GOTHAM HAD THE BEST PENGUIN (W/ CHANNEL PUP) 

They honestly could've done an entire show strictly about Oswald's rise through the criminal underworld...

I always thought Robin Lord Taylor managed to get a good balance of being a monster and being a gentleman when he was The Penguin in Gotham

His relationship with Gordon is unique and I like it

I always fucking loved this penguin and riddler

Robin Lord Taylor struck the balance between disgusting and sophisticated so perfectly. He's absolutely the best version of the Penguin.

I feel like this version of The Penguin in Gotham is the best because it's always feels like he was going to lose but he always finds a way out of certain situations along with outsmarting his enemies

Dude was so distinguishable that I have a hard time calling him The Penguin. In Gotham his character story is so rich that he stands out as Oswald to me. A stand-alone interpretation

The penguin in Gotham is very capable of love and selflessness imo. He did love his mom and dad, and maybe at first he didn't really love Ed, but when Ed gives him this lecture about love and sacrifice, he changes. He really cares for Martin, he made a whole plan to help the kid escape after all, and was sincerely happy when Martin told him he considered him as a friend. Penguin also helped Jim Gordon so many times, sure we could say that it was in his self interest to have a good relationship with a cop, but honestly, this relationship brought him more problems than anything, and sometimes he did things that weren't in his advantage at all, like framing himself for the murder of Theo Galavan and ending up at Arkham Asylum because of that. A better example of an act of selflessness from him is the scene where he protects Ed from the grenade in season 5, and loses an eye. Penguin also helped a lot in that same season to save Gotham, he could've escaped with the submarine and start anew in another city (with his resourcefullness, I believe this guy could achieve anything he wants anywhere) but no, he feels too attached to Gotham. Also, there are several times in the show where it is emphasized that Penguin's greatest weakness is his heart, meaning his desire and need for reciprocal love and friendship. He's a dramatic character, that sure is evil but still has a heart and a moral compass in spite of that, and could be good but gets discouraged because of all the bad things that constantly happen to him (betrayals, deaths, heartbreaks), so he turns to villainy to take revenge on those who hurt him and show to all those people who belittled him what he's capable of. That makes him very human and relatable, and every human is capable of feeling and showing some sort of love.

Robin Lord Taylor's Penguin was my favorite character. I loved his story from start to finish (though I didn't like that they sent him to jail for 10 years in the epillogue.) I liked his relationship with the Riddler, Ivy, Victor, and Martin. He was the heart of the series and I wish that they would make a spin-off comic or animated series set in this universe that would follow him and the Riddler since they are free and Batman has just returned to the city.

The Best Penguin, I couldn’t agree more.

Miss Gotham so much. The casting for each character was great and the acting was fantastic from top to bottom. Underrated show

Fun fact the actor paul reubens who plays penguins father also played his father in the Batman returns

We NEED a RIDDLER analisis. I loved his interpretation. He took a character that was awfully performed before and turned it into a character bigger than the 'Joker' of the series. He's a master

As always an absolute pleasure returning to Gotham with you, Mr Vee! This city is where I was born as far as YT is concerned and it feels great to return to my old stomping ground with new friends.

I have always thought that Oswald, along with Bruce and Gordon, was one of the series protagonists. And he is, he is a bad guy protagonist, not an antagonist

Robin Lord Taylor was amazing as Penguin I'm excited to see Colin Farrell as Penguin next year, I think he's going to be great in the role, but it's going to be hard to be better than this version (which he doesn't need to be)

People can say what they want about Gotham, but they have to admit, the Penguin was great in the show.

I am going to be very honest.... I feel that GOTHAMS take on The Penguin is SO WELL DONE that any new Media trying to do the Penguin should CONTINUE where Gotham left off! It was BRILLIANT! Right to the final episode, Robin Lord Taylor had me HOOKED... And that final epsiode too... Seeing Lord Taylor donning a fat suit and begining to become the Penguin we all know from the comics... It was GENUINELY the perfect transiation! This shoudl be where all future Penguin stories BEGIN! And Vee... Thanks for bringing Pup in once more!!! Great Channel... deserves the support!

One of THE BEST VILLAINS PORTRAYALS/ACTORS to be in Batman media. He MADE THE SHOW in so many ways.

I actually met Robin Lord Taylor at Comic Con once he’s such a nice and down to earth guy

I like how you say that Jerome and Jeremiah overshadowed Penguin as the big bad, but I truly never thought that Penguin would be the Big Bad, yknow? Yes hes the biggest evil character, but I feel that we were SUPPOSED to root for him, making him impossible to be The Big Bad. He’s the Villain Protagonist, not a Big Bad.

I personally enjoyed Penguin’s on again/off again love fuelled rivalry with the Riddler. It was deep and complex and expanded on both characters nicely.

Finally someone said it!! Robin Lord Taylor is amazing in this role

The thing that facinates me about Oswald in Gotham it's that they somehow were able to make him a evil guy who cares without making him a hero. He is as bad as it gets, he will backstab and lie and manipilate and murder and while it's possible to imagine him living a more honest life it is impossible to imagine him not being a criminal in some forn or another. BUT he still deeply cares about Gotham and about the very few people he connected with, he truly loved his parents and Martin and even Ed. Martin is the best example as while he adopts the boy with bad intencions he does cares for him not only to the point of staying in Arkam for him but by doing the thing he wasn't able to do with the Riddler: let the kid go. And while the vilan who cares it's not an unique concept but the vilan who cares not having a redeption arc or even being redemable it's. Oswald it's the only vilan I can think who is able to be truly selflees but it's still completly unredemable

He was the reason I kept watching the show. Never did I expect someone to make me believe penguin is the best villain but Robin Lord Taylor proved me wrong. He was funny, dramatic, serious, and overall awesome at playing penguin.

i used to not care about the penguin, but in Gotham he turned out to be my absolute favourite character. i wish i could see more of Gotham's iteration of him.

His best “Oh shit moment” was his betrayal of Butch. That is called playing the long con. Masterful writing and acting. Because yeah, Butch killed his beloved mother and we as an audience just let that slide because Penguin did. He’s the best Penguin ever and they ruined him with the 10 yr jump.

Robin Lord Taylor as the Penguin was captivating. Gotham did a great job with characters.

Anyone else remember Robin Lord Taylor in Accepted? He played a guy with A.D.D. named Abernathy Darwin Dunlap.

This show was an underrated classic

Robin Lord Taylor's take on Penguin was fantastic. A lot of the other villains underestimated him to their peril. For me he was the standout in the show.

Before watching Gotham I never would’ve guessed penguin would become one of my favorite batman villains

The penguin was the protagonist of the series for a very long time. He was the only charcter with such a great development and interesting story. I remember myself wishing the penguin win over gordon and company

Honestly, seeing penguin climb the ladder is 100xs more interesting than him already being on the top, i hope more incarnations explore this

Tom Kenny was great as the Penguin in THE BATMAN cartoon.

While a clip of Jerome got me interested in Gotham, Oswald Cobblepot is what got me hooked. His story was the most interesting to follow in early season 1, cementing the character as one of my favorites in the show.

He was unexpectedly my favorite character on the show.

"Rags to Riches but evil" sumarized Gotham Oswald story soo well.

I feel like Gotham was a worthy prequel/new look at the Batman mythos and rogues gallery

Gotham's Penguin and Riddler are the best live action versions and I love Carrey's take on the riddler

Penguin and riddler in gotham are my favorite live action interpretations of those characters im supper excited for the new riddler though.

I really like the version of the Penguin we got into the Telltales Batman game, and I think it might actually be my favorite. He was childhood friends with Bruce and their families were some of the most powerful in Gotham. Eventually, Oswald's parents come down with debilitating mental illnesses and are forced to go overseas for treatment, ultimately leaving their assets to be bought out by Thomas Wayne. After leaving Gotham, the Cobblepot family becomes destitute, leaving Oswald to try and regain his family's legacy via crime. He eventually becomes a crimelord, and in this continuity the name Penguin seems to come from a gas mask he wears when commiting crimes that somewhat resembles that of a bird or plague doctor. So because he managed to literally fight his way to the top of the crime world, he's actually a very capable fighter in this story, and when he returns to Gotham, it's because he blames the Wayne family for his family's decline, and thus is targeting Bruce. On top of all this, the Thomas Wayne has been accused of essentially being a crime lord in secret in this story, which raises the possibility that Penguin might actually be right about Bruce's family being responsible for his own family's suffering here.

I thought Robin Lord Taylor was fantastic, and anyone who has done acting can tell he enjoyed working as an actor on Gotham! The costume and styling design was gorgeous too.

Honestly, a lot of the shitty things in Gotham could have been avoided if the characters had let Penguin do his thing. He was essentially the gate that held off the worst of gotham's madness. When he was in power, gotham's criminals still worked in a classic gangster structure, like with falcone and maroni, but whenever penguin got removed from power, we got to witness the worst of gotham. Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, Theo Galavan, The pyg, The court of owls comboed with the alice tetch virus and more, all done when penguin didn't have control.

They couldn’t have picked a better actor! So menacing yet so good!

I remember loving Danny DeVito's performance in BATMAN RETURNS, but looking back on it now I see it as a missed opportunity. I admire the Penguin when he's depicted as intelligent, and I think it's possible to show him as that AND to show him as a deformed and disgusting slob. I really like the recent depictions of him as a British crime boss who eats raw fish.

Penguin, Riddler, and Gundy were my favorite characters on the show.

The crossover we never expected but now that we think about it is absolutely perfect

So I guess we'll be getting a 'Gotham had the best Riddler' video soon too

This show’s Penguin is one of my favorite characters of all time.

Gotham had some really good rendition of classic Batman villains - Penguin, Riddler and even a pretty good Joker. But what killed the series was the very inconsistent written and one of the worst Gordon's ever committed to film (and that includes 60's TV show and the 90's films). Alfred was also very good.

Has Robert Lord Taylor received an Emmy for this role yet ? . . .

Robin was amazing,i always loved his screams and he was my favorite character in the show

His father's last name wasn't Cobblepot. That was his mom's last name. His dad's last name was Van Dahl.

I love love love this Penguin. Like, you empathize with him & want him to be better but he just... can't help but do bad things. He's like George Costanza

I love how he never leaned on his disability as an excuse. It didn’t define him. He inspires me so much via that and being a master strategist and diplomat.

That's why the penguin is the 'main' villain. It's so well played, but there's one better character to me: the ridler. That guy made the character what it deserved to be. Please talk about the strange guy with a green hat whose name is literally E. Nigma

let’s all be honest. there was a lot of amazing actors who nailed there roles in this show. loved Gordon, Bruce and Alfred, Selina, Bullock, Riddler, Penguin, hell even Professor Pyg was played excellent

His performance on this show was the reason I placed him in my 'top 10 actors of all time' list

Colin in the new Batman. Was fantastic. Couldn't tell it was him.

Fun Fact: The Director and Writers confirmed that they focused on Oswald being more affectionate only after he was "fixed" by Hugo Strange.

Something I really liked was that penguins dad was played by Paul Reubens in Gotham and in Batman returns Paul Reubens played penguins dad

Nicely done, you have solidified my appreciation of Penguin. And Those cameos were a great investment.

I find the Nygma romance thing very interesting, I actually think he’s not gay, the reason he wanted Nygma was because he was the only one who treated him like a person, the same way his relationship with his mother was weird.

He's one of my favorite Penguins too, one of my top three Penguins. My other two favorites are Burgess Meredith's Penguin from the Adam West show and the Penguin from the 2004 cartoon series The Batman.

Honestly, Robin is the main reason I kept watching this show. I absolutely loved watching Cobblepott's rise to power.

I'd like to point out how there are exactly Four real life iterations of both The Penguin And The Riddler. All in pairs for different eras: -1960's Batman -Batman Returns + Batman Forever -Gotham -2022's The Batman

Penguin was probably most iconic character of show and almost totally agree with video. Only other things I remember about penguin background is that he is from old family and was bullied in childhood (bullies didn't end up well). I like that monocle, it has interesting background of his injury from defending Gorham. And while he himself isn't sure about his own feelings, Riddler did once test them. He wanted to show him, he is incapable of love, but penguin did chose to rather sacrifice himself, that let them kill him, so he passed and really loved him. At the end of serial, he probably didn't love him and were more like friends/allies that knows each other very well, because their history. But he was, for some time love someone else and he can be redeemed. That is tragedy of his character (in many comic too). He can turn into better person, but don't. Sometimes it's his own choice, sometimes outside influence affect him, but when penguin go back into cold waters of criminal underground, he will be that predator looking for fish to eat.

They need to bring him back as the Penguin someday. He did the role so much better than he should have for a spin-off prequel-ish series. The guy who played the Jokers would also definitely be perfect as an official Joker some day as well as the guy who played Riddler. All three actors blew out of the shoes of their roles, making their characters more fleshed out and interesting than was expected.

honestly the only reason i kept watching gotham was for penguin, even jerome or jeremiah wouldn't of kept me hooked that long the show was great in general but it was oswald who kept me invested

I think part of what makes him so great in this show is that he's sort of treated as a "main character" Him and Ed are pretty much the MC out of Gothams villains.

Robin Lord Taylor was excellent.

Your videos is making me wanna rewatch Gotham.

I think one thing Robin Lord Taylor does magnificently is facial expressions. He conveys so much with his eyes. He's in a few episodes of The Walking Dead. In his second appearance, he never says a word, but you know exactly what he's thinking just by the look on his face.

I'm so glad you mentioned Telltale Verison of penguin I feel like he's so overlooked even thou it's one of the best interpretations of him.

Agreed, when the show was good Penguin was just amazing to watch.

First of all THANK YOU for making new Gotham content!!! I absolutely agree with you, Gotham had the best Penguin. Robin Lord Taylor's performance was just breathtaking. It's a shame the man got no award for this. It would be so awesome if you could do a video like this on Cory Michael Smith's Riddler... Cause Gotham also had the best Riddler!!!

Loved this video :) Haven´t seen Gotham but i love your exploration and analysis off the Penguin

This version of Penguin is a frickin genius.

Thanks, I had completely forgotten how good this series was

I think he and DeVito revolutionize the character! I now imagine him as a bird person who rose from busser and headwaiter in gangland restaurants to a high tech mob boss with trick umbrellas and trained penguins, lol.

Hey Vee, I just want to give you thanks. Your videos on the show inspired me to give Gotham a chance, and I have not been disappointed. I am on season two and am having a blast. I fucking adore the Penguin and Riddler. They do a great job of getting you to sympathize with them without excusing what they do. And really make you see how dangerous these villains can be. The actors are just, muah, perfection. So yeah, thanks man.

I agree with most of what's said, aside from the "inability to love" part... First, his mom Don't tell me he didn't love his mom... He had an act for three seasons only in order to avenge her. Then, I think he genuinely loved Ed because he thought he could *trust him* (I think Oswald's paranoia was amazingly directed), and there was an episode where he chose something that was not going in his own interest only to show Ed he really loved him... And I'd say he did make "useless" (from a selfish pov) things to find and rescue Martin. I think Penguin loves, but doesn't know how to love. I'd say he even got that from Fish Mooney who also loved but was bad at loving (always regretting to give her heart)

the final ep penguin looks like they just thought about it last min and stuck a pillow down his top and said fuck it good enough

I think that Gotham had all of the best interpretations of every villain they could have. It was awesome. When I think of The Penguin I the of Robin Lord Taylor first.

The thing with Robin Lord Taylor this being a prequels is that he may eventually grow fat giving in to excess of being a mob boss. Also he may not be short person but he clearly not a giant either in fact if you look at him standing to other actor he often a inch underneath the average height

I love Oswald Cobblepot!!! I was always interested in how in Gotham, he was amazing at gaining and seizing power, but his biggest flaw as a villian is once he was in power - he doesn't have anything to struggle against and doesn't really know how to keep power. And granted that this is the origin story to so many characters but that maybe why he never got the top billing that all the other super villians in the Batman Universe. (He is one of my most favourite Characters on Gotham.)

16 mins after you post this lad? It pays sometimes to be across the Atlantic! I love your takes on Gotham, I got into this just before the second half of S4... Binge watched first two seasons and can't say I enjoyed them as much as the later ones but RLT played a BLINDER and made the early show absolutely its most memorable moments... From the exile at the start to falling in love with Ed to the Mayor etc... So so many times I expected Oswald to get beaten or whatever but he would pull some stunt and best of all he was super believable. As much as the last episode has its issues.... The send off with Ed and Oswald was perfect 👌 Keep up the great work Vee many props to ya from 🇮🇪

I whole heartedly agree. First Batman related thing I’ve ever watched and that 100% sticks from the start.

Penguin was always interesting because he was always quick to change sides, sometimes even to his personal hurt if it would afford him vengeance against an enemy. He at no time was ever not plotting, planning, or prepping. Nor was he entirely without compassion and empathy, which he often twisted to regain relationships that were inconveniently lost. Nor was he opposed to providing assistance, though every instance was either the payment or acquisition of a debt or favor, but nothing was entirely transactional either. He was just fun.

Channel pup, my second favourite talking animated dog. Not an insult, but it's hard to trifle with Scooby Doo. 🃏♣️♥️♠️♦️

My mom is watching gotham for the first time and oswald is her favorite character so far.

As a member of the LGBT community, season three absolutely wrecked me

For me, the alternative title for Gotham is "The Penguin". Because Penguin always become center of the story and we can see him up-and-down in every season.

Robin Lord Taylor stole that show for himself and I'm still quite angry he did not even get nominated for emmy because this was emmy deserving acting right there.

One of the best collabs ever

The riddler in this show was good af too

(Almost) every single member of Batman's rouges gallery is a darker version of him, designed to challenge one of his many skills; The penguin also comes from a upper class upbringing and challenges his resourcefulness, The Joker's creation were also a result of a traumatizing experience and he challenges Batman's morality, The Riddler is also a genus and challenges his intellect, etc.

definitely LOVE Gotham's Penguin. PRE batman villas and hero's LOVE IT!!

Gotham had the best penguin. And Riddler. And joker (or not joker). And poison ivy. And... Noticing a pattern?