I would have been perfectly satisfied if The Penguin simply served as an excellent companion piece to The Batman, which it more than does, delving deeper than ever into the criminal organizations and minds of Gotham’s inhabitants, but even more so, this is a stunning character piece of its own, utilizing its long form storytelling format to fantastic effect, gradually peeling back layers and layers to make for an absolute ride from start to finish. Even with all the hype, I seriously did not expect this to be such an emotionally rich experience. Oz is, of course, brilliant, with both the story developments and Farrell’s masterful performance adding an abundance of nuance that I never could have anticipated, but the way they add characters like Sofia and Vic into the mix helps draw out the thrilling tragedy that this really is. It starts off wildly entertaining and over 8 episodes reveals something sinister that had me in a chokehold by the end. Sensational. This universe is already such an accomplishment.