The Penguin Season 1 Review

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This is a DynaMic Network podcast. Hey guys, Marvelous Joe at the top of the episode to remind you that in the months of November and December, Dynamic Duel is donating 10% of the proceeds from our store to Stand Up to Cancer. So support our show, support a great cause by going to dynamicduel.com and clicking on the store button where you can buy a whole bunch of new cool products. Jonathan, what do we got for them that's new? We got hoodies, we got posters, shoes.

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water bottles, even a 2025 calendar for you guys. Yeah, there's a whole lot of holiday shopping you could do on the website. So again, be sure to visit dynamicduel.com, click the store button and check out all the dynamic duel stuff we have to offer. Thanks guys and on with the show.

01:06
Hi, welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Marvelous Joe. And I'm his twin brother, Johnny DC. And in this episode, we're going to review some lame ass show on Max called The Penguin, I guess? So you know when Joseph is talking about a DC show, if he calls it lame, it means it's actually the exact opposite of that. It was everything I wanted it to be.

01:35
It was fantastic, a masterpiece, and it basically restored my faith in DC after the disaster that was Joker 2. Well, don't give away the farm on this intro, man. Like, you gotta tease what's coming up later on this episode. I'm just letting the people know it's good. Okay, but, like, was it really good, though? You guys have to stay tuned to find out. Before we get into the review, we're gonna break down last week's comic book movie news, including the trailer that Marvel Studios released for What If Season 3, and actually, that's all the news. As usual,

02:05
No DC news. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. Our artificially intelligent duel simulator AJ9K has a quick message for our listeners, so listen up.

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Why hello there, do you want even more from this podcast? Then become a part of the dynamic duel community on Patreon, where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic two-oh tier gives you access to our Discord chat server. The fantastic four tier gives you two bonus episodes each month, and the X-Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly,

02:41
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03:06
Guys, be sure to tune into the other shows on the DynaMic Podcast Network this week, including Max Destruction, which pits your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This week, hosts Scotty and Gilly are finding out who would win in a fight between Bugs Bunny and Roger Rabbit. On the Senjoworld podcast, host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. Zach is currently traveling abroad, so the show is momentarily on a brief hiatus.

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And on the Console Combat Podcast, hosts John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode, they found out who would win between Emil8239 from Halo and Grayfox from Metal Gear Solid. Visit dynamicpodcasts.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all of the shows in the DynaMic Podcast Network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize!

04:01
A no-prize is an award that Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Duel No Prize, is a digital award that we post on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked, what would you say is the best Marvel or DC film to watch on Valentine's Day with your significant other, and why?

04:22
And this is coming off the news that Captain America Brave New World is coming out on Valentine's Day for 2025, and Jonathan and I were arguing on whether or not it would be a good date movie. We got a number of answers, so let's break down this week's honorable mentions before revealing the no-prize winner. Our first honorable mention goes to Baideer Bangura, who said, Hi, Dinami Dool. My answer to the question of the week would be Batman Returns. I think the great chemistry between Michelle Pfeiffer.

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Michael Keaton is palpable. I think that the storyline is amazing. I think the imagery and the scenery, the neo-noir scenery in the movie is really great as well. So great storyline, great feelings, great emotions. I think with some good food you would have a great great Valentine's Day. Take care. Yeah I would definitely say out of all of these superhero films in existence, the romantic relationship between the lead characters, Batman and Catwoman, has

05:21
Like you could cut it with a knife. It's a nice little romantic game of cat and flying mouse that they have going on there. Exactly. Now, Bydeer mentioned that you could pair it with good food for a great Valentine's Day too. Jonathan, what meal would you pair with Batman Returns? Oh dude, easy. Pussy. Ha!

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I was gonna say something like, I don't know, some kind of dessert that resembles mistletoe or something like that because there's the line in the movie where he's like, mistletoe can be deadly if you eat it and she's like, a kiss can be deadlier if you mean it. But I think you have the winner answer right there. Let's go ahead and move on. Our next honorable mention goes to Travis Herndon, who said? What's up, dynamic dudes? Travis here. Shout out to my evil twin. So, my answer would have to be Into the Spider-Verse. I mean, one.

06:13
Who doesn't love Spider-Man? Two, who doesn't love animated movies? It's a sick-ass movie to watch with your significant other and come on, I'm pretty sure most of us got our significant other by pulling the hand on the shoulder, eyebrow rate, saying hey, two of them. It's a sick-ass movie to watch with your significant other on a Valentine's Day, so come on. Yeah, Into the Spider-Verse, I don't think had a whole lot of romantic elements. I think across the Spider-Verse really played up on the Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy relationship.

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pretty well in a way that I think would be appealing to both sexes. But yeah, the first movie had the iconic line from Uncle Aaron, where to get a girl, you put your hand on their shoulder and you go, hey, which is absolutely how I got my wife. Not really. But that's the way I like to think of it in my head. What? Jonathan, let's hear your best. Hey, hey, girl. What's up? All right. I'm pretty sure you didn't get your wife that way. I did not.

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Now that I think about it, a lot of the Spider-Man movies would probably make great date night movies because, you know, like the original Sam Raimi trilogy really focused on the Mary Jane relationship. There was the Gwen Stacy relationship and of course the new trilogy with MJ. They're all good. So great answer Travis. Our next honorable mention goes to Colby Hentges. Who said? Hey boys, Colby Hentges. The best Marvel or DC film to watch with my wife on Valentine's Day is DC's Justice League.

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Weed and cut or Snyder cut, it doesn't matter because I can give my wife the attention she needs without missing anything important because nothing important happens in those movies. Weed and cut, hot garbage. Snyder cut, hot garbage. They both smell like new teeth. And Jonathan, I think we agree on this answer, right? We agree on Justice League, but definitely not Zack Snyder's Justice League. That was far superior to the theatrical version of the film, which yeah, it doesn't even need to exist. So why even watch it?

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If you're busy doing other things. That's fair. So great answer, Colby. We want to give a quick shout out to Jose Marcial, who basically gave the answer of any Marvel movie along the same lines as Colby Hentges's Justice League answer. Great answer, Jose. But the winners of this week's no prize are two people, actually. Waldo and Mason Thompson, who gave the same answer. Let's hear Waldo's. Hey, guys, Waldo here. Um, I guess I'd have to go with either of the Wonder Woman.

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the first one more. You know, it's heavily involved with her story with Steve Trevor, not just how they met, but how they're growing, becoming part of each other's world. And then at the end with his sacrifice, which is also reflected at the end of the second one with her sacrifice of him. If you're trying to win over a lady friend,

09:01
The best way to do so is through a classic love story, as we see in the first Wonder Woman film in particular, that also features a strong female protagonist. Yeah, it's definitely one of the more romantic superhero movies out there, I think. The relationship between Diana Prince and Steve Trevor is pretty well developed and also pretty tragic at the end. This tale of these lovers coming together and then being torn apart and then, you know, they get reunited in the sequel. It's all good Valentine's Day stuff. Yeah, and I would agree the best that the genre has to offer.

09:30
Actually, if I were to give my answer to this question, obviously it would be Deadpool, because nothing brings a couple together, like laughing together. Ryan Reynolds and Miranda Baccarin were great in the first movie, and I believe the film came out around Valentine's Day to begin with, so yeah, that was the correct answer. Well, honestly, horror films have actually been shown to bring couples together more than any other genre, so Plop and Constantine. Plop? There had to be a better verb choice there than plop. I said what I said.

10:00
Alright, congrats again to Waldo and Mason Thompson for winning this week's No Praise, guys. If you, the listener, want a shot at winning your own no prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. And now that that's done, on to the news!

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Alright, this past week we got the official trailer for season 3 of Marvel Animation's What If series. It's gonna be the third and final season of this series, and I gotta say I'm gonna be sad to see it go because I enjoyed both seasons 1 and season 2. Season 2 a little bit more than season 1. I thought season 2 took a more anthological approach to the story, didn't have to worry as much about setting up the Guardians of the Multiverse like season 1 did. So...

10:47
I really appreciated it running with the what if concept a little bit smoother than season one. Yeah, I agree. Season two was a lot better than season one. But that's sort of why I'm scared about this upcoming season because it seems like this one will also have like an overarching narrative between stories. Possibly. If they're ending it. If they're ending it, yeah, then we're probably going to have a couple episodes dealing with the rest of the Watchers besides Watu. We see the group of Watchers.

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towards the end of this trailer talking about how like this is the end. So I don't know how many of these episodes are going to be dedicated to that. Hopefully not many, but it looks like we have quite a good selection of anthological episodes to choose from, including a Western version of Shang-Chi. We have a fucking Gundam Avengers, including Captain America Gundam, a Shang-Chi Gundam, a Moon Knight Gundam, which was really cool to see Moon Knight play with the rest of the Avengers.

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in this series and plus he had a really cool looking Gundam. We saw Photon there, we saw the Red Guardian and Melina Vostokov there. That episode is going to be freaking amazing, it's going to blow my mind. There's also a like Red Guardian and Winter Soldier team up episode in what looks to take place back in the days of the USSR. Most interesting, it looks like we're going to get a revisit to the world of the Eternals because we see like Icarus and some of the other Eternals characters. There was a shot that we got here of Arashem that looked

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very similar to the end shot of the live action film that came out. So it'll be really cool to see like how they may approach the Eternals characters from a different angle in the series. It seems like they're stepping a little bit further outside the boundaries of just the live action Marvel Studios films to touch on things like the television shows such as Moon Night and even X-Men 97 which was the big reveal at the end of this trailer. We get a what-if episode where the X-Men are interplayed with

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the greater MCU cast as we see Storm being the goddess of thunder. And she's voiced by Alison Sealy-Smith, who did the voice of the character in the X-Men 90s cartoon and X-Men 97. And it was freaking epic to hear, I think. Yeah, everything looked cool. I think I'm still baffled though as to why they would want to end the show. Yeah. Because I feel like it's a concept that never really needs to end, you know? I'm wondering if it's because...

13:10
The storyline from the what if shows maybe leads into something like secret war and it's going to like collapse the multiverse perhaps. I don't know. Well, the show can only really last as long as the multiverse lasts, right? And it seems like, yeah, they are wrapping things up in the multiversal saga with Avengers Doomsday coming out in a couple years and then Avengers Secret Wars the year after that. So you figure you still got two more solid years of what if shows to do though. I would agree.

13:39
I would definitely agree. So you agree that Marvel's dumb? Not in the sense that they're not smart, just more in the sense that they could keep the show running. So maybe shut your mouth. Yeah, but they won't because they're dumb. Okay, I got you. I read you. Hey, Jonathan, when is DC coming out with a multiversal series that's this good, huh? Oh, that's right. They don't have an established universe to begin with, so okay, okay. You don't gotta say it like it is, Marge.

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I'm really looking forward to what if season 3, the stories that they're looking to tell here and of course the animation is always quality and just how epic the show can be I think bodes well for what is bound to be a truly awe-inspiring finale. The season is debuting on December 22nd, just a few days before Christmas and then we're going to get one episode a day through the rest of the year ending on December 30th I assume.

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until the new year. That said, it still will count towards this year's Brothers Awards. Yep, that's correct. So look forward to our review of that later guys. But that brings us to our question of the week.

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What has been your favorite animated Marvel or DC project of all time and why? We're talking television shows. We're talking films, both theatrical and direct to video, the works. So record your answer at dynamicduel.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast.

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We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a dynamic duel no prize that we'll post to Instagram. Be sure to answer before November 23rd.

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So that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and get into our main event where we review the HBO and DC television series, The Penguin.

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Okay, The Penguin is a spin-off series of the 2022 film The Batman, written and directed by Matt Reeves. Reeves also served as an executive producer for this show, which was created by Lauren LeFranc. It's a limited, 8-episode HBO Max series that tells the story of how Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin, played masterfully by Colin Farrell, rises to power in Gotham City's criminal underworld after the Riddler destroyed most of the city at the end of the Batman movie.

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Now I loved the Batman film. We gave it 5 out of 5 stars in a review and while I was looking forward to this show, I clearly wasn't looking forward to it enough because it somehow managed to exceed my expectations and deliver a devastating masterwork spinoff in what continues to be my favorite Batman universe on screen. If you haven't seen The Penguin yet, do not ruin the show for yourself by continuing to listen to this spoiler review. Stop here, watch the show.

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then come back. It's only eight episodes. Forget and take a sick day at work and just binge the whole thing because I guarantee you, it's extremely hard not to watch the next episode once you've started. Yeah, if you listen to this review without watching the television series, how dare you? How dare you do that to yourself? Go watch the show, then come back and listen to the spoiler review because it is fucking phenomenal. It's such a damn good show and you don't wanna ruin it for yourself.

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No. In fact, I liked it more than I liked the Batman. I did not think that we should have given the Batman five stars. I think we should have given it four and a half stars. But this series is better than the Batman. You know, this series actually reminded me a lot of the Daredevil shows from Netflix that we love. We gave season three of that five stars just for its like gritty realism and hard boiled edge. This had a lot of that. But set in the Batman world, which makes it instantly better, instantly worse.

17:57
I agree with you on the other points. The show was actually so good after I finished it all, I pulled up Daredevil season 3 just to feel better about myself and remind myself that yeah, Marvel is still capable of pulling off this type of crime drama. Paired with, I will add superhero action, which this series didn't have a whole lot of. It really wasn't part of the superhero genre. Yeah, true. That said...

18:22
There are a lot of people who expect a lot of action from their comic book stories, but I still think that even if you're a fan of hardcore action, there's a lot to love about this show. Now, I wasn't able to watch the whole series in one go, but man, did I want to because the pacing and tension and plot of the series had to be hooked from the first episode. Yeah, I think I immediately texted you after the first episode ended and I told you that this is probably going to be a five star show.

18:51
just with how good the first episode was and that you need to see it immediately. Yeah, you actually sent me that right as I was starting the show and I was like, oh damn, it's gonna be so good, I can't wait. I mean, yeah, the show is right up my alley. Like some of my favorite movies of all time are things like The Departed, Drive. So I didn't know quite to expect going into The Penguin, but coming out of it, I loved it. I was happy for you. I was proud of you that you finally got a win as a DC fan. Hey, thanks. Yeah, I was happy for myself as well. Cause as I've mentioned,

19:20
The Joker 2's failure shook me to my core, and the Penguin really, really helped. Now, I mentioned that the pacing and plot of the series were phenomenal. That's not to say that there weren't slow or even unnecessary moments during the course of the show, but there were very, very few, because just about every scene contributes to the further development and realization of these very real characters that exist in this gritty, realistic, hard-boiled Gotham City setting.

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that was established in the movie and is expanded upon in this series. The world building here is incredible and it showcases the type of Gotham City that I've always wanted to see and even believed it would be like as a reader of the comics. It's not as fantastical or even as mundane as prior movies have depicted it. It meets this perfect neo-noir sweet spot that you believe could develop characters like Batman or as we see in this show.

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a deformed mob boss like the Penguin. It reminded me a lot of the video game Batman Arkham City, because in that game it had just suffered a devastating earthquake that kind of destroyed sections of the city, and it was almost like they used that as inspiration for the show, which I loved, because that game was fantastic. So it was No Man's Land. Exactly, right. Now regarding the Penguin, you know, he's always been something of a joke character, this fat, monocle-wearing sideshow freak that no one would believe.

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could hold his own in a fight especially against Batman, but in Matt Reeves universe, he is what he always should have been, the last remnant of a mafia that controlled and corrupted Gotham City for generations. He works very well within that framework, allowing for a truly epic rise to power storyline within the gangster crime genre, a genre that's rife with themes of power, legacy, and redemption, as well as examinations of morality and ambition.

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We see examples of this in other epic gangster dramas such as The Godfather, Goodfellas, Scarface, where characters are driven by their desire for dominance and respect only to find that their pursuit of power often leads to their undoing. In The Penguin, this theme is amplified by Oz's deep-seated narcissism and unresolved guilt, which shapes his actions and decisions throughout the series. His journey reflects the tragic truth that, in a world where power is everything,

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True redemption is rarely achieved because power corrupts, and those who seek it often lose what little humanity they have left along the way. Yeah, if the Batman movie was kind of an adaptation of sorts of the long Halloween storyline from the comics where we see basically the criminal underworld in Gotham City get supplanted by costumed supervillains...

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then I see the Penguin series as kind of like an interesting look at the transition between those two periods. Between the crime family and mob boss period and the supervillain period. Oh yeah, for sure. Actually, this series borrowed quite a bit from the long Halloween sequel, Dark Victory, in which Sophia Falcone was one of the primary villains. Oh, interesting. Okay, okay. Yeah. Now, one of the things I like most about comic book adaptations as a comic reader is that

22:34
I get the opportunity to watch fate unravel as it were. Most people know that the Penguin is a Batman villain, but if you're not a comic book reader, you may not be aware of some of the darker aspects of this character, like how Oswald killed his brothers when he was a child in the comics. Some people try to go into films and shows knowing as little as possible, but I actually live for the dramatic irony of watching how adaptations unfold and how characters on screen

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become like the characters on the page. Sometimes they don't, which is often disappointing, and sometimes a modern adaptation will improve upon what was on the page, and I'd argue that's definitely the case for the Penguin series. Not only has the Penguin been made much more frightening and interesting to me at least in this show, but so have minor comic characters like Sofia Falcone.

23:25
What would you say to people who may look at this series and say that this is more like the Penguin in name only considering his name is Oz Cobb, not Oswald Cobblepot, and he's more of a ruthless thug as opposed to like a aristocrat? I would tell them that, you know, this is an adaptation of that. I actually like the twist that he didn't grow up as an aristocrat and that he grew up actually really poor. That's more interesting to me character wise.

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and that he's someone who aspires to climb the social hierarchy rather than already being at the top. It's a better journey for the character. I agree. I mean, by this point, I'm pretty much demanding that James Gunn fold Matt Reeves' universe into the upcoming DCU because there is zero way the Penguin can be done better. Zero. Like, why would you even want to try? Don't.

24:14
Yeah, it's kind of a shame, like the whole state of the DC cinematic universe, where you have, you know, James Gunn's thing going, but you also have these elseworld stories from one offs that filmmakers wanted to tell, like the Joker, like the Penguin. But it's also disparate that it almost makes it feel meaningless. And I don't want that. Like, I want this world for the Batman to continue. I want to see so much more and explore it like to its fullest. And I feel like with other film adaptations of Batman.

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like the upcoming Brave and the Bold, we're not going to get the opportunity for that. Yeah, you're just going to have these competing versions. And not only competing versions, competing Matt Reeves versions, because James Gunn has actually enlisted Matt Reeves into helping him develop the Batman side of the DCU, like the upcoming Arkham series that's rumored. Which makes zero sense to me.

25:04
Well, considering the success of this HBO series, maybe you're gonna get your wish. Maybe James Gunn will realize that this is the best play for developing his DCU. Dude, yes, please. Hashtag incorporate the Reevesverse. We need to get that trending, people. Now I'm biased because I love psychologically heavy morality tales, but this show in my opinion is exactly what the comic book genre needs right now to overcome superhero fatigue. Just fresh and profound takes on characters.

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that audiences are already familiar with. I agree, totally. The best way for superhero stories to stay relevant is by constantly mixing it up, right? You want different genres thrown in there and you want quality stories. Luckily, The Penguin has both of those things going for it. Yeah, it's the perfect example of that. The story is incredible, the characters are interesting as hell, but speaking of them, let's move on to our character breakdown. Starting with Oswald Cobb, aka The Penguin.

26:01
Now he of course is played by Colin Farrell in what is to date the magnum opus of his career, in my opinion. He's completely unrecognizable in the role and his performance seems to come across just so naturally for him. It's like a very technical performance, but it's played as if another actor is method acting. I don't know if there's ever been a greater performance in any adapted comic book work. I think he even tops Heath Ledger's Joker.

26:30
Wow, that's pretty high praise. I mean, do you disagree? I would put them on the same level. You're right, they're both highly technical performances. I do think that Colin Farrell has the added benefit of the substantial amount of makeup that he's wearing as a means to help transform his look and his character. Oh, 100%. I was talking to my wife about the Penguin's casting with Colin Farrell and how initially Warner Brothers wanted

26:56
Jonah Hill to play the Penguin, but he wanted to be the Riddler and because of that dispute he just left the project altogether. But holy cow, what a boon that was because we would have never gotten Colin Farrell as the Penguin if that did not happen. Yeah, I just cannot see Jonah Hill in this show, but there's no touching Colin Farrell in this performance. Absolutely not, yeah. Now, the Penguin in the comics is unique among Batman villains in that he's not insane, just unbelievably prideful and narcissistic and vengeful.

27:26
And I love that this version of the character manages to stay true to all of that while also being fairly unique. You know, like we mentioned earlier, Oz didn't grow up rich like in the comics, and that serves as one of his motivations in this universe, to help bring his mom out of poverty and become a symbol for his community as someone to be admired and relied upon. He has this romanticized, almost Robin Hood-esque view of being a mafia don, and wants to be one.

27:53
but is continually diminished and overlooked by others due to his physical handicap and scarred face, which he takes great offense to. He considers the name Penguin to be very offensive and disrespectful, and he'll straight up murder or betray anyone to prove his worth, even impulsively, as he did several times throughout the show, such as with his brothers, Alberto, and even Vic. That said, his character delves into morally grey area, often doing bad things

28:22
for seemingly the greater good, or so we believe. Ultimately, his narcissistic need for attention and control culminates in the almost poetic tragedy of the Penguin, finally attaining his lifelong goal of becoming the head of Gotham's criminal underworld, but at the cost of all of his relationships, having killed Vic, essentially imprisoning his mother, and forcing his lover, Eve, who betrayed him, to role play as his mother in this demeaning and twisted fantasy.

28:52
I got the impression that the relationship between Eve and Oz was always somewhat of a role-playing type relationship. I got the impression that that was not the first time that she had done that. Really? I didn't get that. Although I guess I would have put it past him. It was legitimately horrifying seeing his mother cry in the hospital bed looking out on the city as a vegetable trapped in her body and having Oz interpret her tear as her being happy for him. Yeah.

29:20
Yeah, that was really hard to watch, especially considering the fact that we knew that's the last thing she wanted. She wanted Oz to kill her over her ending up like that. The fact that he twisted that into something where he just kind of ignored her pain, knowing the promise that he had made to her, feeling like he had given her what she wanted, is incredibly selfish of him, but also right in line with the character. The fact that he killed people who didn't deserve to die like Vic.

29:48
and left people alive who he promised to kill is very malevolent. Yeah, what was your reaction to him killing Vic in the final episode, rationalizing it as Vic being too much like family and therefore being a vulnerability to him in his rise to power? I figured from the very first episode that Vic was not going to make it to the end of the series. I figured he was living on borrowed time, essentially. I was surprised that it happened when it happened and the way that it happened.

30:17
It was very, very heartbreaking, but also not surprising considering the fact that Oswald's own family, his mother, had just betrayed him. You know, telling him that she hated him and stuff like that. So yeah, I see where he was coming from about how family is not a good thing to have. I remember that scene took me completely by surprise because I was thinking at the time, now this is kind of a slow scene, and then all of a sudden he just fucking crushes his throat. And it was kind of disturbing in the way that it snuck up on me. Yeah, it was very disturbing. Honestly.

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I know this probably won't be the case and I kinda hope it isn't, but maybe Vic will come back. Maybe Vic will come back as Victor Zazz instead of Victor Aguilar. I actually hope that happens because I think Vic was too good of a character to just let go like that. I understand the poetic nature of it, but I also, yeah, like you don't want to see the character go away. But speaking of Victor Aguilar, he was played by Renzi Feliz.

31:11
I'm still heartbroken by what happened to Vic. He was hands down the most likable character on the show, thanks in large part to Renzi's very real and very sympathetic performance. Yeah, I liked him ever since The Runaway Show. He played Alex Wilder in that show, so he's a really talented actor who's now done both Marvel and DC work. But his better stuff is for DC, as is most actors who do both. Tell that to Jared Leto. That's a horrible example.

31:39
Now Victor was a tremendously effective audience surrogate. You know, he was this smart, if not naive orphaned boy who just didn't want to die. Who eventually, like a lot of the characters on the show, fell for the promises that Oz made and he even began to champion his ideals. You got the sense that even though Vic became Oz's right-hand man, he was adopting only Oz's good traits about loyalty, fairness, and success.

32:06
Vic felt shame and guilt when he was forced to do bad things, and ultimately his loyalty was rewarded with a harsh death at the hands of a man unwilling to share anything, power, respect, and even a human connection. I loved how human Victor was, you know? He made mistakes. He failed to put the jewels in John Vede's car. He let his girl go on the bus. He gave away a chance at happiness in that regard. Right. Yeah. Oof. That's super sad in hindsight.

32:35
The stutter was a pretty humanizing aspect as well. For sure. Yeah, it was something that even Oswald recognized. I think it was the main reason he kind of took him on as his surrogate. I think Rezzy Feliz did as well with his stutter acting as someone like someone like Charlie Cox does with his blind acting. It was just entirely convincing and obviously well researched and informed. And I definitely commend him for that. Yeah, 100 percent. I didn't feel forced or anything like that.

33:03
And it was always interesting to see when it didn't pop up, like when he was really passionate about something. That was cool to see. Like he had his own arc in regards to his stutter. Moving on to Sofia Falcone, aka Sofia Gigante, aka The Hangman. She was played by Kristen Malotti. Now like Colin Farrell's performance, Kristen thoroughly embodied the role of Sofia in a very profound performance. I only know Kristen from her comedic work on How I Met Your Mother.

33:32
So I didn't even know she was capable of top tier acting like this. And holy shit, where's this woman's Emmy? Like, why even bother holding any kind of award ceremony? Just give it to her. She was intense, man. Even from the first episode, I was just scared as shit of her. Yeah, when she was talking to Oz as he was being tortured, naked on that chair with the wire in his armpit, I was like, oh, damn. Oh, this scene is wild. Her performance, actually the entire cast's performances.

34:01
matched the quality of the writing, which was phenomenal, especially for the character of Sofia. Her arc is rooted in vengeance and a desire to reclaim her father's empire, which she was promised by him before he betrayed her. Her path somewhat mirrors the penguins and how her desire to restore her family's honor and legacy drives her to make horrific choices. She wants to prove she's worthy of the throne, but in doing so,

34:30
she becomes just as corrupt as the men who denied her. Her journey is one of tragic self-destruction, showing how even the best intentions can be swallowed up by the desire for power. And as she works to reclaim her birthright from the dismissive men in her family, she ultimately becomes the one thing she was accused of being and never wanted to be, which was a mass murderer. And while she's horrifying, she's also very sympathetic because the show does a great job

34:59
of showing everything she's been through, all the unjust trauma. But in the end, she comes back full circle into the hell that created the monster that she is. Yeah, back in Arkham, which is unfortunate. She never really should have gone back. I think the one misstep that she had and therefore it kind of felt like the show had was when she didn't kill Oswald when she had the opportunity to. Instead, trying to play this weird humiliation game between him and his mother, you know.

35:27
that just seemed like unnecessary on her part. And she kind of paid the price for that. She was kind of twisted about it. You know, she had the benefit of having a psychiatrist for a lover of sorts. So she kind of ran with that. I could see where she was coming from because the character was pretty twisted and she just wanted to make him suffer before killing him. But yeah, like I said, I think those actions were in character for her. I really loved the play throughout the whole series between, you know, Sophia being an ally of Kawalpats and then an enemy and then an ally.

35:57
and the shifting power balances that were fluctuating throughout the episodes. It was just really well crafted and kept me hooked. I didn't actually think she was going to be the main bad of the series. I thought that was going to be Carmine Falcone or even Alberto Falcone. I actually thought there was going to be a reveal probably towards the end of the season where Alberto was the real Hank man and not his father and his father was just covering for his son. Sort of in the same way that Alberto was revealed to be the holiday killer in The Long Halloween.

36:27
That would have been interesting, yeah. Yeah, I thought so. I would have liked to have seen the actor get more screen time. But I also don't hate the fact that Sophia was the hangman because she was the hangman in the comics. I think honestly this entire cast is gonna sweep the Yemis next year, at least for the Drama Awards. Yeah, you better fucking hope that Agatha Alalong is nominated as a comedy, because you are screwed. It obviously is. I think both Agatha Alalong and the Penguin are gonna win a lot of awards next year.

36:55
I hope so. I don't actually watch a lot of television just doing this podcast that isn't Marvel or DC related, especially recently, but I have a hard time imagining something could be better than The Penguin. And when it wins, it'll just help solidify the superhero genre's place in the larger film and television landscape. Yeah, if Watchmen hadn't done that already, hopefully The Penguin will. But let's move on to our story highlights.

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Where fantasies collide and heroes clash, one podcast network rises above the rest. Prepare yourself for the ultimate showdowns in comic books, video games, movies, and anime. The DynaMic Podcast Network presents Console Combat, where video game legends brawl every Monday.

37:45
Comic Book Titans smash every Tuesday. Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday. And Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on the matches and armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover who will emerge victorious. Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score.

38:11
Episode 1 was titled After Hours. One week after the assassination of Carmine Falcone and the destruction of Gotham City Sea Wall by the Riddler, Oswald Cobb is caught by Alberto Falcone, Carmine's son and heir apparent as he recovers a stash of Falcone's valuables from the Iceberg Lounge. After Alberto reveals plans to revolutionize the Falcone drug operation, he ridicules Oz's aspirations to become a powerful mobster.

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and Oz impulsively shoots Alberto dead. Oz attempts to dispose of Alberto's body and threatens a group of juvenile delinquents who are attempting to steal the rooms from his car. He spares Victor Aguilar after forcing him to help dispose of Alberto's body, and hearing him stutter, ultimately recruits him as his driver. Oz learns that the Falcons plan to assume control of his drug ring, while Alberto's sister, Sophia Falcone, newly released from Arkham Asylum,

39:09
suspects Oz is responsible for Alberto's disappearance. Oz's plans to skip town are discouraged by his dementia-stricken mother, Frances, after which Oz visits Falcone's rival, Salvatore Maroney, in Blackgate Prison, offering to bring the drug operation back into Maroney's control. Maroney is reluctant, but reconsideres after Oz returns to him a ring he'd taken off of Alberto that Carmine had taken from Maroney.

39:38
but is distracted by the sudden recovery of Alberto's body, staged by Vic to implicate Moroni's crew. Oz is released and begins plotting with Vic to take control of the Falcone crime family. Fantastic first episode, I was totally hooked from the get-go. I was super shocked when basically in the first scene, the Penguin killed Alberto Falcone, and it was just a series of shocking twists and turns from then on out. Oh, absolutely, I started watching.

40:07
this show in my living room. And right when that scene happened, I basically yelled, oh shit. And then I was forced to go watch in the bedroom. I guess my one question about this episode, which seemed like a plot hole, was did Oz know that he was going to get captured by Sophia and taken to the Falcon Mansion? No, I don't believe he did. We do know that Vic kind of screwed up the plan. He was supposed to send the Falcons Alberto's decapitated head.

40:36
He just couldn't figure out how to do that exactly. Yeah, I definitely don't think it was Oswald's plan to get tortured. So the initial plan was just to crash the car into the mansion and just leave it at that. I just happened to be lucky enough to be saved by Vicks timing. I mean, the guy was cut up pretty bad. I think timing wise, the penguin would have rather had it come earlier. Man, the wire in the armpit.

41:02
I never would have thought of that. I've never seen anything like that in my entire life. And I hope I don't again. I squirmed in my chair for sure. Looking at that method of torture. This whole episode had such great tension. Like even when he was getting tortured and they found one of the kids who was stealing his rims and he was basically like, no, the guy's lying. It's like, oh my gosh, dude, really? There's no way you're getting out of this. Only for Victor to come through in that moment.

41:31
Though I rate that Oz framed him, Moroni continues their partnership by allowing Oz to help with a Falcon drop shipment that is subsequently taken by Moroni's crew. Carmine's brother, Luca, arrives to assume leadership of the crime family. Meanwhile, Sofia suffers PTSD from Alberto's death and becomes increasingly unhinged, convinced someone in the family is a mole for Moroni. She bribes a drug addicted GCPD detective, Marcus Wise,

42:01
investigate the heist and Wise kidnaps Ervod, one of Moroni's henchmen, from the hospital. Moroni's wife, Nadia, assigns Oz to retrieve Ervod before the Felcones get him to talk. During Alberto's funeral, Oz assigns Vic to plant evidence to frame Felcone underboss Johnny Viti for Alberto's murder while he reaches Ervod to have him implicate Viti. However, Vic is caught trying to plant the evidence and barely escapes.

42:29
forcing Oz to murder Ervad instead with a switchblade, which he then plants on Sofia's personal enforcer, Castillo, to frame him as the mole. Luca executes Castillo, denying Sofia's demand that she do so to avenge Alberto, and orders her out of the family business. Oz makes Vic dig a grave for Ervad and Castillo, threatening to kill him if he fails again. He then meets with Sofia, who proposes a partnership to wipe out the Falcone family hierarchy,

42:58
so she may take control. Solid second episode. I really love how the end of it sets up the stakes of the show and that Penguin and Sophia are gonna join forces to bring down the Falcone crime family. I thought that was a great initial setup, of course, that kind of gets unraveled, but yeah, everything that happened in this episode, I thought was a great continuation of the first. Now, did Oz initially intend to plant the knife on Viti or was he always planning on framing Sophia's bodyguard?

43:28
I initially thought he was going to plant it on John Viti, but I think it was actually really smart of him to do it on Castillo considering that no one would have probably believed that John Viti would betray the family considering he was second in command. And Oz wanted to utilize the leverage that he still had on Viti later on. Makes sense, yeah. Did you crap your pants like I did when Vic got caught planting the jewels in John Viti's car? No, I went to the bathroom like a regular person. Okay, but you still had to shit yourself?

43:58
Yes. OK. I totally thought Vic was going to die in that moment. Everything that happened in this episode was just so unpredictable, which is one of the reasons that I loved it. Actually, this whole show was pretty much unpredictable. Well, it made Oz a good protagonist despite all of his malevolence because he was so adaptable and able to roll with things. And it was always interesting in seeing what ways he managed to survive episode to episode despite all the shit he was pulling.

44:27
Oh absolutely, yeah. Moving on to episode 3, titled Bliss. In flashbacks, Vic is left orphaned after the Sea Wall explosion drowns his family. In the present, Sofia introduces Oz to a new drug that was used on her and other inmates at Arkham, which Oz names Bliss. Together they make a pitch to the Triads to help distribute the Bliss across the city, but they refuse to do business with the pair unless they gain the support of John Vede.

44:56
Oz and Sofia blackmail Viti for his support by threatening to expose his sexual affair with Luca's wife, after which the triads agree to enter into business with Oz and Sofia. Meanwhile, Vic is torn by his desire to leave Gotham with his girlfriend in pursuit of a better life, or staying with Oz to potentially become rich and powerful, while also fearing that Oz will kill him if he tries to flee. When Oz learns of Vic's intentions, though angry, Oz allows Vic to leave.

45:25
Vic ultimately chooses Oz over his girlfriend however, and returns only to find Oz and Sophia held at gunpoint by the Morones, who have realized Oz's duplicity. Before a hitman can execute Oz, Vic crashes Oz's car into him and the two escape, leaving Sophia abandoned to her fate with the Morones. Now all of this happened really fast I thought, which was exciting. Oz playing like triple agent between the Falcons.

45:53
and Moroni's and Sofia's own little thing. I didn't think it was going to unravel as quickly as it did. Yeah, and it was so climactic that I almost was wondering where the show could possibly go from there. Oh, same. It just felt like everything that the story had been building towards in that moment just came crashing down. And then the series, you know, became about Sofia and the Moroni's teaming up to go up against Oz. But yeah, I was basically on the edge of my seat at the end of this episode.

46:20
And the start of the episode, like seeing the seawall crash into Vic's home and seeing his family die and experiencing the attack that the Riddler did on the city was the stuff from nightmares. Oh, literally. It was so tragic and real feeling. I literally have nightmares about tidal waves. So that was very, very horrifying when I saw that. And just seeing Vic's expression as well, like you cannot be more sympathetic towards that guy. He lost everything.

46:49
blame Batman for Vicks and his family's death. Okay. If he was smart enough, if he was a good enough detective to know what a fucking carpet tool was, none of that would have happened. Wow. You know what? Victor probably would have blamed Batman too. Now we've compared the show to genre greats like the Godfather, Scarface, but it also reminds me a lot of like the Sopranos and Breaking Bad, especially when we get a look

47:19
drugs that they're growing on freaking mushrooms instead of like blue meth crystals like in Breaking Bad it's red crystals which was really interesting to see it was like something new I'd never seen before the way they were doing that and to have the backstory of it come from like Arkham medication that was brilliant. Moving on to episode four titled Chentani. In flashbacks Sophia learns from a reporter that Carmine is suspected of being the hangman.

47:48
a serial killer who strangled and hanged numerous women in a similar manner as she had witnessed her own mother die when Sofia was a child. Desperate for answers, Sofia meets with the reporter privately. Oz alerts Carmine to that, who retaliates by framing Sofia for the murders and having her committed to Arkham Asylum, horrifying both Alberto and Oz. Though she's initially only to be confined for six months, Carmine pulls strings to extend her stay to over a decade until his death.

48:18
She is constantly mocked by the inmates, while her doctor, Ventress, subjects her to electroshock therapy. Ventress' associate, Dr. Julian Rush, eventually realizes that Sofia is innocent and quits. The mental and physical strain leads Sofia into a breakdown, and she murders her cellmate, Magpie. In the present, Sofia is rescued by Rush, and Sofia, having learned from Nadia that Oz murdered Alberto, concludes that no one can be trusted.

48:47
That night she unleashes a gas in the Felcone mansion that wipes out the Felcone family hierarchy including Luca. She spares Gia, her cousin's young daughter, and Viti whom she holds at gunpoint. This is a pretty good flashback episode. Arkham looks absolutely horrifying and I really like how they kept up the continuity from the Batman film and how the institution was presented. Yeah, it looks like they used the same set for sure. I agree. Absolutely horrifying.

49:16
This is another nightmarish situation where you're just trapped in a mental institution and over medicated so that you can't escape or do anything or no one will believe you. It's very much believable that something like that, along with the electroshock therapy, would drive Sophia insane. It was neat how Magpie was in this episode, who is a Batman villain. She's like a thief, right? Right, yeah. Although I will say that the actress kinda turned in a CW performance for an HBO show. Uh, yeah, that's fair. Although I'm not-

49:46
I'm not quite sure what else I would have expected from her. It was very like Harley Quinn-lite, I would say. And speaking of Batman villains, did you see that fans spotted a scarecrow mask and glove inside Julian Rush's office? Wait, what? No? Yeah, there are screenshots you can see of it online. Okay, I need to see that now. It's not necessarily an implication that Julian was the scarecrow. It may just been that he was treating Jonathan Crane while in Arkham. Oh snap, look at that.

50:15
Oh man, I cannot wait to see Matt Reeves version of Scarecrow. That's gonna be awesome. If that happens. Oh, they're freaking teasing that it's gonna happen. Who do you want to be the main villain of the Batman 2? I keep hearing rumors that it's going to be Mr. Freeze and that his whole thing is going to be a new drug in Gotham City that freezes people. I didn't hate the interpretation, but I also wouldn't hate if they went with someone

50:41
like the Scarecrow who's a little bit more grounded I would say than even Mr. Freeze. I just think Mr. Freeze needs to be done justice on screen. We've already had a good version of Scarecrow. I want to see Clayface be the bad guy and as opposed to being like a muck monster guy he's just like a serial killer in the same vein of what we got earlier this year in Batman the Kid Crusader. I would totally love that. I would accept that, absolutely. Moving on to episode five

51:11
as ransom in exchange for the Bliss shipment stolen by Nadia. At the same time, Oz has Vic look after Francis. During the trade, a guard bribed by Oz tries to assassinate Moroni in Blackgate, while Oz kills Taj and Nadia by setting both on fire while exchanging the hostage for the drugs. The fire activates chemical extinguishing sprays that destroys most of the Bliss, while Moroni survives the attempt on his life and escapes prison. Meanwhile, Gia is sent to a children's home.

51:40
and Sofia tortures Viti until he decides to support her bid to be the family head. Joined by Rush, who has fallen in love with her, Sofia rebrands the family under her mother's maiden name, Gigante, and earns the loyalty of the crew by making an appeal to shared oppression under the former Mafia heads. When Viti objects to her plans, Sofia executes him. She and a grieving Moroni later form an alliance to kill Oz. Elsewhere,

52:08
Oz, after learning of Moroni's escape and losing the support of his lover Eve, is berated by his mother for forcing her to hide in a condemned apartment in the no-mans land area of Gotham known as Crown Point, where Oz and Francis used to live. Oz remembers an abandoned underground railway nearby, showing it to Vic and declaring it their new base of operations to regrow the Bliss. The scene where the Penguin straight up sets the mother and son on fire was

52:37
so hardcore. Yeah, I kind of saw it coming a mile away though, because I was like, what else would he be dripping wet with? Right. Would it make sense for it to be anything else but something combustible? It made me think of the scene from Luke Cage, which I think was like a better emulation scene in terms of how impactful and frightening it was. But this one was also pretty up there. Oz definitely executed some pretty interesting plans on his road to power. I love how they incorporated the underground trolley system of Gotham into the show.

53:07
because the character of the Penguin has usually been associated with like the sewers. You know, you take a look at something like Batman Returns and how, you know, he was basically abandoned there as a baby. But instead of growing up in the sewers like that, in this show, not only did they have him build his criminal underworld from there, but it was also like the true origin of the character because it was the location of where he first killed his brothers. Yeah, I thought it was definitely an homage to

53:35
Batman returns having them work out of the tunnels underground. But it was weird in that that made him feel more like the Danny DeVito version of the character, as opposed to the comic book version of the character. And they're pulling for multiple inspirations. I thought it was fine. I thought it was cool. To me, the penguin will always be the guy operating from the penthouse floor of the iceberg lounge building more than the guy operating out of the underground sewer system. I think he's at home in both worlds, honestly.

54:03
I think the show showed that. Episode 6 was titled Gold Summit. Oz has managed to regrow his drug empire significantly, reproducing and distributing the Bliss via the city's abandoned underground trolley system. Sophia and the Moronis kill several Bliss dealers as a warning, leading Oz to decide to give away Bliss for free to raise demand across all other gang territories. Vic is confronted by Squid, a drug dealer from his neighborhood, who asks Vic to let him join the operation.

54:34
Vic attempts to pay him off, but when Squid threatens to expose Vic and Oz unless he gets a meeting with Oz, Vic shoots him dead and flees. Frances's condition deteriorates further and she has Oz promise to kill her if she becomes severely ill. Oz threatens the corrupt councilman Sebastian Haiti to restore electricity to Crown Point and sets a meeting with the heads of the other gangs, who he convinces to work together against the Gigantes and Morones.

55:01
Sophia and Sel break into Oz's apartment to find leverage against him, and Sophia discovers a photo of Eve. Sophia visits Eve, threatening to kill her to get to Oz, but Eve gives up his location after Sophia reveals Oz was aware of the true identity of the Hanged Man who targeted prostitutes. Francis and Vic dance to music after power is restored to Crown Point, just as Sophia enters their home with a crowbar.

55:27
Can you remind me where any of the prostitute characters in this show also in the Batman movie with Selena Kyle? I don't believe so. They mentioned the 44 below and some of them working down there, but I don't remember their faces from the movie. One of the most heartbreaking moments of the series is not only when Oswald has to pull his mother out of the freezing cold bathtub, but also when Vic is forced to shoot his childhood, not quite friend, but acquaintance.

55:56
I thought those are two very powerful moments from the series and they both happened in this episode. You know, one is this very dark moment between a mother and son about euthanasia, and the other one sort of signals Vic's descent into possibly being bad. Why do you think Vic chose to live the life of a criminal as opposed to going with his girlfriend to California? I think Oz is incredibly persuasive. You saw that with him talking with the other gang members. I think Vic truly believed.

56:25
the promise that the Penguin could give him a life better than one he had ever known with his family in Crown Point. It's things like that that make me feel less sympathy for the character of Vic and his fate at the end of the show when you just see him make some truly bad decisions in regards to life in general. Well, I definitely think him not going with his girlfriend when Oz essentially let him was a huge mistake. I'm not sure that killing Squid...

56:54
was a mistake because it was something that had to be done in part for his own self-defense. Squid was an abusive and unpredictable element that definitely needed to be eliminated for Oz's and Vic's empire to succeed. Moving on to episode 7 titled Top Hat. In a flashback, Oz is resentful of the attention that his mother gives to his brothers Jack and Benny. After a game of hide and seek in the sewer tunnels,

57:23
Oz leaves his brothers trapped inside an overflowing sewer tunnel where they drown. In the present, Oz returns to his apartment and finds an injured Vic, who reveals that Sofia has kidnapped Francis. Vic escapes right before Moroni arrives with his men, who find and beat Oz before forcing him to take them to his underground lair. Oz and his men stage an ambush and Moroni dies of a heart attack while fighting Oz. Meanwhile-

57:49
Sophia has Rush interrogate Francis about Oz's weaknesses and visits Gia after learning that she intends to cooperate with the police. Disillusioned after seeing the pain she has caused Gia, Sophia considers accepting Oz's ultimatum to trade Francis for his bliss supply, but Rush convinces her to go through with her desire to see Oz suffer. During the trade, Sophia instead sends in a bomb that destroys Oz's underground base and kills his entire crew.

58:18
Oz survives and resurfaces only to be knocked out by Detective Wise. There aren't a lot of funny moments in this show, but I definitely thought one of them was when Moroni had a heart attack while fighting Oz, which shouldn't be funny because heart attacks aren't funny. But that was just so absurd how that happened. And even Oz was like, what the fuck? Yeah, he was adamant that he won fair and square during their fight, even though he basically lucked out.

58:47
I thought it was really cool how Oz developed a loyalty amongst the people working underground with him, so much so that he had his own army to fight back against the Morones when they came down there. Killing the lights and everything, I thought was just a really cool strategy that helped them win. What did you think about the flashback to Oz's childhood in that he was basically a kid murderer at the time who showed no remorse? I initially thought that he was naive enough to not fully recognize his own actions.

59:17
But then I think later on it became clear that his actual intent was to kill his brothers. Yeah, I'm with you. I thought initially he didn't realize what he had done. But later on in the series you kind of realize that there's something not quite right with this kid. And maybe he did it as an act of impulsive rage for his brothers utilizing his handicap against him. And that he couldn't get down to where they were. But that makes him sound insane. And yet adult Oswald doesn't-

59:45
seem that insane. Like he's evil, but he's not necessarily crazy. He's malicious and vengeful and narcissistic. Those can be seen as mental illnesses of a degree, but ultimately when you take a look at the history of the comics, yeah, he does kill his brothers as a kid for largely the same reasons because they made fun of him. Sociopathy, I guess you could describe it. Yeah, exactly. Although in this case, I think part of him was just looking out for his mother. You know, he saw

01:00:14
how hard of a time she was having, and he didn't want her to be burdened by two other brothers. And you know, he was selfish. He wanted all of her attention for himself. So it's interesting how a character like the Penguin throughout the whole show is kind of playing two different games, one that benefits him and the one that, you know, benefits his family. That's sort of what's somewhat endearing about the character. You know, like what kind of guy would threaten a councilman to turn on the lights for the community that he was living in.

01:00:42
What kind of guy wants to foster this helpful relationship with his community? Well, the kind of guy who relies on the community to run his criminal enterprise. That's fair. Moving on to the final episode, episode 8, titled A Great or Little Thing. Using EMDR therapy, Rush learns that Francis already knew about Oz drowning his brothers and tried to have him killed by the gangster Rex Calabrese.

01:01:08
but Oz's manipulative promises as a child convinced her not to go through with it. Oz is brought to Sophia, who threatens to cut off Francis' finger unless Oz confesses to his mom the truth that he killed his brothers. Oz refuses to admit his actions even as Rush tortures Francis, causing her to disown him before suffering a stroke. Oz manages to escape, killing Wise, and getting Francis to the hospital. Meanwhile, the local bosses abandon Oz for Sophia,

01:01:37
puts out a bounty for Oz as she prepares to leave Gotham. While Oz forms an alliance with Councilman Hady, Vic arranges for the bosses to be murdered by their deputies, who help Oz abduct Sophia. Instead of killing her, Oz has his new police contacts return her to Arkham. Oz and Vic visit Francis to celebrate only to learn that she entered a vegetative state, causing Oz to break down. Later that night, Vic tells Oz that he views him as family,

01:02:05
which Oz reciprocates before murdering Vic, saying that families make people weak. Meanwhile, Rush, who has returned to Arkham to care for Sophia, hands her a letter from her half-sister, Selina Kyle. Oz takes the vegetative Francis to a new penthouse suite where he dances with Eve dressed as Francis as the bat signal shines in the sky. I loved this final episode. I thought it was a solid ending to the season and potentially series as a whole.

01:02:33
I'm not sure if we're gonna get a second season of this. But yeah, everything that happened here, from Oz being unwilling to admit that he killed his brothers to his mom, even though she already knew, to the Penguin's very own Don Corleone-type moment in which all of the heads of the different gangs are killed at the same time. It was all so freaking great. Yeah, that was a great twist, along with getting Sophia Falcone put back into Arkham. I totally thought he was gonna kill her. And...

01:03:02
It was a great bit of writing leading up to her apparent demise that had you convinced that he was going to kill her. He gave her a fate worse than death, right? He put her exactly where she did not want to end up again. Although I have to imagine Rush would probably help her escape. Yeah, most likely. I wonder what the letter said that Selina Kyle wrote her. Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing. I'm actually thinking that we're going to see Sophia Falcone show up again in the Batman sequel, maybe alongside Catwoman.

01:03:30
And if that's the case, I wonder what storyline they're adapting. I imagine we're going to see the Penguin again and Sophia again. And yeah, that makes me really curious, you're right, as to what they will be doing with the story, whatever they do. I'm here for it because I loved this show. Again, I can't wait to see more of this universe. I hope it keeps going on and on and that James Gunn decides to make it a part of his main universe overall with this season.

01:03:56
Its outstanding performances and epic brutal storyline made The Limited Series a crime thriller of the highest caliber and a masterpiece within the genre I felt. I'm giving it 5 out of 5 stars, just like The Batman, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Yeah, I'm not sure if you're referring to it as a masterpiece within the crime genre or within the superhero genre, but honestly it doesn't matter because I think that term applies to both.

01:04:25
Not only is it a great entry into superhero media in general, but I 100% think that the show holds up among the greatest crime dramas ever made. Like it's right up there with The Godfather, The Departed and things like that. I'm not sure if it's up there with The Godfather, but I would say it's definitely up there with like The Sopranos. And you know, holding this season up against any season of Breaking Bad, I think it's competitive. I would love to see more seasons. I don't think we're going to get them.

01:04:53
But I could follow this Penguin story all the way to the end, for sure. I think one of the best things that I can say about the show is that I was at a restaurant the other day and the bartender lady who was middle-aged, she looked like to be in her fifties or something like that, she just brought up out of the blue with some people sitting at the bar how great this show was. And it just stood out to me as being something that had tremendous crossover appeal in terms of its audience and demographic. I heard that the show has done really well.

01:05:21
and I hope that's the case. And I hope it brings a lot of new audiences to the genre. Yeah, I think it doesn't hurt that it was propped up as an HBO original that comes with a lot of clout, right? I've actually had coworkers come up to me asking me if I had seen The Penguin, which I hadn't yet. And they're like, oh, you're going to love it. It's so good. I thought it was really good. And that just got me even more excited to start watching it. Yeah, I'm sure they agree with your five star rating. I agree with your five star rating. I'll say it's still not better than Daredevil season three.

01:05:50
but I'll say it's probably the best television series that DC has ever produced. Even better than Watchmen? I think it was better than Watchmen. Holy cow, maybe, maybe. I know it was better than Agatha all along, that's for sure. Barely. Like I said in our last episode, they're entirely different shows. I think Marvel could absolutely produce a series like The Penguin with no issues, but can DC produce a series about a magic coven of witches at the same quality as Marvel Television did with that show?

01:06:20
I don't think so. They don't need to make lame shows like that, because they make cool shows like The Penguin. OK, yeah. But that does it for this review. AJ9K help close this out.

01:06:46
or by rating and reviewing dynamic duel on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser, or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in the DynaMic podcast network, including Max Destruction, Senjou World, and Console Combat. In our next episode, we will be doing a duel as a tie-in to this review of the Penguin between another street level Gotham villain character, Black Mask, against Marvel's Madam Mask.

01:07:15
Yeah, two grounded criminal characters within Marvel and DC that don't have powers but they do have badass masks should be interesting to see how that plays out. So mask off bro, let's go! Me and you! But that is it for this episode, we want to give a big thanks to our executive producers Ken Johnson, John Storosky, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Belcombe, Miggy Mantagian, Brendan Estergard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Austin Waselowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spies, Andrew Schunk.

01:07:42
Dean Molesky, Kevin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Josh Leiner, and our newest executive producer, Mike Williams. Thanks for helping make this podcast possible guys, we'll talk to you all next week. Up, up and away, true believers.