The Penguin S1 Finale: "A Great or Little Thing" Review

When it comes to the base number of overhyped TV shows versus the base number of overhyped movies, I think that the overall number of the former gets a weird bump, which is likely due equally to a streaming-based pop culture as well as a tendency for shows to swing in quality wildly from season to season. I've heard many, many times that I need to watch this drama or have to watch that sitcom, only to find that it's not all it was talked up to me as. That said, a short or shorter story is sometimes the best kind of story, and in the case of The Penguin, it may become something of a standard-bearer for this fact. Let's say you're reading this article sometime next year, and the show has been renewed for a second season. This article is only a review of season one. And with that said, season one of The Penguin is nothing short of astonishing, and let no amount of TV-show-hyping over the last decade persuade you otherwise. It's an immensely engaging and wildly well-written crime saga, and it really makes me kind of excited to see what Matt Reeves and Co. have in store for the next Batman movie when it releases in 2050.

Jokes aside, A Great or Little Thing is simply a phenomenal finale to a phenomenal show. For the logistical storytelling limitations placed on this show by the understandably but obviously superior technical work of The Batman, there are a lot of surprises to be had in The Penguin. And though I do miss the $185-million-dollar atmosphere that The Batman brought to the table, that's just about where my complaints about the show end. From a storytelling perspective, The Penguin is the easy winner here, and when pitted against other superhero shows, it's frankly no contest. Its depth is completely unmatched and its patience entirely unrivaled by any other DC or Marvel show out there.

Zooming in all the way to the level of A Great or Little Thing, I absolutely adore the flashback sequences in this episode. They're not mere filler or exposition but are rather used to demonstrate growth and, more importantly, broken promises. What's more, the show smartly digs into and invests in its supporting cast instead of just Oz, though it does plenty of exploration of who exactly Penguin is. Mrs. Cobb and Vic aren't relevant to the plot of the next Batman movie, and that makes them something important: unsafe. In fact, this uncertainty about the fates of the supporting cast is one of the show's greatest and most surprising assets.

As it turns out, when The Penguin makes a promise, it keeps it. I love how A Great or Little Thing doesn't hold anything back. It burns every little thing it cares about to cinders, just like it's been threatening to the whole season. It acts like a proper finale should, making good on its promises and threats and then some. I personally liked how this show didn't try to justify Oz or turn him into some kind of hero. It develops him in some extremely impressive ways while allowing him to remain a villain. In a lot of ways, you could say it's a perfect humanization in its revealing of both the good and the bad of Oz, that this show is willing to be complicated and complex, and that it relents from ever offering easy answers to hard questions. If The Batman: Part II can maintain this level of storytelling or even this level of sheer intensity, I think we're in for a real treat, but not to distract from the one we just got. If I was pretty sure that The Penguin was the best superhero or superhero-adjacent show before I sat down to watch the finale, I can confidently say that I'm sure of it by now. This is meticulously mature storytelling, the likes of which we rarely see in the superhero genre anymore, storytelling that touches the lives of its characters with a delicate intimacy bolstered by unmistakable storytelling skill.

Before I started this show, I had questions about whether or not this show would live in the shadow of The Batman. Now, I'm wondering how in the world Reeves's next film could possibly top it.

The Penguin - 10/10

James 4:1-6