Penguins have feathers, but the same way that stereotypical movie mobsters slick their hair back, penguins have oily feathers that give their body a slick appearance and streamlines them for swimming. Oz Cobb doesn't have feathers, but he's every bit as slippery as his namesake, as proven by the second episode of The Penguin. Spoilers follow for The Penguin Season 1, Episode 2, "Inside Man."
"Inside Man"
As I watch this show, I find myself questioning whether Sofia Falcone is actually insane. She's certainly dangerous, but everyone else in her family has killed as many people as she has, if not more. Not that that absolves her of her crimes, of course, but I find myself wondering if Sofia's stint in Arkham was because she's annoying to more powerful members of her family.
As the episode opens, Sofia is remembering/hallucinating time she spent in Arkham. The line blurs, and the scene cuts to reality, where Sofia is struggling in the office of her psychiatrist, Julian Rush. Rush holds her down to help her come back to reality, but as she does, he's closer to her than he should be--there's romantic body language--and it seems like it's only from his side. She sees it immediately, and pushes back.
Similarly, each time she comes into contact with Oz, he tries to slime his way to her side. She doesn't reject him quite so forcefully, but it's clear that she isn't taking a bit of his bull, however plausible. Her intelligence makes her immediately compelling, and more dangerous than any of the other hoods Penguin is concerned about. And that's a point in his favor--he sees the person one person in the room that it would be the worst to piss off. Even if he goes about that in the slimiest way possible.
Just how slimy Oz is, that seems to be the main theme of this episode. Last episode ended with him wiggling out of being caught for killing Alberto Falcone. Then there's a drug heist in the opening minutes, in which one of the bosses forces him to ride in the car he knows is going to be hit. He manages to wiggle out of looking provably guilty there, too. And that won't be the last time in just this episode. Bullets keep whizzing by him, metaphorically and literally, close enough for him to feel them, but they never actually hit him.
It's fun watching both of these characters work. Sofia is smart, dangerous, and undervalued. Oz is smart, but often not as smart as he thinks, and he's too ambitious to ever be safe.
Meanwhile, we find out how bad Oz' mother's illness really is. She's succumbing to dementia, and Oz's ambition, coupled with his fear of losing her, makes it difficult for him to acknowledge it verbally. Deirdre O'Connell's performance is making this entirely new character seem like a potentially indispensable part of Penguin's backstory moving forward, someone that writers will come back to time and time again, the same way that Batman: The Animated Series gave us Nora Fries and helped turn Mr. Freeze from a Silver Age comics dork into a tragic figure.
There are some great side performances, too. In particular, I enjoyed the pairing of Clancy Brown and Shohreh Agdashaloo as Salvatore and Nadia Maroni. Agdashaloo was awesome as Chrisjen Arasavala in The Expanse. This character is working on a much smaller scale, but is similarly wielding quiet power and isn't someone to be trifled with. Both of these character actors are a joy to watch everytime they're on screen, and The Penguin is no exeception.
Two episodes in, my critique remains unchanged: I wish this show was more of a comic book show. The Batman has become possibly my favorite Batman movie despite wishing that Reeves would let the character get weird again, instead of forcing him to live in the real world. I wish there were more weirdoes in The Penguin, more concern about the increasingly threatening vigilante crime fighter patrolling the city, more heightened reality.
But again, these performances are so much fun to watch on their own that I'm kind of willing to let that go.
Disclaimer: HBO provided Batman-News with early access to The Penguin episodes for the purposes of review.