From mob bosses to family drama, "The Penguin" and "The Sopranos" share more than just a criminal underworld. Join us as we explore how Oz Cobb's rise to power in Gotham mirrors Tony Soprano's reign in New Jersey. We'll dive into the parallels between characters, themes, and even specific scenes that make "The Penguin" a true spiritual successor to HBO's iconic mafia series.
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00:00You think I could be as good as him? Get his kind of respect?
00:05Your father?
00:09Sure, boss. If you want.
00:12Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're going to be taking an extensive look
00:16at both The Penguin and The Sopranos to see how one carries the torch from the other.
00:21There will be major spoilers for both of these shows in this video essay,
00:24so consider this your warning.
00:26What line of work are you in?
00:28Waste management consultant.
00:32The immediate connections.
00:34The morning of the day I got sick, I've been thinking.
00:39It's good to be in something from the ground floor.
00:42I came too late for that, I know.
00:46But lately I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end.
00:49A spiritual successor can be considered something that either pays homage to
00:53or shares numerous details in common with something that specifically came before it.
00:58Whether it's a matching aesthetic or a similar type of character,
01:01it kickstarts that déjà vu feeling in your brain.
01:04It reminds you so much about something else that you can't help but start drawing the comparisons.
01:08Did you have these feelings of loss more acutely in the hours before you collapsed?
01:15I don't know.
01:16But while these things might be similar to each other,
01:18they don't exactly share the same continuity.
01:21Meaning these works of art aren't directly connected like they're part of the same universe.
01:25What part of the boot you from, hon?
01:27Dr. Melfi.
01:29My father's people were from Queserta.
01:32Avelino.
01:34My mother would have loved it if you and I got together.
01:36A real case could be made for the Penguin being a spiritual successor to the Sopranos.
01:41From the get-go, people were quick to point out all of the many similarities between them.
01:46In fact, it was kind of glaringly obvious.
01:48You'd kind of have to be living under a rock to not see everyone comparing the two.
01:52Point is, it wasn't exactly a secret that this The Batman spinoff
01:56was paying homage to one of the greatest TV shows ever made.
01:59The DNA of the 21-time Emmy Award-winning series
02:02is practically hard-wired into the foundation of The Penguin.
02:06You got some big shows to fill.
02:11Not too big.
02:12I mean, manageable shows.
02:15For starters, The Penguin focuses on Oz Cobb,
02:18a small-time gangster embedded in the Falcone crime organization
02:21with dreams of taking over and running the streets of Gotham.
02:24Now, you might say that this premise is a little bit different from The Sopranos,
02:28and you're not wrong.
02:29The Sopranos focuses on Tony Soprano,
02:32a big-time mobster embedded in the DiMeo crime family,
02:35who is already in a prominent position of power in the very beginning of the show.
02:39Jackie, you're the boss.
02:40Tell him to leave Conley trucking alone.
02:42Didn't know it was a Conley truck.
02:44There are some more differences here and there, sure,
02:46but when you look at the bigger picture,
02:48trying to find things that set them apart is really just splitting hairs.
02:52At the end of the day,
02:53both of these HBO originals feature morally gray mobsters
02:57with distinct accents making their bones.
02:59And the blurred lines between what goes on
03:02in their personal and professional lives
03:04are put on full display for the millions of viewers tuning in.
03:07And the fact that both shows share some of the same actors
03:10amidst their cast is an added bonus.
03:12Make sure you eat.
03:15You too.
03:15Me?
03:16No, thank you.
03:17I am eight pounds away from my goal,
03:19and I'm fitting in that dress if it kills me.
03:20Jesus, can we ever talk about anything in this family besides food?
03:25Even HBO themselves clearly think
03:27there's something special connecting these two shows.
03:30HBO's official social media handles
03:32promoted the release of Penguin
03:33by posting material directly invoking Sopranos.
03:36Whether it was a collage of both shows' dynamic duos
03:39or an edit of the Penguin in the style of the Sopranos intro,
03:42they were trying to get people's attention.
03:44But some social media synergy and parallels between premises
03:48obviously isn't enough to call this a case closed.
03:51So let's unpack more of the nitty-gritty details.
03:54In my neighborhood, they tore a parade in his honor.
04:00A friggin' parade.
04:03I mean, it wasn't fancy, but it was a gesture.
04:06To show love of what he meant.
04:10Can you imagine to be remembered like that?
04:14The mob's cycles of violence and backstabbing.
04:24Sorry to take off the rose-tinted glasses,
04:26but being in the mob kinda sucks.
04:28Shocking.
04:29Sure, it looks cool for a while,
04:31but in the end, nobody's really safe when you're in this line of work.
04:35Both shows make that crystal clear.
04:37Numerous characters are killed left and right.
04:40Some are strategic and some are senseless.
04:43There are explosions, gunshots, stabbings, you name it.
04:47There's also the reality that your word means nothing.
04:51Would that make it easier for you to take what's mine?
04:57Or is this you?
05:00What you want?
05:01We build up these ideas of honesty and integrity,
05:04but those don't always end up shining through in the end.
05:07The hard truth is that people don't always say what they mean,
05:10or mean what they say.
05:12You got options.
05:14Don't let anyone ever make you feel like you don't have any options,
05:17because you got friends.
05:20Look at me.
05:22Friends that would die for you.
05:24You understand me?
05:26Friends.
05:29Yeah, I know.
05:30A major plot thread in The Sopranos, for example,
05:32is the looming danger of close friends and allies secretly being FBI informants.
05:37Heck, it takes Tony two seasons to grapple with the truth
05:40that his buddy Big Pussy is a rat.
05:42What do you got for me?
05:47Bumpin' Saro.
05:48Pussy?
05:50What about him?
05:52He's wired for sound.
05:54What?
05:55I got it from a good source I thought you should know.
05:58All right?
05:59I'm sorry.
06:00I know you like him.
06:01Like him?
06:02On the other end,
06:03loyalty is always in question when you're dealing with Oscob.
06:07If lying were a superpower, it'd be his.
06:09He lies to Sophia Falcone about who killed her brother Alberto,
06:13and simultaneously tries to play both the Maronis and the Falcones against each other.
06:17Have you asked him about my brother?
06:20I thought we agreed.
06:22Have you heard from Alberto?
06:24Sophia, please.
06:25I don't-
06:26He went out last night.
06:27He refused his bodyguards and he never came home.
06:29Sophia, that's enough.
06:33I better get out of your hair.
06:34He's a slick devil who says what you want to hear,
06:37and then, when the chips are down, reveals his real self.
06:40Violence and betrayal are intrinsically tied together,
06:43and there are two scenes from both shows that really hammer that theme home.
06:48Hey, I'm not sure but I think I just saw Fabian Petrullio.
06:51Refresh my memory.
06:52What's he before your time?
06:54Maid guy.
06:54He flipped about 10 years ago and he got busted for peddling H.
06:57In the episode College,
06:58Tony spots Fabian Petrullio,
07:00one of those aforementioned rats,
07:02while visiting colleges with his daughter Meadow.
07:04We'll cut to the chase and say that Tony ultimately kills Petrullio in the end with a wire,
07:09and in the episode A Great or Little Thing,
07:11something similar plays out down in Gotham.
07:13What did you say to get Link to turn?
07:19I'm sure you promised him something.
07:23Yeah.
07:24Yeah, well, you and the dialogue never would.
07:27Shot.
07:29Got a chance to be somebody.
07:31An underling by the name of George McHugh snuffs out his boss Donny Boy Sullivan with a wire,
07:36the same way as Tony.
07:37Look, we're not trying to say that The Sopranos trademarked a specific way to kill people.
07:42This technique has been shown in movies and TV shows countless times before.
07:46But intentional or not,
07:47this blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene from Penguin still feels like a cool callback to Sopranos.
07:52You know what people will do to push that down?
07:54They'll do anything.
07:56Anything to push down that feeling.
07:59You think I don't understand that?
08:01Sorry, it's just sort of hard to shake it.
08:03It's like they share a similar frequency when it comes to murder.
08:06Another cool thing is that you can read between the lines here.
08:09Because if you look closely,
08:11there are statements that are being made with these killings.
08:14Hey, what are you gonna do?
08:16I don't know.
08:18Got Meadow here.
08:20Jesus.
08:21By taking Petrullio down,
08:22Tony isn't just getting revenge.
08:24He's making sure this backstabbing rat doesn't become a problem later.
08:28He's making sure that his way of life isn't disrupted.
08:31Essentially, that way he keeps things the same.
08:34Dad, you're being honest with me, right?
08:37Pretty soon here you're gonna start hurting my feelings.
08:39But that's not what's happening with Donny Boy.
08:42That murder is a very clear example of new blood trying to rise to the top.
08:47It's not an act of self-preservation like it is with Tony.
08:50It's an act of destruction.
08:51Listen, I try to stay out of these kinds of things, right?
08:54But the headline is, it's the same old warhunts.
08:57The Moronis and Falcons ripping each other off.
08:59The Moronis kill Sofia's brother.
09:02She goes full psycho.
09:03If anything, with the way Oz gives a rousing speech,
09:06it's a call to action.
09:07A rallying cry.
09:08Both examples show how this kind of life costs you.
09:11You and your kind, you're so busy filling your own f***ing plate.
09:15You don't see that everyone around you is starving.
09:18You got no idea what it feels like, born into nothing.
09:21The importance of fire.
09:22Yeah, I know.
09:23What does that mean?
09:25Why is fire important?
09:26Is it just because both shows occasionally have fire in them?
09:29It's like saying that Taxi Driver and The Muppets Take Manhattan
09:32are connected because both movies have New York City in them.
09:47But before you weaponize your keyboards, just let us explain what we mean.
09:51Because yeah, both shows have stuff that goes kablooey, but there's more here.
09:55Each show uses fire to say something important.
09:58Are you ready to head back to the house?
10:01Maybe warm yourself by a nice fire.
10:05Light an expensive cigar.
10:09In Homecoming, Oz snuffs Nadia and Taj Moroni out in flames.
10:14And when Salvatore Moroni tries to get revenge in a later episode,
10:17Oz enrages him with the gruesome details.
10:20In his speech, he mentions the distinct smell of burning hair.
10:36Sopranos fans are no strangers to the smell of burning hair.
10:40Well, I mean, because it's a detail from the show.
10:42I don't mean that Sopranos fans regularly have their hair in flames or anything.
10:46Anyway, Carmine Lubertazzi Sr. smelled burning hair right before he croaked.
11:01And later on, when Tony's girlfriend Valentina lost her hair in an accidental fire,
11:06the smell got mentioned again.
11:08Fire and its after-effects are a constant reminder of death and loss.
11:12Naturally, that sounds like a no-brainer.
11:14But both shows also present fire in another way.
11:17Fire can also be seen as a form of freedom, too.
11:20I'm leaving Gotham, Mr. Zhao.
11:24There's nothing left for me here.
11:28But my home, my territories, my businesses can all be yours.
11:37Well, not all of yours.
11:39Whichever one of you brings me Oz first.
11:42Having renounced the Falcone name,
11:44Sofia Gigante gets liberated when she burns down the family mansion.
11:48There's still that sense of loss, but it's not really a bad loss for her.
11:51Instead, it's freeing.
12:01A.J. Soprano also gets that kind of a rush when his expensive Nissan Xterra
12:05accidentally goes up in flames.
12:07It's definitely bad in the moment, but A.J. just laughs it off later after the fact.
12:11Because for him, it's one less material object to dwell on.
12:15Sofia and A.J., while both nepo babies at heart,
12:18are seemingly freed of some of their burdens through the flames.
12:21The thing is, ever since it blew up, I feel like cleansed or something.
12:31Because it was a polluter.
12:36No. I'm just watching it go.
12:40Mothers and Their Sons
12:56You wanna know what the opposite of freedom is, though?
12:58Nagging mothers.
13:00Well, maybe it's not exactly the same, but it's still not great.
13:03Parental supervision is prominent here.
13:05And in the case of these shows,
13:07it's the sons supervising the parents, not the other way around.
13:11You locked the door after you?
13:13Yeah, I did.
13:13You know, somebody called here last night. After Doc.
13:18Who?
13:19You think I'd answer? It was Doc, Al.
13:22Mom, I'll never understand that.
13:24The phone is an auditory thing. Doc is an eye thing.
13:26I can understand not going out after Doc.
13:28He could jump in the shadows, whatever.
13:30But not answering the phone after Doc?
13:31Oh, listen, Tony knows everything.
13:33This is where the next crop of comparisons start to get really specific.
13:37Both Oz and Tony care about their mothers and want to do right by them.
13:41But their actions largely go unnoticed by these women.
13:44Oswald, it's too much.
13:47No.
13:48Perfect. Suits you, ma'am.
13:52Thank you, sweetheart.
13:53You're welcome.
13:54That's crazy.
13:55Wait, wait, wait. Was I expecting you?
13:58It's not Sunday, is it?
13:59No, it's not.
14:00I didn't get...
14:02No, it's a special occasion. We're gonna leave town for a while.
14:06Both Frances Cobb and Livia Soprano are aloof and intense.
14:10For Frances, it's because she has Lewy body dementia,
14:13coupled with the depressing trauma of her other two sons dying early on.
14:17For Livia, her mind is more sharp, as is her tongue.
14:21She constantly nags and berates people.
14:23Tony's psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi,
14:25actually suggests that Livia has borderline personality disorder.
14:29A pattern of unstable relationships,
14:32affective instability.
14:35It means intense anxiety, joylessness.
14:40These people's internal phobias are the only things that exist to them.
14:44The real world, real people are peripheral.
14:47These people have no love or compassion.
14:49As both series go on,
14:51we learn that these dotty old ladies are actually a lot more complex than we thought.
14:55That's because both of them later conspire to kill their sons.
14:58Talk about a plot twist.
15:00With Oz, it's because he actually let his brothers die when they were all kids,
15:04and she secretly knew about it.
15:06I found this in his coat.
15:10Um...
15:11He was with him, Rex.
15:14He lied to me.
15:15He came home,
15:17acted all sad,
15:19like he was the victim,
15:20but he knew.
15:21My babies were drowning in those tunnels,
15:23and he didn't say a goddamn word.
15:25Frances actually tries killing Oz twice.
15:28She would have had it happen when he was young,
15:30but instead got cold feet.
15:32She then made what she called a deal with the devil.
15:35Then later, when she finally reveals the truth while imprisoned by Sophia,
15:39she stabs Oz with a broken bottle.
15:41Yeesh.
15:42That therapy session went dark.
15:44I know what you did to Jack and Betty.
15:46I always own.
15:54Lies.
15:57You're getting things confused.
16:00It's just your disease talking, ma.
16:02With Tony,
16:03Livia resents him for sticking her inside a retirement home.
16:06And when Tony and Uncle Junior are having problems about leadership,
16:10she basically plants the idea to kill Tony in Junior's head.
16:14I don't like that kind of talk.
16:17Now just stop it.
16:18It upsets me.
16:21Or I won't tell you anything anymore.
16:23If this is true, Livia,
16:25you'll know what I...
16:26I mean...
16:28I'm the boss, for Christ's sake!
16:30If I don't act, blood or no...
16:33You see how those cycles of betrayal that we talked about are coming back into play?
16:36Yep, mafia politics will do that.
16:39To say that these mothers have a complicated relationship with their sons
16:42is a major understatement.
16:45I hate you.
16:45I hate you for what you did.
16:47I never stopped hating you.
16:56Jesus, Vic.
16:57I said no cilantro.
16:58It's f***ing everywhere.
17:00F***, I'm sorry.
17:00Might as well shove a bar of goddamn soap in my mouth.
17:03Goings are on their way.
17:05Stop picking.
17:06It's actually scary just how similar these two characters are.
17:09Like they even have similar drip.
17:11That's kind of a joke, but actually not.
17:14They really do have a similar fashion sense.
17:16Anyways though, Victor Aguilar and Christopher Moltisanti are basically one in the same.
17:21Both Victor and Christopher started out as drivers for Oz and Tony respectively.
17:25Both had aspirations of doing more.
17:28Did you call, uh, what's his name down at Tribo Towers about the Harlem contract?
17:33I got home too late last night.
17:34I didn't want to wake the man up.
17:37Did you get up early this morning and call?
17:39He's always in his office by six.
17:41I was nauseous this morning.
17:42My mother told me I shouldn't even come in today.
17:44Chrissy wanted his damn arc so bad and Victor wanted a life beyond Crown Point.
17:49Both were taken under their mentor's wings and saw Oz and Tony as father figures.
17:54Both had a chance to get out of this life with the women they loved.
17:57Victor could have moved to L.A. with his girlfriend.
17:59And Chrissy could have run off with Adriana after learning she was a federal informant.
18:04You should get some flowers.
18:06You know, like I got over in Martha's.
18:09Really, really brightens up the brick walls.
18:19I don't know.
18:19When we appeared, it was kind of nice.
18:27While both had their chances, both decided to stay behind.
18:31Both chose their mentors.
18:33And where did that loyalty get them in the end, though?
18:36They both died.
18:37Adriana.
18:41What about her?
18:45Feds.
18:45They didn't just die either.
18:47They were both killed by Oz and Tony.
18:50They even died in the exact same way.
18:52By being choked to death.
18:54These murders agonizingly concluded these young men's lives.
18:57And cemented what Oz and Tony actually are.
19:00Bad people.
19:01I can't bring you with me this time.
19:05What do you mean?
19:07I mean, that's the thing about family.
19:10Oz?
19:12It's his strength.
19:13Oz, when you-
19:14I mean, it drives you.
19:15Oz Cobb and Tony Soprano.
19:17Rooting for the bad guys.
19:18It's like the worst Spanish I've ever heard.
19:20What?
19:21It's la, la rata.
19:24What is this, Riddler?
19:25Stupid or something?
19:26Jesus.
19:27Lucky you two.
19:28World's greatest detectives!
19:31Am I the only one here knows the difference between la and la?
19:34Jesus!
19:35No habla espanol?
19:36So many of us want to see Batman beat Oz into the ground in The Batman Part 2.
19:40And so many of us also want to believe that Tony's brains are blown out at the end of The Sopranos.
19:46Why?
19:46Because our hearts can only take so much, that's why.
19:50We love to root for the villain.
19:51But at a certain point, we have to be reminded that,
19:54oh yeah, we're watching a show about monsters.
19:56Jesus Christ, I thought you'd be pleased I didn't hand you a diagnosis at a clap.
20:00And these monsters happen to have so much in common.
20:03Colin Farrell, the Academy Award nominee who's buried underneath all of that penguin makeup,
20:07isn't an expert on Tony Soprano.
20:10But that's all right, because it's clear that the writers of The Penguin are.
20:13Hey, hey, look at me.
20:15How far do you think you'd get?
20:17This scumbag?
20:19He disrespected me, you're gonna disrespect me, Vic.
20:21No, no.
20:22Because you and me, we're in this together now.
20:26Which means, I own you.
20:29So much of Oz is ripped right from Tony's playbook.
20:32The leather jackets, the lying, the anger, the thirst for violence, the mommy issues.
20:38Both sometimes even maneuver out of danger in the same way.
20:42But like vultures flying to a rotting carcass,
20:44we need to circle back to the destructive aftermath of their actions.
20:48Because Oz and Tony make choices that have ripple effects everywhere.
20:52For as much as these two men value family,
20:54they don't really have a problem destroying their own.
20:57I haven't been able to tell anybody this, but I'm f***ing relieved.
21:04Really?
21:06It was a tremendous drag on my emotions, on my thoughts about the future.
21:11We mentioned earlier how Oz killed his brothers.
21:14Well, Tony isn't squeaky clean either.
21:16Sure, he didn't murder his sisters, but he did gun down his cousin Tony Blondetto.
21:21And remember how we talked about Christopher?
21:23Well, he wasn't just Tony's protege, he was his cousin too.
21:26We have an obsession with anti-heroes.
21:29And at certain points, these guys fit that bill.
21:32But when it comes down to brass tacks,
21:34neither of them have the makings of a good person.
21:36So whenever we think we can get close to them,
21:38we're painfully reminded that they aren't going to change.
21:41This is yours?
21:44This? Yeah.
21:48Purple. Very subtle.
21:52Well, technically it's plum.
21:54Leather seats come standard, toe sole.
21:56Hmm. You've really moved up in the world, haven't you?
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22:16Final Thoughts
22:21The Penguin treads much of the same ground as The Sopranos,
22:24and from what we've covered, it seems to have been done on purpose.
22:28From themes of violence and betrayal to characters acting like mirrors of one another,
22:32these shows were made to be compared.
22:35So is calling The Penguin a spiritual successor to The Sopranos valid?
22:39We sure think so.
22:45Are there any other comparisons between these two series you think we missed?
22:49Let's all share our thoughts over a nice plate of gabagool down in the comments.
22:52Don't eat gabagool, grandma. It's nothing but fat and nitrates.
22:55Gabagool, come over here.
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