YMMV / Pennyworth

• And You Thought It Would Fail: There was scoffing at the series' very premise. Then it ended up Epix's most watched new series in years, earned decent reviews and great audience scores, and got renewed as a result, though the transfer to HBO Max eventually killed it, with the complete corporate restructuring of Warner Bros. Discovery and the latter's executives wanting a single unified universe for DC Comics properties in live-action via DC Studios going forward.
• Ass Pull: In the Season 1 finale, the army turns on Harwood when they learn that the Queen is opposed to him. Yet, in Season 2, most of the army is on the Raven Union's side even though the Queen is leading the opposition. What's the deal with that?
• Awesome Music: The heroic and bombastic opening theme. A pity it's pretty short.
• Cry for the Devil: It's hard not to pity Lord Harwood (the show's Big Bad, of all people) a little in Season 1 between the moment he gets tortured, mutilated and brainwashed by the Barbers and the moment Bet Sykes finds him when he's a helpless hobo in the streets. Then there's his Suicide by Cop in Season 2, thanks to John Salt now being the bigger threat and a way colder and more cruel bastard with no redeeming feature at all.
• Friendly Fandoms: With Gotham due to sharing the same showrunners and having a similar premise of being prequels to Batman. Due to Flip-Flop of God it's unclear whether they share a continuity though regardless most fans enjoy both even if they aren't connected.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • A major part of the plot in Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is the studio's apparent willingness to give every other DC Comics character or team a movie of their own over the Teen Titans, and Alfred Pennyworth was one such character mentioned to be getting their own movie. Pennyworth was announced between the production and release of that film.
  • The second season of another DC Comics-inspired prequel series, Krypton, ended a few weeks before the first season of Pennyworth started. In it, the protagonist (who's part of Superman's family) goes up against the dictatorship that rules his home city and world at large after taking over it during a coup, then eventually puts down said dictatorship. Alfred (who serves Batman's family) does the same in his home city and country.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Thomas Wayne gets severely wounded by gunshot. Everyone and their grandma knows this is not yet his (and Martha's) Death by Origin Story moment for Bruce/Batman. Sure enough, Martha revives him.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Some people believe that Alfred's backstory is being "spiced up" to keep it from just being about a normal guy. While some liberties are obviously being taken, Alfred actually did have a military and espionage background in the comics and some previous depictions in other media (his Michael Caine incarnation in The Dark Knight Trilogy famously talked a bit about it for instance, and the fact that Jack Bannon's acting in the series emulates Caine is no coincidence), including Gotham.
  • Thomas Wayne having a sister isn't completely out of the blue. He had a sister named Agatha who was on Earth 2 prior to 1986's Crisis on Infinite Earths. She appeared in 1955's Batman #89. Her canonicity these days is a bit suspect but she appeared very briefly in the fairly recent Batman (Grant Morrison). Bruce also has at least one uncle and sometimes three Depending on the Writer, on his mother's side, so the idea of him having an extended family isn't entirely out of nowhere.
• Retroactive Recognition: Emma Corrin as Esme in Season 1, a year before her Star-Making Role as Lady Diana, Princess of Wales in The Crown.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Season 2 has this problem, with Alfred acting like a self-centered prick for most of the season, not giving a damn about the fascist regime that is trying to annex London, only wanting to make it to America. To that end, he is willing to rob numerous people, and to top it off, he cheats on Sandra. Then there is also Thomas Wayne sabotaging the Resistance on behalf of the CIA. All in all, it is very hard to root for the supposed "heroic" side, though things get better in the last quarter of the season.
• Unexpected Character:
  • The fact that Alfred, of all people in the Batman franchise or even in the whole DCU, was getting his own television series got this reaction from many.
  • Lucius Fox in Season 2, though mostly because Season 1 was very light on established Batman mythos characters to begin with outside Alfred, Thomas and Martha.
  • Absolutely no one expected the news that Season 3 would feature characters from V for Vendetta. Better yet, nobody expected that this series was actually a full-blown prequel to V For Vendetta.

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