The Penguin: Bliss

October 7, 2024 1:07 PM - Season 1, Episode 3

Oz and Sofia must address the skeletons in their closet as they attempt to control the future of Gotham's drug trade, while Victor is torn between his new life and what remains of his old one.

The Penguin Recap: This Is Gotham [Vulture / Archive]

posted by ellieBOA (7 comments total)

This one, more than the others so far, felt like a Victor episode. We got to see his backstory before the flooding, which was appropriately tragic. This also felt like a breaking bad moment for him, since he was totally set to leave Gotham and Oz behind, but then decided to turn around and commit fully to the life of crime.

Also, is this the first in-show utterance of "the Penguin" as an insult to Oz? Farrell did a great job of conveying the rage in his eyes when he got called that name. It was the exact same look that Trump had in the debate after Kamala called his rallies "boring".
posted by mrjohnmuller at 2:27 AM on October 9, 2024 [3 favorites]

I am continually amazed by Farrell's use of his prosthesis. Evidently, it gets super duper hot under all that gear.
posted by porpoise at 1:31 PM on October 9, 2024 [3 favorites]

Also, is this the first in-show utterance of "the Penguin" as an insult to Oz?

No, Viti called him that once before when they were about to move the drugs out of their warehouse.

Also, abandoning Sofia probably won’t engender much trust in her for Oz…
posted by star gentle uterus at 6:03 PM on October 10, 2024 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I dunno if it's 100% Farrell or different prosthesis for different scenes, different makeup or just different lighting, but the sheer ability for Oz to go from greasy two bit thug to ... well, decent father stand-in? or whatever he was doing in the restaurant with Victor? I'm just continually amazed by how much is coming through that prosthetic face.
posted by Kyol at 6:24 PM on October 20, 2024 [3 favorites]

I think this is an absolutely OK show. Probably the best written/realised superhero tv series I've seen (close with Wandavision, generally I find superhero TV underwhelming). Much better than, say, Gotham. Grading it against other premium crime dramas, it still does fine. I mean, it's not The Wire or even Breaking Bad, but what is etc. However, Colin Farrell, man. That is a performance. I'm still not 100% convinced it's him, but whoever is really doing it, is doing one great job. I hope he picks up some awards.
posted by Hartster at 7:57 AM on October 21, 2024

Hah, yeah, I keep wondering if I should bother to watch Gotham or if it's just slightly upmarket Arrowverse. My wife didn't drag me in to it and she stuck with the Arrowverse for a lot longer than I did, so I assume that's sort of a "don't bother" vote, there.

And yeah, my wife and I were kind of surprised how quickly Oswald leaves Sofia behind - I mean I assume he figures that she will either get gunned down by whoever survived of the hit squad, or he'll figure it out when he gets to it.

And I think that's kind of what I like the most about Oswald as opposed to like the Kingpin over in Daredevil - D'Onofrio played a hell of a character and brought out the trauma, very good, very fine, but he was also just kind of too good at his criming. Oswald is constantly just one step ahead of having all his bills coming due, he's building a house of cards that could collapse at any moment, taking whatever opening he can get, but it's never really a power move, it's just keeping ahead of whatever was about to come crashing down on his head. It's the decidedly _unsexy_ side of mob crime families, I guess.
posted by Kyol at 9:04 AM on October 21, 2024

During the scene when Oz gets upset with Victor about wanting to leave, I was hoping he'd pull a Tony Soprano and ask Victor, "What am I, a toxic person?"
posted by Saxon Kane at 2:22 PM on November 19, 2024