatore Maroni, Gotham), you would never know was a series grounded in the fanciful world of DC Comics.

This is a gritty and dark (thematically and literally) mobster drama masquerading as a superhero show. Think The Godfather, The Sopranos or in its more violent moments, Scarface.

For those sceptical about comic book adaptations, don’t let The Penguin’s origins put you off. No one here has superpowers and there’s not a cape or Bat Signal in sight.

The character first made his appearance in 1941 in an issue of Detective Comics and has been a Batman villain ever since. Danny DeVito memorably played him in Tim Burton’s 1992 as a grotesque figure who grew up in the sewers. A shifty crime lord with pretensions of class and Inspector Gadget-level weapons, it’s hard to take him seriously.

This new version of the character was introduced in Matt Reeves’ Robert Pattinson-starring The Batman and he does not have an umbrella hiding a mini helicopter.

Oswald “Oz” Cobb (Colin Farrell) is a sad mid-level goon working for the Falcone crime family who is in a turf war against the Maronis and other players such as the triads.

Oz has aspirations to be a bigger player, maybe run his own criminal empire. But he’s not well-regarded within the fold, only as someone who’s fun to have a drink with, as underboss John Vitti (Michael Kelly) makes abundantly clear.

“People don’t keep you around because you’re smart,” Vitti sneers at him. “They don’t trust you. People keep the Penguin around as entertainment, you’re a goddamn joke.”

What he really can’t brook is being laughed at, which is exactly what Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegan), son of the late Carmine who bit the dust in The Batman, does in the first scenes of The Penguin. It was the last thing Alberto ever does.

In cover-up panic mode, his crime is discovered by a group of youths, including Victor Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz), a young man who lost everything but gained a truckload of trauma when the seawall around the city was bombed in The Batman, flooding poor neighbourhoods.

With the threat of death hanging over his head, Victor reluctantly joins Oz as his driver and all-round dogsbody. In the soulful hands of Feliz, Victor is a tragic figure in conflict between his obvious uneasiness with Oz’s plans and the fact someone is “looking out” for him. It’s an abusive relationship but a complicated one.

Complexity is the key here, and all those layers are present across The Penguin’s main characters.

Farrell is chameleonic under the prosthetics, padding and make-up, and sometimes you have to really strain your ears to even recognise his voice, completely absent of his Irish lilt.

Oz is not immoral, he’s not even amoral. He has a heart and when he is in the presence of his mother (Deirdre O’Connell), there is a lot of love. But he has a chip on his shoulder and a burning desire to prove himself — to whom? To himself, yes. To the Falcones, maybe. To Gotham, definitely.

Farrell cuts a compelling figure but even he is overshadowed by Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone/Hangman, Carmine’s daughter just released from Arkham Asylum.

Sofia loves her brother and vows to avenge his demise. She’s also fighting for validation in a family structure, including her uncle Luca (Scott Cohen) that has never respected her power. Being underestimated works to her advantage, as it often does for women in these patriarchal environments.

Milioti is a masterclass in restraint, always conveying the threat Sofia poses through the smallest physical gestures or a flick of the eye. She is dangerous but she never declares it. There’s a line reading in which she says, “I’m probably just being crazy”, that makes you viscerally shudder.

It’s all beautifully pulled together by showrunner Lauren LeFranc and set-up director Craig Zobel, who helmed the first three episodes.

Zobel is an experienced hand in the prestige TV game, having worked on shows such as The Leftovers, American Gods and Westworld but his real training for The Penguin was directing all episodes of Mare of Easttown.

Zobel knows how to extract effective performances and he has a strong grasp of The Penguin’s tone, keeping it shadowy but not grim where the characters’ psychic wounds drive all their choices and the action.

It’s disciplined filmmaking and it kills.

The Penguin premieres on Binge on September 19