7 Shows Like The Penguin to Watch Next

Ay, I'm waddling here! HBO and Max's hit limited series The Penguin stars Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobb, aka the Penguin, who first appeared in the 2022 film The Batman. Oz is a mid-level Gotham City gangster who's making a play for the big leagues, which puts him in conflict with Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti), daughter of crime boss Carmine Falcone, whose death in The Batman left a power vacuum in Gotham's underworld. Only the most ruthless aspirant will get to fill it. 

The Penguin is a mash-up of a gritty New York City crime drama and a superhero movie TV spinoff, so there are a lot of ways you can go when looking for something similar to watch. Do you want another sprawling crime epic? Do you want another heightened reimagining of the style of 1970s New York? Or do you want another Batman show? Our list has them all.

The Penguin is something like a more grounded, TV-MA version of this Gotham City crime drama. Gotham, which ran for five seasons on Fox between 2014 and 2019, is a Batman prequel about young Det. Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) fighting crime in Gotham City in the years before he becomes commissioner. In the first season, he investigates the murder of the Waynes, which is how he meets young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz). The Penguin, known here by his canonical comics name Oz Cobblepot and played by Robin Lord Taylor, is one of the show's breakout characters. He's once again a lower-level crook whose profile rises during a gang war, but he's a younger and more playful take on the character than Farrell's glowering mafioso. If you're looking for another Batman show without Batman, Gotham is your best bet.

Watch on Max

This animated series is another mash-up of Batman and noirish crime drama done in a very satisfying way. Batman (voiced by Hamish Linklater) does his thing of trying to keep Gotham safe from the rogues' gallery of villains, including Oswalda Cobblepot, voiced by Minnie Driver. The series was created by Bruce Timm, who previously created the highly influential Batman: The Animated Series from the 1990s, and its head writer is Ed Brubaker, an acclaimed comics writer who has worked extensively in both the crime fiction and superhero genres. Their expertise helps make Caped Crusader the perfect next step after The Penguin, or an introduction to noir style for younger viewers.

Watch on Prime Video

Il Pinguino! This Italian series is one of the best mafia dramas of the past decade. Set in modern-day Naples, the series follows the civil war for control of the Savastano crime family, with factions led by Ciro "l'Immortale" Di Marzio (Marco D'Amore), an ambitious veteran member, and Gennaro Savastano (Salvatore Esposito), the deposed boss' son. They're both scary guys, and the show is steeped in an intoxicating atmosphere of dread and intensity. It's basically the best contemporary real-world version of what The Penguin is inspired by. It ran for five critically acclaimed seasons and ended in 2021.

Watch on Max

If you're looking for a contemporary crime drama with a New York City setting — while The Penguin is set in Gotham City, of course, its Gotham is based on New York and is filmed there — Power is what you want. The series follows Ghost (Omari Hardwick), a New York drug dealer who dreams of going legit. But the game is hard to leave, especially when almost everyone in his life is involved in it. The series is thrilling, violent, and occasionally heartbreaking. It ran for six seasons on Starz from 2014 to 2020, and since it ended has spawned three spinoffs and counting.  

Watch on Hulu

Gangs of London is arguably the most stylized and action-packed crime drama currently on TV. As the title suggests, it's set in London's criminal underworld, which at the start of the series is experiencing a power vacuum after the death of its most powerful figure, who kept the disparate and competing international crime syndicates from fighting too much and disrupting the flow of business. That goes out the window, and it's an all-out war for control. The series was co-created by action movie maestro Gareth Evans, and his mastery of fight choreography and over-the-top action is on full display here. Two seasons have been released, and a third is in the works on AMC. 

Watch on Netflix

Here's something a little different. The Get Down is a musical drama set in the Bronx in the 1970s, where the rise of hip-hop and disco coincides with the borough being rife with crime and poverty. It follows a crew of teenagers who are trying to make their mark on the world however they can. It hails from Baz Luhrmann, director of distinctive, frenetic, hyperromantic musicals like Moulin Rouge and Elvis, who applies his signature style to the series. It's very different from The Penguin tonally, but if you find The Penguin's creative vision of a gritty but almost magically heightened '70s-style New York appealing, you may want to spend some time in Luhrmann's world. The Get Down was one of Netflix's first shows to be canceled after one season, and it's something of a lost gem on the service. It helped launch the careers of some now-familiar faces, including Justice Smith (Detective Pikachu), Shameik Moore (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen).

Watch on Netflix

You know it was coming. The Penguin airs its Sopranos influence on its sleeve. Oz Cobb is Colin Farrell's tribute to Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), from his complex characterization as a violent criminal with a relatable soul to his nasal Italian American accent. He even looks a little like Tony (it's mostly the hair). If you've never watched The Sopranos, there's never a bad time to start. If you have, The Penguin probably makes you want to watch it again. Why watch the superhero imitation when you can get the real thing? (Fun fact: One of Cristin Milioti's earliest on-screen performances was a small role as Catherine Sacrimoni, daughter of Brooklyn boss Johnny Sack, in the The Sopranos' final season.)

Watch on Max

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