The days have begun to shorten rapidly and when we finally get off from work or home from school, the light has already well begun to fail. The coat comes off as we arrive in the silent halls, and in the rooms where shadows blanket the dusty corners. Later there are the creaks and groans as the old house settles in the nights that grow ever colder. And, before we sleep, we are reminded of the beasts under our bed and the monsters in the closet. In our dreams the spooky, scary skellingtons silently roam the age-old halls.
And when terrified we wake in the nights before halloween, it's easy to believe that something has left the world of our nightmare to come back with us, to our waking world, to haunt us and to tread on silent feet as we go for a quick wee because we drank too much water before going to bed.
Apparently everyone in my friend circle has for some reason finally started watching a particular one of my absolute all-time favourite shows, aaand since I've always wanted to take an extended look at its make-up and the troubles that led to its untimely cancellation (cancellation in my opinion, you'll find adherents to the three-seasons-was-the-plan-all-along everywhere), I'm finally taking a good long look at it and of course I'm going to be giving it a review along the way. It'll be very reductive and without much spoilers because I like to encourage people to give it a go. Hence, almost all the information here will be of the first few episodes of season 1.
Here it is...
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It is 1891 and a killer stalks London. The police is up in arms and wonder if Jack the Ripper has returned. But the murders far exceed that one's already terrible brand of butchery. Some believe it might be a beast, because his victims are left behind, quite literally, torn apart.
But this is not the focus of our tale.
Our focus belongs to the shadowy half-world that lies between what is commonly accepted and that which is believed to be superstition. But superstition is a consequence, it arises from somewhere. It arises from the Demi Monde, the place that belongs to the souls in torment, to those that live in the dark, the monsters.
Ethan Chandler is a gunslinging circus performer who is hired by the beautiful and mysterious Vanessa Ives to protect her and her friend Sir Malcolm while they have a dangerous meeting with an underworld contact. The ensuing violent confrontation ties Ethan closer to his mysterious benefactors than he'd like.
The bodies pile up and soon sir Malcolm is forced to seek the help of a young doctor, enamoured with unlocking the secrets behind life and death; Victor Frankenstein.
Meanwhile a beautiful young man has grown bored with debauchery and sets his sights on the newest victorian society sensation; Vanessa Ives.
In the intimate story that is to come, everyone has a haunted past, and it's racing for a reckoning. It's only a matter of time before the personal demons arrive into the now.
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At first glance, the show seems to conform to the expected set of grooves for this sort of gothic period drama, playing to the lowest common denominator with an at first glance seemingly rote build up of tension which turns out to be a clever playing with the audience's expectations which leads to some well earned scares.
A period drama with high language, inspired by what are likely the three most famous gothic novels; Frankenstein, Dracula and the Picture of Dorian Gray, Penny Dreadful is nonetheless first and foremost a horror show. Packed with various brands of darkness, running from vampires to out and out satanism, to the scariest witches you'll ever see, accompanied by body horror, possession, various strands of eschatological mythology with egyptian overtones, dead babies, flayed and mutilated corpses and various other horror tropes.
But these are its trappings, and those work only as well as talent can make it. And the talent is almost unheard of in any show on television. It's a truly stellar cast portraying a mix of various original and popular literary characters and I can't really strain enough how exceptional the acting is.
The cast and the characters.
Penny Dreadful serves for the most part as the showcasing vehicle for Eva Green's considerable acting talents. Acting without reservation and seemingly without limits, she goes above and beyond for the role of our heroine, the complicated and incredibly tortured Vanessa Ives.
Ethan Chandler, played by Josh Hartnett, is the charming audience's straight man, the vehicle for our initiation in the Demi Monde. But it doesn't take long for Ethan's past to catch up with him and to make it clear that none of these characters come without their own darkness.
Victor Frankenstein is played by Harry Treadaway with an intensity and eloquence that easily conveys the depth of Victor's obsession. His contempt for superstition and religion shines through in subtle little mannerisms underneath all his more vocal protestations that I found quite humorous.
Dorian Gray, played by Reeve Carney, is much what you'd expect from an ageless beautiful immortal. Aloof and in control, slave to whatever is new and mysterious, he's swiftly intrigued by Miss Ives and maybe a few other things along the way.
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There are others. But I wouldn't want to give their presence away. Suffice it to say there's a small core of literary figures that the story is built up around of. And all of them are played with dedication and talent which on top of that is backed up with an incredible dedication to detail in costumes and set designs.
The show, written and directed by John Logan (writer: Gladiator, Sweeney Todd, The Last Samurai...) plays fast and loose with its source material but along the way pays it more homage than any straight adaptation ever could.
But it's a primal show and as such, an uncomfortable one. You'll quickly know if this show is for you, because if it isn't you'll be out the door before episode 2 is done.
The lust and the violence and every shit-smeared facet of humanity isn't shirked and they all have an integral place in the narrative. Nudity and gore, sex and violence are stylised and yet put on full unflinching display.
With all the grotesquery comes a taste of the divine. It's as if the darkness thrives because of the beauty, and vice versa. From a pitch black roiling maelstrom at the heart of a chasm to sunlit snow on a mountain top. For a new viewer there are regular shocks and hair-raising horror, but to me it's now so deeply ingrained that nothing in the show still manages to shock me, and only moves me instead.
(Scratch that. I just saw a few episodes of season 2 again... Bloody witches man...)
There are a few ways that counteract all that intensity and darkness that the show wallows in like a contented hog.
For starters we have the absolutely delightful Simon Russel Beale as the outrageously extravagant curator of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum, Ferdinand Lyle.
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| "Could I be more charmed? No, I could not." |
Another thing that helps is the beauty that it is on almost constant offer. The cinematography is gorgeous. It's magical and enthralling. From its opening scene to its credits incredible attention is given to the details, there's a deft hand at work that I haven't seen in anything since the likes of Nbc's Hannibal. It's something that has to be seen to be believed, to be given as much attention as it actually merits.
More than is regular for an audience, I guess, I find myself deeply in synch with a show or movie where attention and love is dedicated to the music.
And since it ended, I've found that Penny Dreadful is still incomparable in this. Sweeping and beautiful, Abel Korzeniowski's (Taboo) heart aching score accompanies and elevates many a scene. Street, Horse, Smell, Candle is still a beautiful track and if someone should happen to mention "fairy lights" during it, I'm liable to break out in tears.
It's the perfect Gothic horror show.
Or that is...
Seasons 1 and 2 are.
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I won't go into it here much, but the 3d season was for various reasons, a bit of a let-down. The quality goes downhill and some of the final episodes feel very rushed.
More than that, the ending came without warning and there was a campaign of disinformation following its conclusion that makes it still hard to know what actually happened behind the scenes, but it left alot of people angry and saddened. I'm not going to make a list of grievances and note down the storylines and characters that got neutered by its diminished runtime because you'll easily see those for yourself.
However, there is an ending to the story and it's the one I did expect the show to ultimately take, as such, for me, it's still a good way to close out the stories of a few particular characters. There are also some extremely good moments in the final season, including the flat-out best episode of the series as a whole. But the narrative doesn't fit as seamlessly and some things do get lost along the way. The bottomline is, it was a step down and we were promised more.
Despite those issues. Penny Dreadful still is one of my all time favourite shows and seasons 1 and 2 are still some of the best drama I ever did see. The achingly beautiful music that elevates every scene, the horror and the broken characters and their tortured existence. Its themes run personal, dark and deep. And they are still very relevant today.
More than that, the ending came without warning and there was a campaign of disinformation following its conclusion that makes it still hard to know what actually happened behind the scenes, but it left alot of people angry and saddened. I'm not going to make a list of grievances and note down the storylines and characters that got neutered by its diminished runtime because you'll easily see those for yourself.
However, there is an ending to the story and it's the one I did expect the show to ultimately take, as such, for me, it's still a good way to close out the stories of a few particular characters. There are also some extremely good moments in the final season, including the flat-out best episode of the series as a whole. But the narrative doesn't fit as seamlessly and some things do get lost along the way. The bottomline is, it was a step down and we were promised more.
Despite those issues. Penny Dreadful still is one of my all time favourite shows and seasons 1 and 2 are still some of the best drama I ever did see. The achingly beautiful music that elevates every scene, the horror and the broken characters and their tortured existence. Its themes run personal, dark and deep. And they are still very relevant today.
Go give it some of your time, it's well worth it.
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