I really enjoy the Penguin as a character, and seeing him excel at the intrigue and deception involved with organized crime. His little apprentice is fun enough, his acting is okay, but he allows Penguin to show his softer side. Seeing this version of Gotham in detail is fun, I really enjoyed the city as shown in the movie. I mainly want to see Penguin sloppily make his way to the top of Gotham by the end of the show. I do find the "mafia" in media to be a laughable parody at this point, no matter how serious they are written, but Penguin is a walking cartoon character, so it gets a pass.
I was getting what I wanted for 3 episodes when the 4th decides to take a harsh detour and focus on the female lead of the show. I liked her well enough, but this episode decides to completely derail the Penguin's story and showcase her past. It was okay at first, but I was suffocated after 30 minutes of pure Miss Falcone drama. Is it wrong to just want to watch Penguin in a show called The Penguin? This woman is then
tortured in Arkham for 45 minutes with never ending scenes of shock therapy and prison fights while the whole episode can be explained as a #BelieveAllWomen allegory.
I was pretty tired when I watched it, so I turned the episode off halfway through. I found it to be randomly "artistic" and overly dramatic out of nowhere. The creator and director is a woman so she no doubt wanted to include this episode to preach about modern day issues and treatment of women. That's cool, but what wine moms or art students are watching 3 episodes of crime drama to get to the gold nugget of politics in the middle of the season?
Anyways, the episode has the highest IMDB rating of any TV episode ever, which is a constant headline every year, but I feel put off by it.