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    • The Penguin: Review Episode 4 – “Cent’anni”
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    The Penguin: Review Episode 4 – “Cent’anni”

    Vaseline Posted on

    The following review contains spoilers for the fourth episode of The Penguin, “Cent’anni.”

    As raw and grounded as 2022’s The Batman was, “grounded” is a relative term. Yes, there are no people with superpowers (and there won’t be, according to writer/director Matt Reeves) and Robert Patinson’s Batmobile is just a souped-up muscle car without rocket engines or James Bond-esque gadgets, but that world is still full of crazy, heightened characters that don’t quite feel like real people. the most fantastical element – ​​Bruce Wayne himself – has been removed from the equation, allowing for a story that is even more realistic… until this week’s episode, ‘Cent’anni’. A flashback trip to Arkham finally unleashes the comic book madness in an episode that stops the series abruptly for a focused, chilling look at Sofia Falcone’s past decade, but it’s one that takes both feet off the ground and in leans. the inherent strangeness of a world in which Batman exists.

    Her stay at Arkham State Hospital (Asylum would be too bizarre) is a tragic story of betrayal by those she trusted most. The episode makes it clear just how cruel the Falcone family was to her, making for a satisfying final sequence very well. But it also highlights how cartoonishly over-the-top some of the characters on this show can be. Not only in Sofia, who we clearly see a lot more of in ‘Cent’anni’, but also characters like Doctor Ventress (in name alone), Dr. Rush and Magpie, as well as the nameless prisoner who takes her own prisoner. to live. It’s truly a nightmare what’s happening in Arkham, and it will certainly make you reconsider whether Batman is doing the right thing by sending twisted criminal minds there. Some might say this is where the series jumps the shark and deviates from the pure mafia movie vibe it has had so far, but I don’t think this is what The Penguin was ever really going for. It may be more grounded than other recent adaptations, but like the film it’s derived from, it’s found its own balance between the two.

    My complaint is more that “Cent’anni” doesn’t always feel like it’s properly placed within the overall story the series is telling. It must be super tough to keep a show going, especially in today’s age of eight-to-ten episode seasons and limited series (both of which The Penguin is an example of). Any amount of new character introductions you have to do, and any flashbacks that seem necessary, have to be strategically positioned so as not to upset the balance of the series.

    Some might say this is where the series jumps the shark.

    Last week, Victor was given his time to shine in an episode that deftly weaved in and out of flashbacks to show us his past while relating his life before The Riddler’s attack to what’s happening in his present. ‘Cent’anni’, on the other hand, goes for a more Inception-esque structure, with an unconscious Sofia going on a magical mystery tour of her past – but then, within that flashback, we get another time jump to the day her mother died. . At first glance it sounds like a lot to handle, and it is, but each step back in time feels necessary to tell Sofia’s full story and is smoothly executed, as is the return to the present.

    As clean as it is to make those transitions, it’s still jarring to have two flashback episodes in a row at a time when the third episode had so much to offer in the present, with Victor and Oz running away, leaving Sophia to die. . Where that could highlight Oz’s power grab while laying the groundwork for Victor’s character arc, the sole focus on Sofia this time around makes it work as a standalone piece, but it fails to do the same service to prove what is happening in the now, except for the climax at the end.

    I like that as the pieces come together in The Penguin, previous conversations start to make more sense. At the point of the second episode where Oz tells Sofia that he owes her, we are completely at a loss as to what he is referring to. Now that we know how everything went down ten years ago, those conversations are recontextualized in a very satisfying way. It’s attention to detail in the writing that fleshes out the characters and makes the passage of time feel real, which for me is often a sticking point in movies and shows that span decades. If there’s a big time jump, but the characters are seemingly unchanged and it feels like nothing has happened in the intervening years, why jump at all? But The Penguin is rooted in this one specific time jump, and that helps keep things stable, especially since we get to see some of what happened during those years (or at least the beginning of them) in ‘Cent’anni ‘.

    Vaseline
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