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This review contains spoilers for The Penguin episode 2.
Oz Cobb starts the second episode of The Penguin feeling good about himself. He finesses a tense negotiation with jailed former crime boss Salvatore Maroni (Clancy Brown), convincing the one-time kingpin (and his aggressive wife and daughter) to take the fall for the murder of Alberto Falcone (Mark Strong), in exchange for access to the family’s exclusive drug product. He even negotiates his way through a hitch in the trade-off of the drugs, managing to dodge gunfire without blowing his cover as a double agent.
Oz succeeds by weaponizing everything delightful about Colin Farrell’s performance. Oz’s boisterous attitude and unusual looks invite people to underestimate him, leaving room for his machinations. When Oz gets up to growl a cheesy joke about the difference between the government and the mob (“the mob is organized”), it’s both a sly manipulation and an opportunity for Farrell to go over the top.
In fact, Oz’s only real disappointment comes when his rival in the Falcone family, underboss Johnny Vitti (Michael Kelly), calls for his attention. “Penguin!” barks Vitti, and Oz deflates. Oz’s reaction to reflects the frustrations of his show. The Penguin wants to be a serious crime show, and doesn’t always know how to reconcile those ambitions with the fact that it’s a superhero show with a grotesquely made-up over-the-top character at the center.
Fortunately, where the premiere “After Hours” fails to find the right balance, the second episode “Inside Man” excels. Directed by Craig Zobel and written by Erika L. Johnson, “Inside Man” succeeds by keeping the focus on mob intrigue as Oz does his best to pit the Maronis and Falcones against one another, all while avoiding a suspicious Sofia.
In the episode’s best sequence, Oz learns that a crooked cop hired by Sofia has brought her the Maroni soldier Farhad (Mershad Torabi) who helped him orchestrate the transfer of guns. Although she’s mad that the cop brought Farhad to her house during Alberto’s funeral, Sofia believes that he knows about her brother’s murder, and cannot wait to interrogate him.
So Oz needs to show proper deference during the funeral, while also making his way to the basement and locate Farhad before Sofia can get to him, hopefully setting up Vitti instead. Although the spatial logic of the Falcone house could be more clear, clever editing covers any confusion and heightens the tension. The plot gives Farrell more room to play Oz as a compelling, believable character, his shifty eyes darting back and forth when formulating a new plan and shouting at his cohorts when his plan goes into action.
That approach doesn’t work so well when the episode turns its attention to Oz’s personal life and backstory. An underused Carmen Ejogo, playing Gotham madame and Cobb cohort Eve Karlo, somehow manages to breath life into clunky expository lines (“The Falcone underboss?” she asks when Oz mentions Vitti; “He’s untouchable!”), but Farrell can’t push similar pathos through his layers of make-up. The same issue plagues interactions between Oz and his mother Francis. When the dialogue isn’t stating the obvious to make sure even those glancing up from their phones knows that Frances has dementia, Deirdre O’Connell’s natural performance clangs with Farrell’s bigger take.
Worst of all are the scenes with Oz and his sidekick Vic (Rhenzy Feliz). “Inside Man” starts uncovering parts of Vic’s backstory, which involves the death of his family during the Riddler’s attack in The Batman. And the show really wants to add depth to Oz by connecting his troubled childhood to Vic’s predicament. But the show doesn’t know how to make those threads compelling, a problem underscored by forcing baby-faced actor Rhenzy Feliz to play vulnerable and earnest next to Farrell waddling and barking.
Despite these missteps, Zobel and Johnson hit their stride in every scene with Sofia Falcone. The episode opens with Sofia having a nightmare about being locked in Arkham Asylum during her brother’s murder, using similar shots and even the deep reds that Matt Reeves employed in The Batman. She’s pulled out of her trance by her therapist Dr. Julian Rush (Theo Rossi), whose very inappropriate methods suggest darker forces at play.
The moment of weakness proves to be an anomaly for Sofia. She takes charge throughout the rest of the episode, refusing to let the men in her family push her around again and reacting in ways that suggest more to her reputation as the serial killer known as the Hangman. Cristin Milioti remains the best part of the show, whether she’s yelling at her opponents in a pitch-perfect Jersey accent or letting hurt and betrayal play out on her face.
As with the premiere, Milioti provides the perfect partner to Farrell as Oz, and every scene between the two characters crackles. By the time the episode ends with Sofia holding an unnerving smile as proposes a partnership with Oz, The Penguin starts to make a name for itself by embracing its pulpy heart.
New episodes of The Penguin premiere Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
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