đŸȘ™Pennyworth S3 Discussion ThreadđŸȘ™

E10

What a finale

First Wayne’s patch things up and go to save Lucius with Alfred. Very cool escape there. Then it’s insanity.

The Waynes again have a nice scene finally patching it up. Very sweet stuff.

Daveboy and the Metas defend the front as Alfre saves Sandra. Kevin was great :laughing:. The Alfred pours it all out and ask to get married right here and now. Then they all escape with a beautiful crazy wedding scene while the army blows up the prime minister. Crazy end.

Overall season 3 was amazing. Probably it best season as it seems to have found what show it wants to be still with is stakes drama and action but not afraid to get comicbooky whirl stil having wit heart and charm. The 70s setting was great and the pacing of it was was nice. Really hoping for a fourth season. Keep the kettles running and hope for a fourth.

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Agreed on all points. I hope this show has found the audience it deserves on HBO Max. While mildly aware of Pennyworth becoming a series, I only started watching when DirectTV did a free EPIX weekend, and signed up even though it was the only show I watched, because it’s THAT GOOD.

It’s too bad some people need to see more “Batman” in the show for it to be worth their time. Pennyworth stands on it own in every way, with the scripts, the acting and the overall production.

You have to love how Martha is as much a hero as Alfred is. Neither the comics or the Gotham series provided any clue as to the kind of badass her character is in Pennyworth. You also get to see how tight the Waynes and the Pennyworth families have become.

Why haven’t they announced season 4 yet? It might be time for Bet Sykes to visit the executives at HBO Max and provide some motivation :wink: They can’t leave us hanging to find out what becomes of Samantha, Julie, Aziz, and oh yes, the city of London! Moreover, the series cannot end until Thomas, Martha and Alfie settle in Gotham.

And as long as Pennyworth is leaning more strongly into the comic book world, how fun would it be to tie in other DC characters that precede present day protagonists (and antagonists) - Diana Prince was clearly of that era (WW74?), as were the JSA, Lionel Luthor, Robert Queen, Watchmen, The Court of Owls. Eddie Blake (The Comedian from WATCHMEN) would fit right in too. Lots to work with, guv’nors. Now get it done!

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Also, isn’t the Alfred being or having the spy background something that has existed in the comics canon since they revamped his origin (I think in the early Silver Age)? I do agree that Pennyworth (like Gotham before it by essentially the same people) is bat crap cray cray, but as I said elsewhere here, my main problem is the violence, particularly the interpersonal violence, versus things like blowing up a building full of people having dinner and impossibly surviving that.

@mylehigh2000.28963 I’m probably going to buy the HBO Max ad tier for two (or is it three months) at $1.99 Black Friday special later this weekend, unless I forget, so I will probably make the time to watch S2/S3 but otherwise I wouldn’t make the effort - and it has nothing to do with wanting or not wanting more Batgod in my life, since if it was left up to me, the best amount of batstuff in general would be ZERO.

EDIT/UPDATE (11/29): I did buy the HBO Max tier through the end of February but if I do decide to make time for S2/S3, it won’t be till February as going through what’s on there, I can see (as bigger priorities) any number of full seasons of things I want to check out that I otherwise would not have made time for like Succession.

I do agree with you that the art direction, acting and production values are good but I would not have bothered watching S1 if not for the fact that when lockdown started, EPIX made certain chunks of the library free to everyone, which included the entirety of S1 of this show. But I doubt they will get a S4, so if this season doesn’t end up on a finale that closes it out, that’s on Bruno and company, since they should have seen the writing on the wall when Batgirl was nuked. The DISCO suits really appear to have minimal interest in DC as TV serials unless it’s (a) closely tied to an existing universe and (b) it’s associated and affiliated with a creator (Denis, in the case of Dune, Matt in the case of Penguin, James in the case of Peacemaker) who wants to do serialized streaming. Pennyworth has none of those things going for it and if something like Stargirl or Legends with more eyeballs internationally, are allowed to die, then so will this.

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By all means, share your thoughts about Pennyworth after you’ve seen S2 and S3, I’d rather not comment on your remarks until then.

Regarding the future of the show, I wouldn’t read too much into the popular wisdom regarding DISCO/HBO’s intentions for the series.

And what’s the logic that says Stargirl and Legends have more viewers? I did/do enjoy both of those shows. But comparing them to Pennyworth is like comparing Kool-Aid to English tea with milk :wink:

Legends ended abruptly but in a satisfactory way as far as I was concerned - and it had a long, 100+ episode run even as it was clear the budget kept getting squeezed. It was time (pun intended).

Stargirl was good too, but the world can live with only three seasons of a show featuring a relatively obscure DC character that is not REMOTELY as enthralling as Pennyworth.

In the immortal words of Martha Wayne from the S3 finale (spoilers be damned): Just embrace the f**kery.

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Based on Netflix reporting for Legends together with the reporting you can find about world wide interactions, less information is available on Stargirl but you can readily compare streaming reports on HBO Max streams of Star Girl versus Pennyworth. Besides the self-reporting by NF, you can find reporting on streaming that compares Legends to the two seasons on Epix. Obviously, not an easy comparison given that it was 5 seasons worth of Legends (at that time) versus 2 of PW.

But the point is that there’s plenty of public information.

And the point about serialized DC content is one that the DISCO suits have made so there’s no ‘read[ing]’ of popular opinion. If I was ‘reading’ much into ‘popular’ comments, opinions (never ‘wisdom’), I would have swallowed that Henry had signed a multi-picture contract several years ago to play Superman.

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Honestly, the fact that Pennyworth was able to become a HBO Max origanial and the fact that Epix airs Season 3 episodes after they are aired on HBO Max helps increase the odds of Season 4 happening. We also don’t know the viewership and maybe its up to their standards. Well we will find out in a few weeks

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HBO Max doesn’t report numbers - neither does Epix or Netflix. What they occasionally report are, essentially impressions, and it’s frankly a bit shameful that journalist (even for entertainment periodical/sites) cover those reports of ‘XXX millions/billions’ of minutes watched as if they are (a) meaningful or (b) discernible not only by casual news consumers, but even people in the industry.

However, there are third party sites that measure - and report - viewership data for streaming sites. So yes, we do have some knowledge of the viewership for these shows.

Additionally, the other thing to keep in mind is that contracts for talent often go up as talent is not locked in to long term contracts, or the contracts have escalation clauses. It’s one of the reasons Netflix tends to cancel shows after S2 and S3 so frequently, and likewise why networks and cable broadcasters do so as well.

A S4 of Pennyworth would need to be based on higher viewership of S3, and Epix willingness to continue to pay. The wrinkle here is that Crapazom bought MGM, which owns EPIX. And while Bezolandia is definitely willing to shell out money, and they offer Max as a ‘channel’ within Prime, they’ve been more interested in producing exclusive content. On the OTHER, other hand, WB/DISCO definitely wants to make and sell licensed media for others but - in that respect - I’m expecting it to be new stuff, like say Batman: Caped Crusader - which is never going to land at Disney+ and Prime would likely pay more than even NF for it.

As for S4 as far as whether people watch it or not on HBO Max, the show has been on that app for S1 and S2 reruns since they started and unlike how Lucifer (or another example is Schitt’s Creek) played for Netflix, in generating interest for future seasons, the reporting is that Pennyworth is not generating the interest something like White Lotus or Hacks does. Finally, and most importantly, the decision to bring the series to HBO Max was made by people who are gone, not just at Max but at Warner Media, which doesn’t actually exist anymore.

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Also: “the reporting is that Pennyworth is not generating the interest something like White Lotus or Hacks does.”

Please enlighten us with your sources would you? I’m not questioning your expertise or veracity, guv’nor, just being protective of Alfie and the Waynes. I wouldn’t want to start an argy-bargy. :slight_smile:

As long as you’re rationalizing the hypothetical demise of Pennyworth, you might also consider that HBO Max probably gets away with paying Jack Bannon and his fellow actors less than the bigger names like Jean Smart and Jennifer Coolidge on those more mainstream offerings. I’ll bet Pennyworth is quite the bargain compared to Peacemaker or the Penguin. It’s all relative, innit?

Mind you, by your read of how the DISCO Suits, we should get more seasons of James Wan’s Swamp Thing. I could go for that! :wink:

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James Wan couldn’t get his Trench idea past the conceptualization stage, so I don’t think he’s all that interested in even doing DC-themed horror for WB. I can see him selling them on a movie or limited series on Swamp Thing but it would be unrelated to a series that ended as long ago as it did; it’s not like Young Justice which involved voice actors who were already doing the voices for characters well apart from their actual ages in real life.

Coolidge was probably making what Ben Aldrige’s quote for Pennyworth was initially. She might be making more for S2 now that she won an Emmy, but she’s by no means any kind of name, she’s been a character actress for some decades now. Jean Smart is a different matter, yes, but that show was also spending money on people like Laurie Metcalf just for some reoccurring cameos and that’s not the kind of thing HBO is known to be cheap about.

Now that I think about it, we probably should compare Max shows to Pennyworth versus HBO shows. so that means Gossip Girls and Pretty Little Liars. Or Titans and Doom Patrol.

As far as sources, Nielsen, which is well known for ratings of liner television and even cable for some time now, has also released figures for several years on streaming. They aren’t the only company doing this. Various other sites release this data and you can readily find it on the industry publications, which are not, surprisingly, completely behind paywalls. Deadline, THR, Variety all report ratings for streaming sites and for streaming shows. Other websites all cover this.

I’m not going to go back and try to aggregate data I’ve been reading as a subscriber to some these trades for the past 4-5 years so you are welcome to do at least some research on your own, or believe I’m not being honest - like you, I’m not really interested in getting into a back and forth or an argument.

After all, we should find out, probably within three to six months, if there will be a S4 or not.

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