PENNYWORTH Season Three
That Alt-universe ’70s Show
★★★ 1/2
UK Lionsgate+, streaming now US HBO Max, streaming now Showrunner Bruno Heller
Cast Jack Bannon, Paloma Faith,
Harriet Slater, Ryan Fletcher
With its move to HBO Max in the States, Pennyworth sees a few changes for its third season. Chief among these are a five-year time jump taking the show into the ’70s, and a new, on-the-nose subtitle: The Origin Of Batman’s Butler.
Presumably the show’s new network overlords were keen to ram home the point, since if you didn’t already know who the show’s lead character is destined to become, you wouldn’t guess it from watching this bizarre, very sweary alternate history based in a England ravaged by civil war, and filled with metahumans, mad scientists and psychos.
While Jack Bannon’s Pennyworth remains more Michael Caine’s Alfie than Michael Caine’s Alfred, there are some subtle tonal changes. The show is still weird and stylised, but slightly less weird and stylised. The ’70s setting is as full of anachronisms as its ’60s setting was, but not quite as much. The plot arcs – mind-controlling drugs that turn Londoners into murderous mobs, meta-human equality, CIA conspiracies – remain outlandish, but somehow not quite as delightfully unhinged as before.
It’s doesn’t help that Paloma Faith’s demented Bet Sykes is sidelined for much of the series, while there’s way too much time spent listening to Martha and Thomas Wayne bickering. There also seems to have been a budget cut – some of the mob scenes look suspiciously light on bodies, and the production design feels less ambitious.
But it remains an entertaining, offbeat show, with memorable set-pieces and a magnificent central performance from Bannon. Plus the end-of-season cliffhanger is a beauty. Dave Golder
Captain Blighty’s armour bears the same “lion rampant” insignia as the original costume of Marvel’s Captain Britain.
It remains an entertaining, offbeat show