When The Penguin's Colin Farrell first submerged himself into the silicone blubber costume for the beaky Batman villain during the 2022 movie, we never could have anticipated the stealth Sopranos sequel we had on the way.
Oswald Cobblepot was reimagined from Danny DeVito's tiny, squawky and oddly oily gothic villain from Batman Returns into a scarred, limping lug of a man with a New Yawk accent and, most interestingly, big Tony Soprano vibes.
He flips effortlessly from convivial conversations about slushies, family, and fine wine to pushing people into graves, double-crossing and shooting point blank. Farrell's Penguin even has a difficult relationship with his mother, who wants him to step up to take over Gotham and brutally withdraws her affection when his attempts don't quite work out.
Embracing the Sopranos style makes sense, both thematically and statistically: it regularly tops the list of HBO's most-watched shows, even now, 17 years after the finale.
The focus on Oswald Cobblepot's slippery, conniving and almost likeable Penguin means you never quite know how to feel about him. This is especially prevalent in his relationship with Victor (Rhenzy Feliz), a vulnerable teen who's adopted to be a driver and gangster secretary.
Victor also has a stutter, which helps convey levels of vulnerability, but also adds real-life character texture. It's so rare for dramas to show characters with speech impediments, so it's an interesting and progressive inclusion in the show.
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Penguin's own disability, a club foot, helps draw the pair into an alliance, according to showrunner Lauren LeFranc, as they have an unspoken simpatico relationship due to their experiences.
The show isn't operating on Breaking Bad levels of morally questionable actions, but it certainly helps make the villain leading the show feel like a (sometimes) compelling, scrabbling underdog. You can't help but root for him as he grasps for power and narrowly avoids deadly situations.
The Penguin takes place a week after the events of The Batman, and you still clearly feel the reverberations of the film's events, from Gotham news coverage recapping the flooding caused by The Riddler to his followers still pushing his agenda on the train.
It deftly weaves the movie's grander-scale events into the everyday life of more ground-level characters who make up Oswald's world.
Thankfully, the central performances are all really compelling, especially How I Met Your Mother's Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, Marvel Runaways Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, and, of course, Farrell himself – along with a potentially intriguing role for Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni, who will never not live in our heads as SpongeBob's Mr Krabs.
Overall, much like Oswald himself, The Penguin edges and scrapes near greatness during its run, with compelling performances and strong storytelling, but sadly a few episodes veer into slightly dull mob politics, and the scenes within Arkham are more comic book-y rather than matching the gritty reality they reach for in rest of the show.
Nevertheless, The Penguin is solidly watchable and perfectly bingeable, but might not hold up the same gripping momentum week to week. It doesn't hit the same creative heights as The Sopranos, but for fans of The Batman movie, there's going to be some added depth for the universe and likely more teases for The Batman: Part 2.
This is very much the march of Oswald Cobblepot's Penguin, and thankfully doesn't suffer from the absence of the Dark Knight, as so many Gotham-world shows have in the past.
The Penguin will debut on Max in the US on September 19, and NOW and Sky Atlantic in the UK on September 20.
Laurence Mozafari (he/him) is a multi-award winning journalist, editor, and presenter. A former Editor-in-Chief of Digital Spy, Laurence previously held roles as the site's Editor, Deputy Editor, and Associate Editor focusing on news, social, and video. Laurence hosted the BBC Sounds podcast Obsessed with Peaky Blinders in 2019. He also hosts his own podcast production, Time of My Life, where he interviews fascinating elders about their life lessons, including Only Fools and Horses' Sir David Jason, Star Trek’s George Takei and Bridgerton’s Adjoa Andoh.
Laurence was named Editorial Director – Youth Audience at Reach in early 2025. Prior to joining Digital Spy, he was previously at Bauer Media working as Digital Editor of Heat magazine's website Heatworld.com, and has also worked at and written for Sky, NME, Q magazine, Grazia, Closer, FHM and dedicated careers website GoThinkBig. He secured a first-class BA journalism degree at Staffordshire University, along with several NCTJ qualifications, and now has 14 years' experience in digital publishing covering TV, movies, music, gaming, tech, showbiz, and travel.
Laurence has been a broadcasting contributor on television and radio, including KISS, Heat Radio, BBC Radio London, Radio 5 Live, and BBC Breakfast.
He is also a visiting lecturer at various universities teaching journalism, including City, University of London, Nottingham Trent, Staffordshire University and London Metropolitan. Laurence has won numerous awards in his journalism career, including the BSME Talent Award’s Best Deputy Editor, the PPA's 30 Under 30, and the New Editor and Editor of the Year at the AOP and BSMEs. He led Digital Spy to win PPA's Digital Content Team of the Year twice, along with the British Media Awards’ Brand of the Year in 2021.
Laurence joined the committee for the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2022 and was named vice-chair in 2025. He has since hosted panels with CEOs of Immediate Media and the Media Trust at the PPA Festival, as well as presenting his own radio show on Green Man Radio at Green Man Festival in 2022. Laurence is also a Brits voting academy member.
Laurence has been lucky enough to interview numerous celebrities, actors, and musicians throughout his career. Arnold Schwarzenegger loved his hair, Jimmy Carr loved his coat and Antonio Banderas gave a shout-out to his mum. Laurence has covered set visits for The Witcher on Netflix and Marvel’s Inhumans, he got Daisy Ridley to do a Chewbacca impression and loves Marvel, PlayStation, Glastonbury and craft beer. Linkedin
