Pennyworth Season 1 Review

And so the first season of the Epix series Pennyworth ended its first-season run this morning. The series, which started on July 28, is a prequel to Gotham. It features the adventures of Alfred Pennyworth in London during the 1960s; a 1960s that is a mashup of The Avengers, and Gotham, and political intrigue in general. It also has a lot of the Gotham creative team involved, including creators Danny Cannon and Bruce Heller.

Alfred (Jack Bannon) is a soldier back from the war. He and his mates Deon (Hainsley Lloyd Bennett) and Wallace (Ryan Fletcher) are at loose ends, so Alfred decides to start a private security company. Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge) is in London supposedly helping the No-Name League, one of two secret groups, but secretly works for the CIA. The other group is the fascist Raven Society, led by Lord James Harwood (Jason Flemyng). Harwood has two sisters, Bet (Paloma Faith) and Peggy Sykes (Polly Walker) helping him.

Martha Kane (Emma Paetz) is an American journalist in England. Oddly, Alfred's parents Arthur (Ian Puleston-Davies) and Mary (Dorothy Atkinson) are also involved. They don't have a lot to do until the end when Arthur plays a major part in the Society's plans. The Pennyworth parents and their typical British stiff-upperlipedness provide a fair amount of the humor on the show, such as when they kick Bet's assistant when he's down after she breaks into their house.

The fact that the show has Alfred's parents in it is a good indicator of the fact that Pennyworth is going in several different directions. It's a look at the mod 60s. Arthur is dying of cancer and Alfred has to deal with that, as well as the great love of his life, Esme Winikus (Emma Corrin). We also see Alfred with another woman after Esme dies, and as a secret agent for the Queen. Sort of. Kinda. Maybe.

We also get Martha and Thomas involved with Aleister Crowley (Jonjo O'Neill), the vaguely sinister Satan worshipper who set up in the 60s. And Alfred consults with a blind witch locked up in the basement of a hospital, when he isn't dealing with a mobster/mortician. And an officer, Curzon, that Alfred PO'd during the war seeks revenge on Alfred by killing Esme. Harwood is thwarted fairly early in the series, tortured and disfigured by a vengeful Prime Minister (Richard Clothier), and then rises from the ashes complete with a fake nose to lead the Society in a brief control of England after they abduct the Queen.

That's... a lot to take in. To its credit, Pennyworth handles it all pretty well. One advantage the ten-episode Pennyworth has is that it aired once a week for ten weeks, rather than dropping in one chunk of ten episodes. Watching all ten episodes back-to-back would be rather confusing as the story jumps from one track to another. When the episodes only air once a week, you tend to forget the previous week's shenanigans when the new week comes along. So you don't remember much of the Curzon/Esme stuff or the Crowley subplot by the time the Society/Harwood/ruling England stuff comes along. Heck, you don't remember much of Esme by the time Alfred gets involved with not one but two women.

The longer series run also means that some characters can quietly slip away. Like the aforementioned mobster, John Ripper (Danny Webb). John quietly manipulates the League and romances its new female leader. When she gets executed by the Society, John quietly slips off into the shadows.

One thing to keep in mind is that although it's very loosely connected to Gotham, Pennyworth really doesn't have much to do with that series. Yes, Thomas Wayne and his future wife Martha meet and eventually start to have sex. And Pennyworth kind of explains how Alfred came to work for them as a butler. But there's nothing here that shatters the Gotham continuity, other than the minor fact that Thomas has a sister. Which means... Bruce has an aunt that was never mentioned?

Actor Jack Bannon doesn't recreate Sean Pertwee as Alfred on Gotham. Nor does Pennyworth seek to recreate Gotham. Yes, Bet is a bit Harlequin-ish, and Lord Harwood is a little Theo Galavan. But they're separate characters. In fact, the entire production is very un-Gotham-like. So if you want to know if Heller & Cannon can do something other than street-level superhero/vigilante stuff... yes, they can.

Bannon is a versatile actor, moving effortlessly from ex-soldier to potential gangster to hard man (he becomes a major player in Newgate Prison after sixty seconds of screen time) to loving son to vengeful lover to cold-blooded killer to polite Englishman: "Put the knife down. Please.".

The rest of the cast is... okay. They wander in and out of their various subplots. Wallace, for instance, suffers from PTSD and is suicidal. But that gets dropped after one or two episodes.

You're arguably better off going in not knowing that Pennyworth is part of the Batman legacy. If you do know it, then you spend a lot of time wondering when Thomas and Martha will link up, get married and have their son Bruce. Or why we should care when Crowley reveals Thomas' inner devil. Some of the episodes feature Alfred and Martha together, and there's a little bit of romance there. But since we know Martha ends up with Thomas, it's a bit of a non-starter. Ditto for Thomas getting shot in the last episode. We know he's going to pull through, or Gotham won't happen. That's the problem with most prequels.

Overall, Pennyworth is decent summer TV entertainment. Most of the characters main and guest-starring get a chance to shine. There's a lot of plots, but they're not hard to keep track of, and the main thread of the Raven Society loosely binds them. Flemyng makes a decent main villain, the Sykes sisters make decent henchmen, and Alfred is an above-average leading-man hero. If you're a fan of 60s England, or just want to see a vaguely James Bondish non-fantastical protagonist, Pennyworth is the show for you.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?