WHEN YOU HEAR the phrase “HBO Mobster epic,” you probably think of one very specific thing first: The Sopranos. Of course. Some of you might also think of Boardwalk Empire, and, again, totally fair. There are plenty of other contenders in the prestige cable giant’s storied history, but now we’ve got one more to add to the top tier of the list—and it just happens to take place in a city where Batman, The Joker, Two-Face, and Harley Quinn do their bidding.
That’s right: The Penguin is the grounded mob epic you may have been waiting for but certainly didn’t see coming to this degree. Picking up right after the events of director Matt Reeves’s 2022 film The Batman (which starred Robert Pattinson as the titular vigilante and introduced Colin Farrell as The Penguin‘s titular mafioso), The Penguin tells a story that was perfectly set up by Reeves’s movie.
Mob boss Carmine Falcone (John Turturro in the movie, and now played by Mark Strong in flashbacks throughout the series) has died, and so a power vacuum has emerged to fill his shoes. Oz Cobb (Farrell, nicknamed “The Penguin” for the limp he walks with due to a club foot) was Falcone’s top lieutenant, and so he would seem to be a natural fit to take over—if it wasn’t for Falcone’s kids, Alberto (Michael Zegen) and Sofia (Cristin Milioti) who both fall higher on the succession order (and both have some of their own psychopathic tendencies).
The Penguin is set in Gotham City, but doesn’t feature Batman. That may seem like a major risk, but instead it tells a totally different story from something you might expect out of a superhero franchise. There aren’t any superpowers here, and there’s hardly any crime-fighting; instead, we watch Oz do all he can to claw his way to the top.
It’s not easy for someone to come from the bottom and rise to the top, but it is easy to forget you’re even watching Farrell, who gives a hell of a performance as a violent gangster who convinces himself he still wants to do good and be loved by his community, despite of course being covered head to toe in make-up and prosthetics.
Basically? Imagine if Tony Soprano was played by Academy Award-nominated actor Colin Farrell, created his empire from scratch in Gotham City, and had to put up with a couple psychopathic murderers along the way. That’s basically what we’ve got here.
And we’re guessing that’s enough of a sell, and you won’t want to miss an episode. To make sure you don’t, we’ve got all the information to keep you up to date just below.
When is the next episode of The Penguin coming out?
While The Penguin debuted its first episode on a Thursday, all of the following episodes will take over HBO’s primetime slot: Sunday nights at 9:00 PM EST; it will be available to stream on Max at the same time. The next episode will be available on Sunday, September 29.
How many episodes of The Penguin are left?
The Penguin is 8 episodes in total, the first of which is now available to watch and stream. That means there’s seven more episodes—and seven more weeks of Gotham City racketeering—left in the Matt Reeves-produced HBO series.
Here’s the complete release schedule for HBO’s The Penguin.
Episode 1, “After Hours,” – Now streaming as of September 19
Episode 2, “Inside Man” – Streaming on September 29
Episode 3, “Bliss” – Streaming on October 6
Episode 4, “Cent’anni” – Streaming on October 13
Episode 5, “Homecoming” – Streaming on October 20
Episode 6, “Gold Summit” – Streaming on October 27
Episode 7, “Top Hat” – Streaming on November 3
Episode 8, “Great or Little Thing” – Streaming on November 10
