20 years after forever altering the landscape of dramatic television with The Sopranos, HBO has introduced its subscribers to The Penguin, a compelling dark crime drama with a similar tone and tenor. Based on the DC Comics character, The Penguin charts the rise and fall of Oswald Cobb (Colin Farrell), a high-ranking henchman for the deceased Italian-American mobster Carmine Falcone climbing the ranks of Gotham City’s criminal empire.

Premiering on HBO on September 29, 2024, The Penguin has received such widespread acclaim that it currently ranks #124 on IMDb’s Top 250 TV Shows. While it has a long way to go to catch The Sopranos (ranked #9), both shows explore the personal and professional exploits of organized criminals and their extended families, the dangers of mixing business with pleasure, and feature stunning tour-de-force performances from its morally conflicted main characters. As such, every fan of The Sopranos must watch The Penguin to witness HBO’s 20-year crime series lineage.

What Is The Penguin About?
HBO

The Penguin is an American crime drama miniseries created by Lauren LeFranc for HBO. Conceived as a spin-off from Matt Reeves’ bleak 2022 feature The Batman, the HBO crime show has the same dark tone, tenor, and austere temperament as its predecessor. Colin Farrell reprises his role from The Batman, playing Oswald “Oz” Cobb (shortened from Cobbelpot in the comics), a deformed high-ranking criminal associate of Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), a deceased Italian-American mafioso ruling Gotham City with an iron fist.

As Oz climbs the ranks of Gotham’s seedy criminal underbelly and bolsters his power and influence, he becomes targeted by Carmine Falcone’s daughter, Sofia (Cristin Milioti), a volatile serial killer who moonlights under the alias The Hangman. Once The Hangman is released from Arkham Asylum, she seeks revenge on her father’s killer while aiming to dethrone The Penguin as Gotham’s new criminal leader. If fans of The Sopranos recall the name Cristin Milioti, it’s because she played Johnny Sacrimoni’s daughter, Catherine, in three episodes between 2006 and 2007 during the show’s sixth and final season.

Beyond the casting parallel, The Penguin becomes just as much about family as it does about organized crime, a key distinction that made The Sopranos special. The show picks up one week after Falcone’s death, prompting his son Alberto (Michael Zegen) and daughter Sofia to continue his criminal legacy by any means necessary, often resorting to brutal, unremitting carnage. Much like Tony Soprano’s nephew Christopher (Michael Imperioli), Alberto Falcone is addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Meanwhile, similar to Tony Soprano’s mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), who required assisted living due to eroding mental acuity, Oz’s mother is diagnosed with early-onset dementia. The personal dilemmas make their immoral criminal behavior so compelling in both HBO crime shows, where unflinching graphic violence rules the day.

What Classic Crime Stories Inspired The Penguin
HBO

Although it’s easy to think of The Sopranos when seeing the physical likeness between Oz Cobb and Tony Soprano, not to mention Milioti’s connective presence, the show was inspired by other crime classics. According to showrunner Lauren LeFranc, Brian De Palma’s 1983 Scarface remake was the biggest cinematic influence on The Penguin, telling Deadline:

“Matt Reeves came up with the
Scarface
story, a rise to power. I turned it into a psychological character study of this man. Mobsters historically are larger than life, so there is that slightly elevated quality to it, but he’s just a man. A very complicated man. This is what differentiates him from previous versions of the Penguin in the comics, where he comes from a wealthy, well-known family. Matt had already made him an underdog in that he was number two to Carmine Falcone in the film, but we didn’t know anything about his family. So it was important to me that he comes from nothing, and he’s really aching to get more status and be seen as more important.”

In turning The Penguin into a “psychological character study,” the show becomes a perfect companion piece to The Sopranos. Like Oz, Tony Soprano climbed the ranks of the criminal underworld after beginning life with next to nothing, building a blue-collar construction and waste management business before using them as fronts for his racketeering. Additionally, Colin Farrell plays Oz Cobb with the same “larger than life” persona and charming menace that made Tony Sopranos “a very complicated man.”

Beyond Scarface, producer Matt Reeves has cited the 1980 British gangster film The Long Good Friday as an influence on The Penguin (according to Deadline), another dark and violent criminal origin story. Of course, Scarface was set in Miami and The Long Good Friday in London, allowing LeFranc to combine locations with The Sopranos’ iconic New Jersey setting to overhaul Gotham City’s aesthetic. Indeed, the dark, dank, rain-drenched Gotham resembles Jersey more than Miami’s sunny shores.

Why Sopranos Fans Need to Watch The Penguin

Beyond the shared cast members, similar themes, and overt crime movie and TV show influences, The Sopranos fans must watch The Penguin for Colin Farrell’s villainous central performance as a morally vexed criminal impresario. James Gandolfini gave one of the all-time best TV performances as Tony Soprano, a serial murderer, liar, cheater, womanizer, backstabber, and hot-tempered mobster on the brink of a nervous breakdown. With no redeemable qualities on paper, Gandolfini made viewers sympathize with and care for Tony Soprano despite the countless horrible acts he demonstrates on the show.

While it may not reach the same legendary status, Farrell gives a similar commanding and fully committed performance in The Penguin that Gandolfini did in The Sopranos for the same network 20 years prior. Farrell is completely unrecognizable beneath a fat suit, prosthetics, and mounds of makeup, giving DC the same dramatic legitimacy Gandolfini did for HBO during its TV infancy. Of course, those who watched the final season of The Sopranos will get a kick out of seeing Catherine Sac (Milioti) all grown up 20 years later, once again entangled in a web of organized crime as Sofia Falcone in The Penguin.

Farrell’s striking performance stands out when sharing scenes with the great Carmen Ejogo, who plays Oz’s girlfriend as sex worker Eve Karlo. Their romance calls to mind Tony sleeping with various strippers and escorts throughout The Sopranos, including two times with Miss Reykjavík (Tone Christensen) in Season 4. Physically speaking, Farrell bears a stark similarity to how Gandolfini carried himself as Tony Soprano, using his entire body to give an unforgettable performance. To protect his home and criminal families, Oz is magnetic and repulsive at once, a hallmark that made Tony Soprano such a lasting TV icon.

The Penguin & The Sopranos are available to stream on Max.