Contains SPOILERS for ‘The Penguin’ Season 1
What does it take to make a superhero story work? Possible answers to that question include “a charismatic protagonist,” “cool powers,” or “colorful uniforms,” but all of them would fall short. How did I know? Jack Kirby and you also know, reader, an adventurer in a costume is very little if he does not have supervillains at his height.
When we talk about audiovisuals, and especially series, this reality becomes a sure passport to cliché. Because Adding a new character to a ‘rogues gallery’ is very difficult: the most legendary enemies of batman, For example, they are approaching a century old, while 21st century additions like the Professor Pyg or the Parliament of Owls They have earned their positions with blood and sweat… without ever reaching the popularity of the veterans.
But, while we console ourselves as best we can with the same old enemies recycled over and over again, The Penguin It has surprised us in a big way. And all this, in addition, taking a minor character from the vignettes and investing him with supreme charisma. And we’re not talking about the protagonist here. Colin Farrell, no matter how well you do it, but in that way Sofia Falcone (either Sofia Gigante) performed by Cristin Milioti.
Created by Jeff Loeb and Tim Sale in 1997 for history The long Halloween (one of the great influences of Christopher Nolan in The dark knight the daughter of Carmine ‘The Roman’ Falcone had a short-lived career in cartoons, while his audiovisual career has been limited to the now deceased Gotham, where it appeared during the last two seasons.
And yet its new incarnation He has made us fall in love with cruelty and evil, to the point of leaving us wanting more. How could this miracle happen? We explain it below.
Has an origin story
Magneto He was a victim of the Holocaust. He Doctor Death suffered as a member of a discriminated minority. Darkseid He was born and raised in a society designed to look a lot like hell. And even from himself joker We know that he chose madness as an alternative to a miserable life. Because at the origin of the best villains, even the cruelest, there is always a point of pathos that awakens our empathy.
Those responsible for The Penguin They have taken good note of this for their recreation of Sofia Falcone. Daughter of the cruelest gangster in Gotham City, who also turned out to be a serial killer, grew up in a family of sociopaths and then suffered for years in that abyss called Arkham Asylum for crimes he never committed. After this rosary of suffering, plus those that the series itself has in store for it, we can only assert that it has turned out too well…
has a brain
Showing us a Sofia fresh out of Arkham and a bag of traumas, The Penguin implied that the character would conform to his characterization in the comics (where, SPOILERS, he is responsible for the crimes attributed to him) or, in any case, would be an unpredictable wild card with a minor role in the intrigue. Nothing could be further from the truth, luckily.
Sofia Falcone’s metamorphosis takes place in chapters 3, 4 and 5 of the series. That’s where we see her get into the pocket (with Oswald’s help) of the Chinatown triads, hatch a master plan to get rid of the rest of her clan without arousing suspicion, and finally take the lead. family in a way that would have given respect to himself Michael Corleone. If you continue to underestimate her after that, don’t say you weren’t warned.
It has style
Due to the style book implemented by Matt Reeves in Batman (still closer to cartoons than post-Nolan ‘realism’), The Penguin It has deprived us of seeing Oswald wearing his comic uniform with morning coat, top hat and monocle. Here, however, we can cry for an eye, because Sofia has been there, setting the trend from the beginning in criminal fashion.
From the always elegant prison uniform to the luxury clothes, from the black raincoat (so handy to torture your victims) to the exquisite look with which he appears before his soldati, la Falcone has reminded us that Rather than powers, a good supervillain is defined by his cunning… and his image. Not to mention his wild eyes and those scars that he has ended up wearing with pride: in the underworld of Gotham, that is always a plus.
It has an actress
Those who only remembered Cristin Milioti for his final cameo in How I Met Your Mother, or for his role in The Wolf of Wall Street They must have had a huge surprise when they saw it in The Penguin. It is time to remind you that here we are not just talking about an interpreter with memorable titles (Fargo, Palm Springs), but also of a young woman experienced in Broadway and whose work in the musical Eleven led to her being nominated for Tony.
No matter how wild the script twists of The Penguin (and they need to be, because this is still a live-action comic), Milioti brings Sofia to life with overwhelming energy and presence but without ever falling into caricature. Will there be a Emmy in your future? Who knows, but what we would really like would be for her presence in Gotham to extend beyond the series: seeing her face to face with the damn bat would be a real pleasure.
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