Review - Pennyworth

So... let's talk about Pennyworth!

In July of this year, the writers, creators and producers of Fox's hit series Gotham gave us the series we as DC fans needed more than we ever thought possible. Pennyworth features a vital backstory about which Batman fans have been acutely curious since the inception of the mysterious character. Alfred The Butler is historically shrouded in mystery. His wisdom and intellect, coupled with his unusually loyal devotion to the Wayne family have had inquisitive fans scratching their heads for a good while.

RELATED: Batman - A Brief Cinematic History

The Epix series set in the early 1960's follows a young Alfred Pennyworth and his small security firm shortly after his time in Britain's legendary SAS in an alternative London. Two separatist factions have sprung up in a politically polarised society, both poised to overthrow the British government and monarchy. Young Pennyworth is thrown into the middle between the two in an intense battle for control, involving his future employers Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane.

We generally try and avoid spoilers here at NTNR, so I'll keep clear of them, but what I will say is that what makes a refreshing change about this series is the distinct lack of familiar cannon characters, stories and easter eggs. The writers appear to have left fan service at the door and have created something almost entirely original. They've stripped it right back to the bare bones of absolutely necessary characters; Alfred and the Waynes. The focus is entirely on a fresh story. That being said, it is clear from the starting gun that our lead character's mannerisms and general demeanour are based heavily on a young Michael Caine's Alfred of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, separating the continuity somewhat from Gotham.

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The cast list boasts an inexperienced yet impressively talented leading line including relative rookie Jack Bannon (The Imitation Game), Ben Aldridge (Our Girl) and Brit Award winning singer Paloma Faith. Some surprising familiar guest faces appear in regular and one-off spots such as Jason Flemyng (Snatch, Primeval), Simon Day (The Fast Show), Danny Webb (Plebs, Alien 3) and Felicity Kendal (The Good Life). You might say it's something of a cornucopia of actors who've appeared as murder suspects in Death In Paradise. For any American readers who may be struggling with that, it's a bit like CSI and NCIS: something of a haven for D-listers, and the most famous one usually did it.

The ten-episode series is produced, written and largely directed by Bruno Heller and Danny Cannon, the great minds behind Gotham. There are a few similarities to the previous show, although it isn't clear as to whether they are supposed to be intertwined, Pennyworth has a few similar steampunk style aspects, although not to quite the same extent. The creators have somewhat taken advantage of the popularity of a few other shows. The character of Alfred is almost like a Tommy Shelby of the DC universe and the musical score by composer David E. Russo (also of Gotham) is strikingly similar to the score used in BBC series Sherlock.

Pennyworth was renewed for a second season in October and will begin filming in January 2020. The show breathes new life into the universe of pre-Batman cannon and brings a gritty new no-holds-barred fire to the genre. Writers are clearly unafraid to drop more than a few F-bombs as well as an effective quantity of tongue-in-cheek brutality. It will certainly be interesting to see what Season Two has to offer in the coming year!

The Mandalorian - Episode I

Let's be honest... we've all been feeling a little nervous about Disney's over-saturation of the Star Wars franchise. Since the media giant took the reins, we've had two more core movies with another one due in December 2019, two independent spinoffs, a wide selection of new console games and a new series of The Clone Wars hitting the screen in February 2020. As soon as the news of the bounty hunter-centric series escaped into the social media realm, many fans were skeptical to say the least. Cries of "Oh bugger, not another one!" were heard across all corners of the galaxy.

RELATED: Is Solo: A Star Wars Story Really A Box Office Disaster?

However... t'was a misjudgement! The new show, created by Iron Man director Jon Favreau and starring Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, Kingsman: The Golden Circle) as the title antihero is set five years after 1983's Return of the Jedi and follows a lone Mandalorian bounty hunter named Dyn Jarren after he has been surreptitiously hired to complete a mysterious mission and retrieve an unknown target alive. The backdrop is an almost post-apocalyptic galaxy finding it's feet again after the defeat of the Galactic Empire and the destruction of the second Death Star. The show gives off an almost "Rogue One meets Joss Whedon's Firefly" vibe, to which it is impossible not to respond positively.

The first episode, directed by well known Star Wars fanatic Dave Filoni (The Clone Wars, Rebels), has promised an incredible season of eight episodes to come. The plot quickly evolves into a gritty, hard-hitting drama that seems truthfully unafraid to go that extra mile when it comes to putting an edge on the franchise; something the fans desperately need. The bounty hunter takes to the planet Arvala-7 as instructed by his mysterious client and... well... nobody likes a spoiler. We'll talk later.

RELATED: 10 Reasons Why The Phantom Menace Isn't That Bad
The series' further episodes have been directed by an impressive array of names including Rick Famuyiwa (Dope, Our Family Wedding), Deborah Chow (Mr. Robot), Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) and Bryce Dallas-Howard (Jurassic World) making her directoral debut outside the realms of documentaries and shorts. It has been produced by Favreau and Filoni with extra help from producer Kathleen Kennedy who has produced a wide array of Star Wars projects, as well as many others in the Lucas/Spielberg-sphere, and Colin Wilson (Avatar, Suicide Squad) with extra writing by Thor writer Christopher L. Yost. The Lucasfilm project distributed by Disney has been awarded a budget of $120m working out at $15m per 40 minute episode. The new show features a vaguely spaghetti western-inspired music score by record producer Ludwig Göransson who is also penning the score for Christopher Nolan's much anticipated upcoming movie Tenet.

The show has already been renewed for a second season and has begun filming. The series will be available on a weekly basis on Disney's online streaming platform Disney+ and has seen high approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic and IMDb. This certainly is an exciting new project and I, for one, believe it will become an integral storyline in the Star Wars universe and will be enjoyed universally by fans.