My First SPOILER Filled Impressions On The Pilot Episode Of Pennyworth

There have been so , so , so many TV shows about Batman but there hasn't been any that have featured Batman's best friend who has an R in his name Alfred. I'll give you extra credit if you got what I was trying to reference there but it's true there have been a ton of shows featuring Batman and there'll likely be a ton more but now DC / Epix have debuted a new prequel all about Alfred and here are my first impressions of "Pennyworth"

The basic plot of this pilot episode is that someone is trying to to kill Thomas Wayne who turns to young Alfred to help keep him safe. To put it simply the plot of this pilot is basically the plot of any super hero show pilot and I will get into some of the issues that this story has when we get into the spoilers but I will say that this pilot does a fairly solid job of setting up alot of the characters and where the show could be going.

Starring in this episode is Jack Bannon as Alfred Pennyworth , Ben Aldridge as Thomas Wayne , Ryan Fletcher as Dave Boy , Hainsley Lloyd Bennett as Bazza , Paloma Faith as Bet Sykes , Jason Flemyng as Lord Harwood , Emma Corrin as Esme, Dorothy Atkinson as Mrs. Pennyworth ,  Ian Puleston-Davies as Mr. Pennyworth ,  Richard Clothier as The Prime Minister , Jessica Ellerby as The Queen and Salóme Gunnarsdóttir and Patricia Wayne.

In all honesty the acting in this episode is the kind of acting you'd expect from any pilot since all of the actors are still trying to find their character while at the same time developing chemistry with the other actors. That said tho there is some good acting to be found in this episode with the I think the best actor oddly enough being Paloma Faith who is just a joy to watch she's is just so creepy and yet so entertaining at the same time.

SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AS you'll no doubt know by now this is a prequel series and as such this show does episode does fall into the same pitfalls as any other prequel. I say that because they but Thomas Wayne in situations where he could die which is absolutely pointless because we know he's going to make it out alive because of the small fact that he's the father of Batman. I honestly feel that they could have done an Alfred prequel and not have it feature a Wayne in any way and if they did that then they'd have more freedom to put characters in those life and death situations.

Speaking of Batman this show doesn't really lean that much into the mythology which does make sense at least for a pilot episode. I would however like to see them establish more things from the lore just because I think it'd be cool to see how we got certain things like was Wayne Manor bought or was in Thomas's childhood home and where did they get the idea for Wayne Industries just some things like that really.

This episode i'll admit is boring as hell and alot of that boredom comes from the fact that the pilot episode is nearly an hour and fifteen minuets long and only has enough story for at least forty five minuets to an hour. Alot of the episode and I mean alot of the episode is spent setting up the relationship between Alfred and Esme with very little screen time spent developing the relationship between Alfred and Thomas.

  

I honestly feel that the pilot would have been better if instead of focusing on the Alfred and Esme relationship they instead focused on the Thomas and Alfred relationship. By doing that the show makers would be giving us something that we really haven't seen before but for some reason the makers of the show have chosen not to do that and so we're left with a lot of dull and boring scenes at least I think they are.

SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall out of the two pilots that i've seen today this is the worst one if the series does get better then maybe i'll check it out but there's no rush for anyone to see this show and so this episode gets a 6 out of 10 from me.