The Penguin
Added 2025-03-31 15:13:24 +0000 UTCAh, the furtive Penguin, so easily forgotten. Never the flashiest of Batman's rogues. He's not the one running around going "look at me look at me I'm cRAAzYY ooga booga". He's just an asshole with an umbrella, doing his gangster shit in silence while the clown gets all the attention (and all the beatings).
This character is never the same, but he's always the same. He's been played by Burgess Meredith as a scheming goofball criminal who dresses and carries himself like a child's idea of a wealthy aristocrat, by Danny Devito as a filthy sewer freak running for mayor, and here by Colin Ferrel as a low level wise guy making a play for the big time and angling for the love of the common man.
All of these interpretations of the character are vastly different on the surface but the core of the character remains the same. He's a bad man, with a twisted mind, trying to appear more civilized and respectable than he really is. Like all good antagonists he's Batman's opposite, a savage animal masquerading as a man of the people.
Bruce Wayne is who the Penguin wants to be, but all the fancy top hats and big cigars won't change the fact that deep down he's just an ugly, violent thug. This new HBO show is essentially an 8 episode exploration of that thesis, and it's awesome.
Penguin rules, and I can't wait for Robert Pattyman to whoop his ass.
Comments
The mother in this movie straight up isn't acting. I haven't seen a actor that natural since Colm Meaney. Like, there's a ton of great actors but you always know they're delivering a performance, that lady had every single mannerism of an old bitter dementia ridden lady down pat, and that's just one cool thing about the show. The Penguin was Breaking Bad or Sopranos tier good stuff.
4you
2025-04-04 04:27:27 +0000 UTC
