Pennyworth: 9 Ups And 5 Downs From "Pilot"

7. The Brutality

Alfred Pennyworth
Epix

To date, most people are familiar with an Alfred Pennyworth who always has a hot bowl of soup ready for the Caped Crusader and who has an excellent telephone manner. Make no mistake about it: this is not that same Alfred.

Making you fully aware of this from the get-go, one of Pennyworth’s first sequences sees Alfred – who’s working as a doorman at the time – taking out two wannabe tough guys without even breaking a sweat. And that’s just for starters.

Throughout this extended pilot episode, Pennyworth makes sure to make the audience aware that this Alfie is brutal when needed. As is the show in general, with scenes of torture sprinkled throughout Pilot, executions thrown in, and even a child’s life threatened at one point.

Within one episode – or one scene, even – Pennyworth lays its intentions bare. This is an Alfred Pennyworth that’s different to anything you’ve ever seen.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.