Review: Penguin S01E03 The Bliss

Another Sunday has arrived, bringing with it another episode of Penguin, and unlike the previous one, this week, we had a much more eventful approach and full of great events. Furthermore, if until then Vic was a little faded, now we have more of his story and his dramas explained, placing him, together with Oz e Sofia, as the definitive protagonists of the series. Check out the full review!

Please be advised that this review contains possible spoilers, so we recommend that you watch the episode and then come back here.

Vic's past

even though Vic being present in the first two episodes, until then we saw him only as a doormat Oz, without much depth about his traumas and the reasons for being in that situation. This episode comes to resolve this issue and give additional context to the character. In it, we can see that Vic had a father, a mother, a sister and even a girlfriend. Despite their differences, they seemed to live well, except for the fact that Vic wanted much more than his father could offer.

In one of the scenes, during a dinner, Vic decides to go out to meet his girlfriend and friends. As they talk on the rooftops of Gotham, what should have been a celebration quickly turns into a nightmare. It is at this exact moment that the ending of The Batman happens, with explosions and the flooding of the city; in the midst of the tragedy, the water ends up taking the lives of Vic's family.

This beginning is crucial, as it marks the starting point for the character's development. It was a great tragedy, and from there, we saw the events of the first two episodes. Not only that, but even with the problems, Oz now treats Vic with confidence and is betting all his chips on him. It was mentioned in review of the previous episode that the character showed himself to be quite a scoundrel by dumping all the blame on the boy (something similar to his personality in the franchise's games), but, from what we've seen so far, the series is exploring other aspects.

Returning to Vic, in this episode, his dilemma is between living in the world of crime with Oz or going to California with his girlfriend Graciela. Despite the tempting choices, throughout the episode, we see that Vic has always longed for some luxuries in life, something that Oz is providing him. As much as he loves his girlfriend, she offers him a fresh start that will probably take him back to where he was at the beginning of the episode.

Oz and Vic

Taking advantage of all the drama of the episode, the plot makes very good use of Vic's discomfort at feeling like a prisoner of Oz. He feels disappointed when he sees that the boy doesn't seem to recognize what he is doing — or, at least, trying to do — for him.

Oz may be a strange guy and have unconventional methods of solving problems, but when it comes to someone he cares about, you can see that there is no lying in him. This is reflected in his acting. Colin Farrell also. Even with all the makeup on his face, we can clearly see when he is being a scoundrel and manipulating someone with lies, and when he is broken inside, allowing his anger, his feelings or any other weakness to be released.

The relationship between the two characters develops a lot here, but initially, she goes into a state of shock due to the oppression she feels and the opportunity to get out of this situation with Graciela. He even arranges with her to run away in two days, leaving both Vic and us, the viewers, anxious; after all, we already imagine what will happen. The character begins to become increasingly worried and to act strangely, in addition to having flashbacks of the day his family died.

This division of the character takes him to his limit, and when Oz is full of pride in him, he comes across Graciela's messages, generating conflict between the two. It is at this moment that the characters let everything out and also develop among themselves, each following a path from here. Although this does not last long, it becomes the element that closes the episode in frenzy later.

Oz, Sofia and Bliss

As expected at the end of the last episode, Oz and Sofia start working together. As I mentioned before, Sofia, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting characters in the series, but in this episode, they both had their big moments. Sofia and her late brother Alberto's project involved the use of a rare mushroom, used in Arkham to make the patients easier to deal with, something that Sofia got to know very well.

From this, Oz learns a little more about this new drug, which they start calling Bliss. What's left for them, then, is to make it famous in Gotham. To do this, they need a meeting with Feng Zhao, one of the leaders of the Chinatown triad, who can boost the business's sales. The problem is that Feng will only pay attention to them if they get the approval of Johnny Vitti, the second most important man after Luca Falcone in the family.

Since Sofia and Oz don't have a good relationship with Johnny, they opt for a more tragic approach, catching him with his boss's wife, which gives them power over him. Here we have one of the most interesting scenes of the episode. In the middle of the dialogues, Johnny treats Oz like a nobody and irritates him. At this moment, Oz literally puts a smartphone half in Johnny's mouth, while pouring all his anger there.

Since the series has also created a dislike for Johnny for us as viewers, this scene is a treat to watch and really develops Oz's plan to get the meeting with Zhao. This leads us to another important clash of the episode: that of Oz and Sofia.

If up until now our protagonist seemed to be getting the better of everything, Sofia soon realizes that he seems even happier than her with the good news related to Bliss, questioning to what extent he is doing this for her or for himself. At first, Oz finds a good excuse for this, but, after the argument with Vic, even though he is successful with Zhao, he meets Sofia again and here the character breaks.

Sofia asks Oz about when she was put in Arkham and how he took advantage of that. The character starts by denying it, but soon reveals that, in fact, he took advantage of the empty space to improve his life; after all, a person like him would never have that kind of opportunity. At the same time, he sincerely apologizes to her.

It's a very interesting scene to watch, since we can see that Oz is saying everything from the bottom of his heart. This time, he's not lying or trying to deceive Sofia, and Colin Farrell's performance is excellent, as is Cristin Milioti's, who, even in the face of this, maintains her composure.

Characters

This episode focused almost entirely on the trio Oz, Sofia and Vic, highlighting them as the protagonists. Despite this, we had some important characters in the plot that could make a difference in the future of the series, as well as others that will probably never appear again.

Starting with Vic's circle, we had Graciela, his girlfriend at the time. She was extremely important in his past and, even indirectly, made all the difference to his development at the end of the episode.

She was the protagonist's only connection to his past, something he cherishes, but it wasn't necessarily something he wanted for himself, especially now that he's living a more luxurious life with Oz. With the final decision to let her go and return to Oz, Vic should finally become a much more decisive character in his choices from now on. Still in Vic's life, I felt that he and Roxy (Jessie Pinnick) are forming some sort of bond, which may have influenced her ultimate decision to stay in Gotham.

Another returning character who was of great importance is Johnny Vitti. His role is almost always to torment Sofia, but here he also worked as a tool for our protagonist duo to get to Feng Zhao.

Speaking of Feng, the duo first had to go through Link Tsai (Robert Lee Leng), owner of a nightclub in Chinatown, who managed to connect the characters with the leader of the triad.

Finally, we had the return of Nadia Maroni (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who seeks Oz's head and becomes the episode's final catharsis for both Oz and Vic.

Conclusion

The third episode maintains the excellent quality of the first two. Penguin has proven to be one of the best mafia series ever made, without relying on the shadow of the film that initially created this mythology. The production manages to work very well with the issue of being in the same universe, making the appropriate references, but without relying on gratuitous elements that add nothing.

The focus is on Gotham's criminal underworld, and the series delivers on this with such flying colors that at no point are we left hoping that the Batman or any other hero, or villain from bat mythology appears.

In short, the Penguin series has proven to be a great success in the hands of DC, and I hope it continues that way. You can follow the series through streaming service MAX or through the paid channel HBO.

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You can check out the review of the first two episodes by clicking on the cards below, as well as checking out other articles published on the site, such as our review of Joker: Delirium for Two

reviewed by Gabriel Princessval in 07 / 10 / 2024