TL;DR – This is phenomenal character work that had me on the edge of my seat, wondering just what would happen next.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge service that viewed this series.

The Penguin Review –

When I first started watching this episode, I mused to myself, ‘Oh, tis the seasons of flashback episodes’. While that first gut reaction did have some truth to it, it did not prepare me for what followed. The depths that we would go to, and how the episode ended.

So, to set the scene, everything was going well in Bliss. That is until Nadia Maroni (Shohreh Aghdashloo) arrives and drops the bomb that not only is Oz (Colin Farrell) playing the two families off each other but that he was the one who killed Alberto Falcone (Michael Zegen) back in After Hours. While Vic’s (Rhenzy Feliz) surprise entry into the scene saved everyone from an execution, it still rocks Sofia’s (Cristin Milioti) world, which was already precarious thanks to her time in Arkham. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

Once again we get another episode that is focused on one character, and it was worth it because it gave Cristin Milioti absolutely the chance to shine. Most of the main cast is missing or moved to more minor roles, meaning that everything falls on Cristin to carry the episode and give the impact that it needs. Now, if you have seen Cristin in things like Palm Springs, you would have already known that she could pull this off. But it was still a phenomenal watch to see it all unfold.

This episode is told in two halves, the first being the lead-up to why Sofia ended up in Arkham. You can feel the frustration of her being the kind face of the organisation when she is the brighter child, overlooked because she was not born a boy. That moment of elation when she is anointed as a successor, only to be taken down in an instant because she stumbled into the one secret of her father’s (Mark Strong) that he would kill family over. Mark Strong only has a small role here, but it is filled with malice, and you feel he is a man of power who can destroy lives in an instant.   

Much of this episode is a play on power and how it can be used to elevate and destroy people. You don’t have to look too far into our past to see how mental institutions were used to dehumanise and control people. Power is used to control people, to abuse them, and it is hard to watch. More so because we know that Sofia is not the Hangman; it was her father, but here she is doing his time for his crime. So much of acting is in the eyes, and the episode goes out of its way to highlight Cristin’s through the use of makeup, so there is nowhere to hide, and she captivates every scene.

The second half of the episode takes place in the hours after Bliss when Sofia realises just what a predicament Oz and her family have put her in. I will say that there is such a hard cut between the two halves that I was honestly disorientated for a moment as to what was happening. But once you get over that hard cut, we get the building crescendo for the episode. You know that Sofia has to do something to improve her position in the family before she gets shipped off to Sicily or worse. So, in every moment of that dinner scene, you hang on to every word and every action. There is this feeling that guns could be drawn at any second, and the fact that they don’t becomes even more disturbing. That calm walk that Sofia did when she walled the little Gia (Kenzie Grey) out to the greenhouse [character foreshadowing?] was unsettling because you were waiting for the hammer to fall, which happens the following day when I am assuming a whole bunch of carbon monoxide takes the entire building out.     

In the end, do we recommend The Penguin: Cant’anni? Absolutely. I said it last week, and I will say it again: this show is honestly some of the best work that has been done in live-action for DC in decades. You feel for the characters, you understand them, and you want to see their stories. I did not care for Sofia Falcone one bit in the Batman canon before this show, and now I need to see where she goes from here because The Penguin prioritises those character moments.   

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen The Penguin yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Penguin
Directed by – Helen Shaver
Written by – John McCutcheon
Created by – Lauren LeFranc
Based On – Characters by Bob Kane & Bill Finger and The Batman by Matt Reeves & Peter Craig
Production/Distribution Companies – Acid and Tender Productions, 6th & Idaho Motion Picture Company, Dylan Clark Productions, Chapel Place Productions, Zobot Projects, DC Studios, Warner Bros. Television, HBO & Binge
Starring – Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Zegen, Scott Cohen, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Theo Rossi, Michael Kelly & Mark Strong with James Madio, Nadine Malouf, Aleska Palladino, Marié Botha & Tess Soltau and Aria Shahghasemi, Jenny Heaton, Kenzie Grey, Peter McDonald, Renée Stork, Syd Skidmore & T. Ryder Smith