EPIX's 'Pennyworth' Dives Into The Dashing Past Of Batman's Butler

Cable channel EPIX (which also streams via an app) hasn’t quite figured out what it is, other than it’s the “Home of BIG Entertainment.” While they have little else in common, Pennyworth and Perpetual Grace, Ltd. are definitely not small.

But first, Pennyworth.

Launched last Sunday (with three episodes available at the EPIX NOW app), Pennyworth comes from Bruno Heller, the British writer/producer/director behind HBO’s Rome, CBS’ The Mentalist and Fox’s Gotham. Most pertinent in that list is Gotham, a DC Comic-universe series, which chronicled the origin stories of Commissioner Jim Gordon and the adolescent future Batman Bruce Wayne.

At Wayne’s side was faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth, played as a tough-as-nails former British special forces officer by Sean Pertwee. The city of Gotham existed in its own heightened reality, freely mixing clothing styles, vehicles and technology from different eras. The show was also, for network TV, rather graphically violent.

But still, it was the only superhero TV show that I watched from beginning to end, because of its great performances, imaginative takes on Batman villains, and outrageous, interlocking plot lines.

Pennyworth is Alfred’s origin story, set in a postwar (but perhaps not exactly World War II) London that looks vaguely early 1960s/Carnaby Street-style, and features period music, but also has televised public executions (complete with evisceration) and the current use of dank prison cells in the Tower of London.

Young Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon, who’s quite a find) is trying to built a life after soldiering, living at home with his mother and butler father (who turn out to be pretty tough themselves). Coping with nightmares of battle and accompanied by two ex-soldier pals — fierce Scotsman Wallace “Dave Boy” MacDougal (Ryan Fletcher) and thoughtful Deon “Bazza” Bashford (Hainsley Lloyd Bennett) — he’s trying to start his own security business in his old London neighborhood.

Along the way, he encounters Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane (Ben Aldridge and Emma Paetz) before they become Bruce Wayne’s parents (and before they even met). He’s also caught between two secret societies, the utopian/fascist Raven Society and the utopian/socialist No-Names — and clashes especially the Ravens’ vicious, mercurial female operative, Bet Sykes (a bravura take from singer Paloma Faith).

Oh, and the Queen is still a young female brunette, but way more of a slinky dish than the young Elizabeth II.

Along the way, Pennyworth falls for dancer, actress and rebellious Anglican priest’s daughter Esme (Emma Corrin), whose snobbish father may not be wrong when he eventually warns Alfred that his daughter loves the “animal” within him.

What sets Pennyworth apart for me is not only its high style but also its surprises and heart. When danger threatens both Emma and the Pennyworth parents, it turns out they give as good as they get.

Also, while Alfred gets sucked into danger and secret societies — and is more than prone to violence to get the job done — his stated goal is to make enough money to settle down and have kids, preferably with Esme, who may wind up being a poor choice.

In the end, for all of working-class Alfred’s violent past and present, there may be more sunshine and goodness in his soul than that of the lovely, posh Esme. We shall see.

Also, while there is some profanity, there is relatively little overt sexual content in the three episodes I saw (and what there is, is more implied than explicit), and only brief flashes of backside nudity. It’s definitely not a show for the whole family, but on the Game of Thrones scale of sex, sadism and slaughter, it barely registers.

Unexpected twists, sharp writing and imagination are too often in short supply, and Pennyworth has all three.

In a future post, we take on Perpetual Grace, Ltd., which, although it features an evil “preacher,” turns out to be all about love. UPDATE: Click here for that.