‘Pennyworth’ Puts Batman’s Future Sidekick At The Center Of The Story, Where He Belongs

We’ve probably all had the experience of watching a TV show in which a sidekick consistently eclipses the ostensible protagonist. While Bob Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill is the link that connects the prequel Better Call Saul to Breaking Bad, the show from which it spun off, Kim (Rhea Seehorn) has steadily crept closer to the heart of the story. Riverdale has, for generations, been about a boy named Archie choosing between Betty and Veronica, but fans of The CW’s iteration seem to be a lot more interested in Jughead (Cole Sprouse). Halt & Catch Fire failed to catch on until its second season, which focused the action less on Joe (Lee Pace) and more on the sparky partnership of Donna (Kerry Bishé) and Cameron (Mackenzie Davis). And Dawson’s Creek famously wrapped up by pairing Joey (Katie Holmes) with Pacey (Joshua Jackson), not Dawson (James van der Beek) — and his name was in the title of the show! While we love a necessary course-correction, Pennyworth has done something even smarter: it centered the sidekick right from the start.

If you couldn’t immediately place whose sidekick Pennyworth is, that may be because he’s eventually usurped by a circus orphan named Dick Grayson, aka Robin: yes, this hero’s full name is Alfred Pennyworth, and later in life he goes into service as butler to billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. Right now you’re probably picturing him as a flinty older gentleman — like Alan Napier, who played him in the ’60s TV series, or Michael Gough from the movies of the ’80s and ’90s, or Michael Caine in Christopher Nolan’s films. Sean Pertwee had been one of the younger Alfreds, in the Fox series Gotham, but even he was 50 when he started playing the role. However, as the spryest Alfred to date, he did get to kick some ass on screen, and remind the audience that he had formerly performed high-level missions in the British Special Air Service; his talents extend a lot further than just pouring coffee and pressing shirts.

Evidently Gotham creator Bruno Heller couldn’t get Alfred’s hellraising youth off his mind, because as soon as that show ended on Fox, he launched another on Epix: Pennyworth. It’s the ’60s, but London is not quite swinging in the ways we have come to know; at some point after the Second World War, this timeline has diverged from ours, and Alfie Pennyworth (Jack Bannon) has returned from military service to a hometown where dirigibles dot the sky and the victims of public hangings are left in place as a warning. (The suits are still sharp as hell and look like they were invented specifically for Alfie to wear, thank God.) Alfie’s goal of starting a private security company with his friends, fellow veterans Dave Boy (Ryan Fletcher) and Bazza (Hainsley Lloyd Bennett), get a boost when Alfie meets American millionaire Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge); recognizing a useful asset when he sees one, the CIA-affiliated Thomas enlists Alfie in a variety of missions with the No Name League, the underground leftist resistance group battling the fascist Raven Society to foil its plots to topple the British government.

There was a time when rooting for Bruce Wayne, in or out of his batsuit, was easy for audiences to do: he had a lot of money (seems fun!); he fought crime (no one likes crime!); and he didn’t even have any superpowers (damn, he could actually get hurt!). But in recent years, pretty much everything Batman stands for has turned problematic. As income inequality increases, billionaires are not figures many viewers find especially compelling. There’s an argument to be made that vigilantism as practiced by superheroes is a form of copaganda. And while it is true that Batman doesn’t have superpowers per se, he is using a lot of gadgets that Wayne Enterprises is probably eventually going to sell to the military to further American imperial aims overseas. None of this is great!

Alfred, on the other hand, doesn’t come from generational wealth. His father is a butler; Alfie’s decision to enlist in the armed forces was motivated by a desire to learn skills he could parlay into a different career instead of following his father into service. In that the missions he’s carrying out are explicitly political, the stakes are higher than in most Batman outings; Alfie’s not just trying to prevent property crime, he’s literally antifa. And not only doesn’t he have Batman’s gadgets, he’s in England, which means often he doesn’t even have a gun.

Based on the first few episodes of the second season, Alfie’s politics are not as admirable as they were when we first got to know him: the fascists are closing in on London, and he’s just trying to save enough money to get himself and his mother to America, not fussing too much about where it comes from. However, he may soon figure out what the viewer knows: that an America clandestinely supporting the Ravens is not going to be a place worth fleeing to, and that he’s going to have to step up and be the hero that England needs. Pennyworth may be Batman without Batman, but Alfie himself is an improvement upon his future boss: a superhero for the 99%.

Writer, editor, and snack enthusiast Tara Ariano was the co-founder of Television Without Pity, Fametracker, and Previously.TV. She co-hosts the podcasts Extra Hot Great and Again With This (a compulsively detailed episode-by-episode breakdown of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place), and the co-author with Sarah D. Bunting of A Very Special 90210 Book: 93 Absolutely Essential Episodes From TV’s Most Notorious Zip Code (Abrams 2020). She has also contributed to New York, the New YorkTimes Magazine, Collider, Vanity Fair, Slate, Mel Magazine, Vulture, Salon, and The Awl, among many others. She lives in Austin.

Watch Pennyworth Season 2 on EPIX Now