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The Penguin Recap: The Monster Show


Another origin episode shows how easily monsters are made in Gotham City.

Whether it’s in the campy Pop Art satire disguised as normie children’s entertainment or Christopher Nolan’s Michael Mann–larping Dark Knight trilogy, the most resonant tales of Gotham City are the ones that tap into the triangulation of noir films, B movies, and EC horror comics that, midway through the 20th century, reflected America’s broken postwar soul. No good deed would go unpunished.” If Sofia the Hangman’s horror origin story in episode four, “ Cent’Anni,” made the case for The Penguin as an essential Gotham City tale, “Top Hat” will go down as the chapter that sealed the deal. Oz clings to their mother (played in flashback by Emily Meade) with a possessive, oedipal affection, while his brothers are a cloying reminder of his physical deficiencies and a boyhood innocence he never even had the chance to lose, much less enjoy.

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