Compare and contrast the vigour and impetus that Buffy The Vampire Slayer had when the Scooby Gang were fighting the Master, the Mayor or Glory with the lacklustre seventh season in which they battled the meh-ish First. Even if you haven’t any knowledge of classical literature, fairy tales, the Bible, Star Wars or Scandal (Papa Pope – boo hiss!), your guts tell you that every goodie needs a worthy baddie to define themselves against. Sarah Greene as Hecate and Helen McCrory as Evelyn Poole in Penny Dreadful Photograph: Jonathan Hession/Jonathan Hession/SHOWTIMEīut by far the finest improvement to Penny Dreadful has been the addition of a proper, scary, seductive villain. How? By going back to the basic principle that what propels, compels. In just two episodes, Penny Dreadful’s second series is more compelling than the entirety of its first outing. Penny Dreadful’s second “season” (as the Yanks would have it) is transformed, with creator and writer John “ Skyfall” Logan and executive producer Sam Mendes improving on their original creation as Penny Dreadful’s Frankenstein has improved on his. But if you wanted a well-crafted, precisely plotted story, best you jog along to Scandal. Though the first series had its moments – not least a remarkable episode that explored the backstory of Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives and threw a harsh spotlight on the misogynist tradition of misdiagnosing willful/troublesome/sexually liberated women as “mad” – Penny Dreadful was really only worth watching to see what demented direction it would take next. A sensational smorgasbord, to be sure.įeeling cross? Eva Green as Vanessa Ives in Penny Dreadful Photograph: Sky As it was, he was passed around the other characters like the sherry at Christmas. Included to entice the crucial – and sweatily priapic – teenage-boy demographic, these fleshy interludes mostly gave Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) something to do other than admire his own cheekbones. As is obligatory for all cult shows seeking mainstream crossover a la Game of Thrones, there was also rumpy-pumpy of all permutations and the occasional glimpse of (both male and female) genitalia. So, we had blood and guts, slicing and dicing, vampires chained up in basements, corpses reanimated and then ripped in half, sub-Exorcist demonic mutterings that French and Saunders would have royally skewed if they were still doing those parodies, and spiders. What else is a spooky, sensational Victoriana drama about a possibly-possessed medium, an Quartermain-ish adventurer, an American gun-for-hire who’s secretly a werewolf, and Dr Frankenstein and his many monsters going to be? Throw in a legion of vampires pursuing and being pursued by our heroes – it alternated between chasing and being chased, a bit like the end credits of The Benny Hill Show – and it’s not exactly a recipe for Downton Abbey. “I’ve not known much of it.The first series of Penny Dreadful was a bloody mess. “Thank you for your kindness, Vincent,” he said as he was once more cast out on to the streets. Though he was fresh from trying to choke Maud in her dressing room, Caliban still managed to evoke our sympathies. I’ll take care of the body.”ĭr Frankenstein had finally given into his creature’s demand for a mate – and if you’ve seen Rory Kinnear’s performance as Caliban, that’s almost understandable. After treating Brona on her deathbed, the young doctor gave this chilling reassurance to grieving Ethan (Josh Hartnett): “Don’t worry. Not if Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) has anything to do with it. Billie Piper’s character Brona Croft, the consumptive Irish prostitute may have died a gruesome death, but that doesn’t prevent her from involvement in series two. Unconventional posthumous options were available in the concluding episode of Sky Atlantic’s gothic horror series Penny Dreadful.
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