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.

  

My Thoughts On Infinity Train And Yes There WILL Be Spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ladies and gents if you'll recall I once gave a really solid review to the Infinity Train pilot but what you don't know is I also signed every petition in the small hope that it would get Cartoon Network to green light a full series. Well now the time has come I have to admit tho I wasn't expecting this to land as early as it did like the rest of the world I was expecting this to land a few weeks before it's broadcast but CN uploaded the full episode to their app and so here are my thoughts on the first episode of Infinity Train.

The plot of the episode is thirteen year old Tulip finds out from her divorced parents that she can't go to a coding camp and so out of anger runs away where she then comes across a train. Yeah the plot of this episode is basically that of any super hero origin story and it honestly really does work for this show since the original pilot episode explained nothing so it was nice to finally get some things explained.

Starring in this episode is Ashley Johnson as Tulip Olsen , Jeremy Crutchley as Glad-One , creator Owen Dennis as Sad-One , Reagan Gomez-Preston as Mikayla and Audrey Wasilewski as Tulip's mother Megan Olsen. I have to say that I like the fact that there expanding the world of Infinity Train since it would have been super easy to just have it be the characters we saw in the pilot episode but since they are expanding the world it means that we get to see more of Tulip's life prior to the train and as this pilots shows us her reason for first jumping on the train.

In terms of what i thought about the acting for this first episode it was fine it wasn't as great as the acting in other debut episodes but it worked here. I'm glad that they stuck with the cast from the pilot since just based of the trailer it looks like there going to be including the original pilot so it would have been weird if they replaced every actor and then when it came to that episode and they kept the original voices even tho the chances of them keeping the original voices for that episode would have been slim anyway but it still would have been weird.

The animation for this episode and this show is I believe being done by Cartoon Network Studios but there's a huge chance that i'm wrong about that their just the only company I can find on the shows IMDB page. The quality of the animation tho is alot better then what the trailers led us to believe just by going of the trailers it looked like the animation was just going to be a bog standerd TV affair and nothing more.

The animation seen in this episode alone looked liked it belonged in a movie it was that stunning to see. Adding to that is the incredible backgrounds I have no idea what the budget is for this show but it must have been huge to be able to afford this good quality animation and backgrounds and I hope to god that it continues with the rest of the series and if so then we are truly in for a treat at least when it comes to the animation.

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

One of the things that I really didn't like and that's the fact that they made Tulip a little bit of brat in this episode. Her parents made a legit honest mistake and they have legit reasons for not being able to take her to camp and she overreacts and i'm sat here thinking "girl you need to chill out you can always go to camp next year" and instead of being a reasonable person her first idea is to run away and I hope that they tone down her brattiness over the course of the show.

There's a bit of a mystery starting in the show since you straight up see another passenger get killed well they don't outright say the passenger was killed but given what they show us it's pretty clear the passenger was killed. So we now have to wonder why was that person killed and more importantly who was the passenger so i'm now expecting alot of people to make theories just about that one passenger.

I honestly like the fact that the show is featuring parents who are divorced since it's not really something that is seen in the realm of animation not only Cartoon Network but other networks. It's a great way to create drama and it adds to the arc of Tulip since she has to find a way to get of the train anyway but now she has to come to terms with her parents divorce and that's something that alot of kids have to come to terms with as well.

Rather oddly we don't get to see The Steward there's a chance that the character appears when Tulip first steps onto the train but I couldn't get that good of a luck to say for sure. If it's not The Steward tho i'm surprised that they didn't have the character appear since they were a key plot point in the original pilot so I thought that maybe they'd start to explain some things about that character but nope they haven't done yet.

For those wondering why Tulip doesn't just jump of the train they straight up answer why that's a bad idea in this episode. I'm glad that they took the time to answer that question because it would have been super easy for them just to not answer that question in this episode but at the same time it would have been against Tulip's character and I was honestly shocked when they did it because I thought that they wouldn't answer that question at all and i'm not going to spoil it because I want to you guys to find out why that's a bad idea by watching the episode.

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

Overall this was a fantastic pilot episode even with all the faults that I personally had with the episode it's still a solid pilot and so it gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me and you can bet i'm not only going to watch this show but also review it at some point.