I have so many thoughts about Penguin. Fantastic show, very well made, gripping. But more than that, its character work is exceptional. Absolutely exceptional.
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I think some of it is Farrell’s astonishing performance (even more egregious that they used a fat suit and so many prosthetics honestly), but it’s there in the writing too. The ruthlessly consistent way they depict him, and how they use that to unfurl what his behaviour ACTUALLY means.
It’s remarkable stuff. The way they use his lack of self awareness, his entitlement. The edge they have him balance on between knowing he’s doing things for terrible reasons and telling himself he’s doing it for good ones…I’ve rarely seen it done so well.
It shows us that he doesn’t really mean it. That he has no real kindness in him, only ambition. And it does it relentlessly. Like it gives you this typical white man mobster type foothold, I’m a man of the people, I care, I didn’t mean to do XYZ, traumatic past. And it systematically unravels it lol
It strips it back over and over so you’re left with nowhere to turn. No way to believe that. He’s so self serving he’ll let someone cut his mothers finger off rather than puncture that. Culminating with Sofia’s skewering of his insistence that he’s doing it to help, and the leering gleam in his eye!
That gleam is first rate man. Cannot express enough how amazing Farrell is in this. Like I said, I’m mad about the fat suit and the scars on multiple levels. It’s all in his eyes, the feral glint, the almost feral instincts. How natural he makes his jumping to a lie on the spot.
The whole thing is a masterclass in creating a very entertaining, very compelling character, who is also an irredeemable, evil and thoroughly unpleasant person. The person he kills in the end! I was out of my seat.
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