Pennyworth comes at the same chocolate and peanut-butter mix from an alternate direction. The superhero flavour is only something that we know is coming, not something we actually get to taste. Instead of chocolate and peanut-butter we get another mash up. It's like biting into a peanut-butter cup and discovering it's actually a different confection altogether.
Pennyworth is less Batman meets Bond than it is Bond meets The Italian Job, meets Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Even thought there's no heist (I actually fully expect at least one episode will be a classic heist) in the first episode, it's hard not to notice how much this one feels like a heist film by way of a British crime flick.
While the superhero stuff is totally off the table, there are design notes and moments that remind us that this is NOT the 1960s of the world we live in. It's the 1960s of the world that eventually births Batman. There are subtle yet blunt reminders like an unusual abundance of zeppelins :
I'm pretty sure that this wasn't a run of the mill view in 1960s Britain.
There's another zeppelin up in the left hand sky. And two dudes in cages hanging along the street.
WTF!?! Dudes in hanging cages.
And that blob on the left? That's a dude in his underwear...in stocks.
A quick Google tells me the Brits stopped doing this in the 1860s, not the 1960s.
More hanging cages. This time a bloke and a bird.
WTF!?!?
Seriously. This is the 1960s Britain of Nelson's column, the Rolling Stones, fox hunting with tea and biscuits. This Britain also has apparently legal public humiliation and torture, a surprising number of guns and an unexpectedly flirtatious, kinda hot 30-something Queen Elizabeth II. It's most definitely not the 1960s Britain that actually existed. To my mind, that's as it should be. This is the 1960s of a world that includes a city known as Gotham and in fact the producers have confirmed that this is meant to be a direct prequel show to the Fox series even though it's not airing on Fox.
The zeppelin shots have a direct association with both Batman and DC Comics. In the grand seminal work Watchmen, there are zeppelins in the background of almost every panel that shows a skyline. The trope is used in Batman comics as well as the Bruce Timm version of Gotham City seen in Batman the Animated Series from the 90s. They're so connected to the character that there's even a setup and payoff gag in the recent Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles direct to DVD release.
Remember how I said this feels like a heist film? By the end of the first act of episode 1, we've already seen Alfred and his Secret Air Service (the Brit's S.E.A.L.S. but even more clandestine) mates in balaclavas. We see the same headgear later as well. Batmen, sans pointy ears and capes. But not, 'cuz they carry and use guns. Most definitely NOT superheroes but quite obviously men of action trying to find a place in a seemingly peaceful world that was never made for them. You've got the leader, a hothead, the cool operator and then there's Alfred's gal pal, the actress, and his parents who prove to be very competent in their own right. It's a bloody heist crew from a 60s heist flick!
This show looks to use the British class system, the turbulence of the 60s, and classic spy cliché to paint Alfred Pennyworth's portrait in a totally new way. His soldier/spy background has occasionally been hinted at in film and occasionally his past has bubbled to the surface in shows like Gotham and Batman TAS but there's no definite canon about just what that service entailed and what he did or didn't do for Queen and Country. This Alfred plays it fast and loose with both the law and his own life. If the showrunners continue as they've begun, this show has the potential to give us a fresh look at a character normally only seen in Batman's shadow.
One thing that stood out was just how British this show is. I love British comedy and watch a lot of British drama too and even for me the accents were occasionally almost impenetrable. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see this one air with subtitles in the States.
It stars Jack Bannon (seriously, is that not THE most 60's action star name? I can totally hear a Simpson's style spoof voiceover of a 1960's movie that never was: "Jack Bannon - America's Super Spy!") as Alfred.
Bela Lugosi's Dracula wishes he had that widow's peak!
Bannon does a serviceable job of playing a young version of Sean Pertwee's Gotham Alfred. While it's been announced that Pennyworth lives in the same universe as Gotham, I won't be too put off if they don't stick to that like glue. Alfred supported in Gotham and here he's lead, so it's not 100% necessary to stick to the exact version that Pertwee gave us. I hope that they let Bannon find the character and run with it and chalk up any discrepancies to modern Alfred hiding his past from his young charge.
We meet a young Thomas Wayne who may or may not be working for the C.I.A. at the time. Obviously, the relationship between the two men and Wayne's one day wife, Martha Kane who we will meet this season, will be the crux of the show. I already am laying odds that Martha and Alfred have a flirtatious relationship and that there will be hints for the entire run of the show that maybe Bruce is actually Alfred's son, not Thomas's. Mark my words. Given Alfred's father figure status in Bruce Wayne's life it pretty much writes itself.
All in all, Pennyworth is definitely starting off on the right foot. Ample action, solid writing, great acting and just the right dollop of humour. With all that said, the best parts of the show so far, aside from Bannon's knife sharp hairline, have been the punches thrown and guns wielded by those you least expect. I look forward to many more unexpected beat downs. And at least one heist...
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