Alfred is still looking for his first proper opportunity for his new security business, and a chance encounter in his local pub might be just the thing. Awaiting execution, Bet makes friends with one of her guards. Lord Harwood proves a difficult nut for his interrogators to crack.

With its feature length pilot out of the way, Pennyworth hits the ground running in its second episode, showing that it has one of the most vital parts of episodic storytelling down pat – consequence. Harwood and his henchwoman Bet are locked away in the Tower, the former receiving the non-too-tender attentions of the interrogators (who look not all that different from Bet and her assistant) and the latter in solitary confinement awaiting execution.

Alfred himself is troubled on several fronts – he doesn’t want any more of the sort of trouble he got into last time out, his girlfriend is still terrified of Bet suddenly appearing from nowhere, and he isn’t generating much interest in his new business, beyond the usual nightclub bouncing. A job offer which does come to him isn’t one in which he has any interest, but then another opportunity literally walks into his local and starts harassing the barmaid.

The way that the story plays out won’t win awards for originality – ‘small-time young thug with powerful family connections comes up against a smarter, more determined opponent’ is a plot that’s graced a hundred or more other entries in the gangster movie genre, but the way Pennyworth executes its narrative is compelling enough that you won’t mind. A particularly pleasing turn by guest star Danny Webb as ‘Mr Ripper’, the man who apparently runs his part of town, only adds to the delight.

Elsewhere, Bet’s scheming can be seen a country mile away, and so similarly you won’t be in for any great shocks as to how her arc plays out. Harwood meanwhile, mainly gets to scream obscenities at his captors as they torture him. What’s interesting here isn’t the originality of the storytelling, but the way in which the show communicates its themes.

This is a proper ‘grimdark’ comic book adaptation. Forget the overwrought nonsense of the Snyder-verse and its maudlin pontifications on the philosophies of good and evil: this is a world in which both sides of the conflict – the government and those who would seek to overthrow them – are as bad as one another. It’s no accident I suspect that Harwood’s torturers are a spit of Bet and her assistant. The Prime Minister is simply another flavour of bastard who happens to be in a higher position than Harwood, and even Alfred himself is forced to make a ‘deal with Satan’ in order to go about doing the right thing. This isn’t a story interested in giving us shining heroes and dastardly baddies for them to battle – it’s a show that says ‘here’s your hero, making his way as best he can in a world where heroes aren’t really a thing’. It’s an interesting stance for an origin story of Batman’s butler to take, but I’m intrigued.

Of note is the fact that where the pilot played around with the freedom for an odd bit of profanity or violence, this episode runs with it. Every form of profanity gets used, as the various players try to outdo one another in vulgarity as if they’re all auditioning for a ‘who can be the worst’ contest in a Guy Ritchie gangster flick. I’d also note that whereas there was a slight sense of artistic licence in the historical setting in the pilot, here the show just goes ahead and turns that dial so hard and fast it snaps it off, with a finale that plays more like something from V for Vendetta than anything else I can think of. One thing is for certain – though its core story ideas don’t break much new ground, the way in which it tells them is always going to challenge the viewer. And it definitely isn’t going to be anywhere near safe for kids.

Verdict: Outstanding performances and exuberant direction compensate for the sort of narrative beats we’ve seen a hundred times somewhere else. Don’t watch it with kids or anyone of a sensitive disposition though. 8/10

Greg D. Smith