Everything about The Penguin works, and it works brilliantly. One of those many, many things is the music. Mick Giacchino’s score evokes all the terror and tension of surviving Gotham, encapsulated by his Bernard Herrmann-like theme, ‘Scherzo for a Flightless Bird’.

But it’s not just the score that’s got us raving: it’s also the fantastic songs we’ve heard, each cleverly selected and inserted into its episode, sometimes adding nuance to characters and moments, sometimes alleviating an otherwise tense scene. Here are some of the standouts so far.

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

Episode 1: ‘9 to 5’ by Dolly Parton
This song jumps to life in Oz’s car when he and Victor are on the way to visit his mother. It might feel like just a fun song to lighten the mood and add quirk to Oz’s character, and while it certainly does that, it’s also a subtle nod to the theme of revenge, which is central to the film of the same name, and has come to be central to The Penguin as well. Its inclusion (which repeats over the end credits) is also ironic since these characters don’t exactly work a 9 to 5. The episode is even entitled After Hours.

Episode 1: ‘Put the Blame on Mame’ by Anita Kert Ellis
Later, Oz and Victor are sitting in front of the TV, on which the film Gilda is playing, showing the scene in which the title character is singing ‘Put the Blame on Mame’. The film shares similarities with The Penguin, but that's not its only relevance. It also marks a moment of foreshadowing, when Victor asks Oz, “Who’s mame?” When Oz replies: “She’s just a scapegoat”, you can see the seeds of his plan for pinning Alberto’s murder on the Maronis taking root.

The actor who played Gilda was Rita Hayworth, however the singing was dubbed by Anita Kert Ellis. Hayworth is a regular fixture in popular culture, with her name often referenced or scenes of her films glimpsed in other films, TV shows, and songs. Her most famous insertion is probably in The Shawshank Redemption. A poster of the movie star covers the hole Andy uses for his escape. The novella upon which the film is based is called Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. In the film, they also watch Gilda, with Red having a similar reaction to the screen siren as Oz.

Episode 2: ‘Call Me Irresponsible’ by Bobby Darrin
A toe-tapping song written for the 1963 comedy Papa’s Delicate Condition, the rendition in this episode is sung by Bobby Darrin. It plays over the scene where the Maronis intercept the Falcones’ truck, proving that The Penguin knows when to play for laughs. As Oz says, “You just gotta know your audience.”

Episode 4: ‘So Long My Love’ by Sarah Vaughan
Much in the style of Bobby Darin singing over the truck heist in episode 2, at the end of this remarkable Sofia-focused episode we have an effervescent jazz tune, enhanced by Sofia’s twirl and skip, playing over the grim scene of the dead bodies in the mansion. The lyrics, however, are very fitting.

Episode 5: ‘A Forest’ by The Cure
They’re growing mushrooms now, a whole underground forest of mushrooms, so what better way to close the episode than with this classic from The Cure? Oz and Victor are jubilant, but listen closely to the lyrics and you’ll remember that Sofia is still out there …

What will we hear in the last three episodes of The Penguin? Keep watching and listening.

The Penguin airs Express from the US every Monday at 03:00, and later in prime time at 21:00, on M-Net channel 101. If you missed an episode, catch up on DStv Stream here. Join the conversation on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok using #MNet101 and #ThePenguin.

Feature image: HBO