the penguin has wrapped up its run on Max and we may be some time away still from the Batman throwing a batang at the penguin but he should still look out because I am ready to throw these hands hello everybody I'm Dan Merl here with my review of the penguin which wrapped up its season on Max last night I'm going to do a few non-spoiler thoughts at the top and then I'll let you know I'm going to transition into some spoiler thoughts because I have so many things to say about this season and most of them are spoilery so I'll talk about them later but this show got such a response from me especially the finale last night that I couldn't wait to come on and talk about it I actually had to delay this video until later in the day because I had so much to say and I think it really just goes down to how impressively this show was pulled off and its narrative and its acting and everything both Marvel and DC have had villain spin-off shows recently Agatha all along and now the Penguin and I think that they both did what they intended to do in very different ways Agatha all along was a villain spin-off that got you to understand the villain the penguin kind of pulled off a magic trick it made us root for a villain only to remind us why we're not supposed to like him it used all of the narrative tricks that you can think of a tragic backstory likable allies and Underdog narrative only to remind us that villains are villains they're not anti-heroes and it did that in the most brutal way possible and I have to give full credit to the showrunner Lauren leafrank and the writers because to quote another version of this character the penguin this show played its audience and me especially like a harp from Hell Colin frell deserves a boatload of Praise I loved him in the Batman but here he does some great character work and he's not just letting the Prosthetics do the work he crafted a great character in Oz Cobb you still think this good and bad right and wrong there ain't this just this survival he's damaged he's overlooked he's desperate to prove himself and for a while it seemed like this show was going to be a tragedy about Oz cob until we realized that it is a tragedy about the people around him I think he played the character pitch perfectly from the desperate lies that he told in order to just survive another day or another minute to the brutal decisions that he made in the final episode this was not a show about how a monster is made this was a show about a monster's rise to power and I think that Colin Ferell was able to keep us on board with this character until we very much were not the show also had a great cast of supporting characters led by Kristen motti as Sophia Gigante Falcone reny Feliz as Vic and dear oconnell as Francis cob his mother and let's talk about Sophia because when you look back at the show she is I think the closest thing that it has to a protagonist which is not necessarily where you would be for the entire season and I think it's largely because everything that she does this season just about is Justified justified by the way that she's been treated by the Betrayal that she's experienced in her life from every single person that was supposed to protect her her Arc of realizing that she didn't want to be a Crime Boss she just wanted Justice was a powerful one and I don't think that anybody in the show could be characterized as a good person necessarily but I think that Sophia was the easiest to understand I loved you and yet not one of you tried to help me Kristen motti did a great job of channeling the pain and the trauma of this character and generally when you look at this season it's Eight Episodes long the show did a great job of introducing a bunch of new characters that you really did care about by the end of the season the one I was most invested in was reny feliz's Vic who gave up his chance at escaping Life Of Crime early in the season he did a bunch of things that bad guys do he killed people he ran drugs he helped Oz build an Empire but I never disliked him I pied him I rooted for him I wanted him to find a place of happiness I actually likeed that he found some understanding and Oz and that Oz saw some somebody that mirrored in many ways his own life there were so many things that I loved about this character Vic's story is the one that I'm going to remember coming out of the Season more than any other character for a number of reasons that we'll get into later and when the awards groups are looking at the show and making their determinations I hope that they don't overlook rinsey Feliz because I think that Vic was the key to unlocking the heart of this season and really the key to the impact of the show overall you gave people dignity Bliss that's bigger than Bliss and then we have dear Jo oconnell as O's Mother Francis she was a character who at first I struggled to understand until the finale when the show dropped a key piece of information that really unlocked everything at first Francis seemed a bit like a stock character the overbearing mother who demanded nothing but the best from her son but the show gradually peeled her back like an onion until you really began to understand that there was so much more going on there her illness did add some sympathy to her character but really Francis was another example of the show playing with our expectations and faking us out until everything was revealed when my ass wol puts a bullet and that pretty little Scully who was I'll be tap dancing on your grave in general I think that the penguin understod what should be done when we talk about one of these spin-off series doing World building which is not just introducing a bunch of characters that are going to be leveraged in future movies and TV shows this actually did build out the world I walked away with a better understanding of Gotham with a better understanding of the penguin as a character and with a better understanding of why this city really needs a pretty crazy dude in a bat suit to swoop down and clean it up I went from wondering if Batman was going to show up in the series to hoping that he wouldn't because I thought that that would distract from the story that's being told and when you think about it to have a Batman spin-off show rooting for you to not have Batman show up is a pretty big achievement and to get into all of those reasons why I'm going to have to go into spoilers and jump into a full recap of the season so if you haven't seen season one of the Penguin and this may be the only season stop right now go and watch it it's Eight Episodes long come back and watch this review and if you haven't watched the finale yet and you don't want to be spoiled stop right now go watch the finale and come back but for everybody that's seen the show and wants to dive into full spoilers let's get into exactly what I loved about each episode this season and why I think that this was one of the better TV shows that I've seen in a really long time mechanics a good job that should be the American dream right there you know beautiful story would happy end there but that ain't the way the world works so I did a review of the first episode of the penguin when it came out and I think I mentioned in that review that one of the things I like the best already was that connection between Vic and Oz and I think the show knew what it was doing there and was able to exploit that connection in a good way to make sure that the finale had Maximum Impact the second episode Inside Man worked really hard to get us on the side of all the main characters we had Sophia struggling to adjust to life outside Arkham and being shut out by her family in the wake of her brother's death including a very obvious nod to The Godfather as she's literally shut out of the family business at this point we think that she still went to Arkham murdering a bunch of people and going back and seeing this knowing that she didn't and that it was all a setup makes this even more tragic especially things like the protesters that showed up at her brother's funeral I was already thinking that that must have been such a difficult day the first time I watched it you're at your brother's funeral these protesters are there then you add to that the fact that they are there demeaning you for murders that you didn't even commit we also got more development of the relationship between Oz and his mother and the pressure Oz feels from her to be a success again another great example of thinking that you understand that Dynamic only for everything to be turned on its head later on in the series Oz's desperate attempt to cover his tracks and take care of the [ __ ] henchmen who could expose his double dealing results in one of his many rabbit out of the Hat moments and his lesson to Vic about the price of failure really hits hard now that we've all seen the finale how does it feel Vic huh nah hey hey Don't Close Your Eyes look at them remember this this is what happens when you joke you understand ending the episode with Oz and Sophia teaming up sets you up to think as a viewer that this is going to be an alliance you're going to be rooting for for the rest of the season except that it almost immediately disintegrates playing with viewer expectations is a dangerous game but I think it was something that the penguin did often and did well and that added to the quality of the show overall what do you say Oz you in Let's Dance episode three introduces Bliss the street drug that Sophia brings back from Arkham Asylum which is made from hallucinogenic mushroom spores I think that's the perfect kind of thing that's realistic enough to fit into a show like this but just comic Booky enough to feel like it fits in a Batman show I loved how the episode opens with a flashback to Vic on the night of the Riddler's attack when his family was killed in the flood it actually didn't register to me at first that that was a flashback and I was genuinely surprised Ed when the bombs started going off and I realized that this was a direct tie end to the events of the Batman it was a great way to incorporate the movie Into the show in a meaningful way and this episode was also the one where Vic had a chance to escape everything to leave with his girlfriend and I was disappointed when I watched it the first time not in the show but in Vic's decision but I also understood why he didn't go because you're really starting to see this connection between him and Oz which is genuine it's a family connection that Vick has been missing finding someone who understands him and who looks out for him and now it's just heartbreaking that he gave up his chance potentially at happiness to follow this guy down a road that led to Nowhere for him to his absolute Doom it's heartbreaking and I think that this show is going to feel a lot more tragic on rewatch when you know where everybody ends up but this was the point of no return for Vick culminating in him saving ozs from moroni's goons and what made the odds Vic relationship work isn't that I don't think Oz was manipulating him I think that this was a real connection between the two of them and the chemistry between Colin frell and rinsey Feliz was so good I wouldn't ask you to do this if I didn't know you could handle it I believe in you kid now I knew the Oz Sophia relationship was probably doomed to fail but I didn't expect that it would last just one episode and it really was a sign that Oz is a great improviser but not immune from the consequence qu es of his lies he's not especially great at building out a long game especially in the beginning of the Season he's good at getting out of a fix or getting out of a problem for a minute and then worrying about whatever the next problem is going to be and yet behind all of those manipulations you have these moments that I think were truthful like the discussion that he has with Sophia apologizing for selling her out to her father all those years later but explaining that this was what he had to do to succeed because he was not a guy who was ever set up for success in his life I got the club I dropped operation to run my own thing guy like me getting all that episode four is where the show really began slinging us some curveballs and it was a great showcase for Christen motti we get the reveal that Sophia is not the hangman but was sent to Arkham by her father Carmine after being framed for the murders that he committed as punishment for asking too many questions and meeting with the reporter we didn't see much of Mark Strong as k Falcone but he was a real son of a [ __ ] pardon my French and the Revelation that he not only sold out his daughter but killed his own wife completely reframes our concept of who Sophia is and why she wants to rise up in the ranks the idea of being betrayed and framed by your entire family is a terrifying one but it also justifies what Sophia does in this episode which was one of a few different times in the series that I was really shocked when she rigs up a gas leak to kill everyone in the Falcone family except for Johnny VII who was played by the always great Michael Kelly it is kind of ironic that Sophia committed mass murder as an act of Revenge for being falsely accused of committing mass murder but it also was very obvious that the old Sophia never left Arkham Asylum and I think that this show did as good as any other piece of Batman media I've seen of showing us that Arkham Asylum is not the room full of glass doors that Batman walks through while he's talking to Commissioner Gordon it is a horrific insane asylum full of corrupt doctors who will happily give a patient electroshock treatments if the price is right it is risky to do a whole episode of a show called The Penguin that doesn't really feature much of the penguin except for how he plays into Sophia's story but I think that the writers rightfully gambled on the fact that we as viewers would already be interested in her story that shows a lot of faith in the casting and it also shows a lot of faith in the writing and this was a great way midseason to rewind the story so far reframe what we already know and deliver a great moment for somebody that we Now understand much better than we did at the beginning of episode one to New Beginnings chani episode five gives us Oz at his most sadistic as he repays the moroni's attempts to kill him by kidnapping sa maron's son then burning him and moroni's wife alive at a hostage exchange that brief moment as he Smiles while watching them burn gives you a glance at the real oob and what he's capable of despite all the background we've been given it really is an indication that this is not a good guy or a misunderstood guy or an anti-hero he is a villain Clancy Brown has popped up in a lot of DC projects and I loved him as Sal [ __ ] he brought I think a real brutality and physicality to the character this isn't just a guy behind a desk giving orders this [ __ ] is a street brawler who will bring the fight to you and putting him on the war path is never a good idea Sophia's alliance with [ __ ] seemed to put oz in an impossible situation and I like the fact that after wiping out the entire Falcone crime family she also wiped out their name and decided to become the Gigante family Falcon and [ __ ] are the Falon don't exist anymore I am offering you an alliance as a result of this Oz has to flee and go to Crown Point put his mother up in a dilapidated old apartment which causes friction between them because he's promised her all the best but it also opens us up to the fact that every villain needs a good layer and I love the underground trolley tunnel where penguin set up his drug lab again that's something that is just believable enough to fit into the gritty crime feel of the show but also very much in line with what you would expect from a comic book show the idea of an abandoned subway station being a super villain layer it also gains extra significance when we understand the history of these trolley tunnels and how they played into Oz's past episode 6 is where we see Oz begin to flex his muscle and start to become an actual Crime Boss and not just a guy who's sort of making things up as he goes I loved his speech to the other gang seizing on a populist message about standing up to the [ __ ] gigantti Elites and taking the city for themselves if you don't think that's relevant or believable the world will tell you differently a bridge that was built by your ancestors Donnie boy but it ain't named Sullivan huh no it's named for the rich Crooks who took credit for your family's hard work Oz's biggest gift I think is that he's legitimately good with people either manipulating them or forging actual bonds with them and once again it gets him out of a tight spot he now has a larger gang really than the morones or the gigantes and the bonds that he makes inside of those gangs would save him once again later in the season Vic's descent into crime also takes a huge leap forward in this episode as he's forced to kill squid the local crowno tough guy who's trying to muscle into Oz's operation and my heart broke for Vic because he's not somebody who belongs in this world I wanted so much better for him but I realized after this episode that there was no turning Vic because of that bond that he built with Oz I mean Oz showed him such compassion and understanding after Vic committed a murder and it's a horrible thing to bond over but that's just the world where these two characters live you done the right thing protected those you care about you're strong kid I was so invested in this osic relationship especially after this episode which means once again that I think the writers knew exactly what they were doing francis's condition continued to deteriorate in this episode but we get a genuine moment of Happiness when Oz is able to get the power back on in Crown Point which of course is short lived because Sophia shows up after Oz is sold out by the only other person he trusted in his life which is the escort Eve and I liked how the show played Eve's decision to give up Oz's location that scene with her and Sophia was actually really good and the idea that Sophia revealed that she wasn't the hangman and that Oz was complicit in covering up the murders of Eve's friends who she blamed Sophia for that was or seemed like a legitimate reason for her to say hey you know what this is where he is because you deserve at least a chance at making things right that seemed like a very believable interaction between two characters Sophia and Eve basically shared no screen time together outside of that one scene and yet it was such a believable relationship between the two of them and that's one of the reasons I think that this show is is so well written and should be praised for its writing because even one scene like that was so well done you deserve your shot but where 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