I wasn’t in any hurry to watch this. I thought it would lack punch because it was a DC product—a poor facsimile of The Goodfellas and The Sopranos.

 I have come to understand that, more often than not, my gut instincts are wrong.* The Penguin isn’t just good. It’s astonishing. Lauren LeFranc has produced magic, constructing a tale no one knew they needed—Penguin’s origin story—which doesn’t lean heavily on DC continuity or require Batman to give it heft.

For some reason, I thought it was going to be set before the Matt Reeves Batman movie. Rather, it picks up where that film ended, with Gotham struggling to deal with the destruction of its seawall—thanks to the Riddler—that’s wiped out a chunk of the city, including poorer boroughs like Crown Point. The flashback opening to episode three, which shows a torrent of water exploding through the apartments of Crown Point, is punch-in-the-gut stuff.**

It’s the assassination of Carmine Falcone, though, that’s the inciting event for Penguin. Falcone’s son, Alberto, becomes the head of the family. He catches Oz Cobb stealing Carmine’s valuables (and kompromat) from a safe in the Iceberg Lounge. They have a sit-down chat where a Al, hooked on “drops”, briefly explains his plan to revolutionise the family’s drug operation with a new product. But Al goes a step too far. He makes fun of Oz’s dream of becoming a respected mobster. And Oz, who cannot stand being underestimated by anyone, shoots Al dead. While shoving Al’s corpse in the boot of his car, Oz comes across Vic Aguilar, a young man from Crown Point looking to steal the rims from Oz’s car. The mobster intends to kill Vic but feels sorry for the boy because, like him, he has an impediment—Vic stutters. With Al vanished, Sofia Falcone—recently released from Arkham Asylum, imprisoned for allegedly hanging a handful of sex workers—wants the family to investigate her brother’s disappearance. They don’t seem to be interested. So, Sofia starts her investigation, with all the evidence pointing to her old driver, Oswald Cobb.

That summary barely touches the edges.*** The eight episodes pack in a tremendous amount of story, including episode four, which is predominantly all flashback—going back to Sofia’s time in Arkham, including the duplicity that saw her sent there in the first place.**** What’s jaw-droppingly good is that the storytelling never feels rushed or frenetic. The pacing is perfect.*****

Of course, the story would fall flat if the acting wasn’t sublime. Everyone in this, ranging from Clancy Brown to Deidre O’Connell, is magnificent. Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti******are on another level. They elevate what’s already a rich, brilliant, deeply insightful script. But the stand-out for me is Rhenzy Feliz as Vic. His “coming of mobster age” arc is familiar, but he gives it a texture and depth I wasn’t expecting.

I’ve said enough. If you have them, park your prejudices about comic based products and watch this extraordinary series.

 *I was like this with The Last of Us. In both cases, my brother persuaded me to watch the show.

**LeFranc makes the smart move of not starting with this scene but keeping it back until we know Oz’s young offsider, Vic.

*** I haven’t found room to mention the Maronis or Oswald’s mum! They are critical components.

****I’m not typically a fan of when shows screech to a halt to give us a flashback episode. But this one is a cracker, and without it, the last two episodes, in particular, would lack the intensity they have.

*****Each episode is around 55 minutes long, but you don’t feel it. I never once looked at my phone.

******Whitney from the Mindy Project!!!!

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