Penny Dreadful

[taboo123]

thoughts on this? anyone watching it? season 2 is starting and the trailers look great.

Just wondering if this is a sleeper hit- cult following- mediocre or just well,… dreadful.

[henrikegerman]

Love this series, although I'd love it much more if I could understand three successive words coming out of Billie Piper's mouth.

[doodlenyc]

Love. It.
So excited to see the new season.

Billie is tough to understand, I admit, but she is so damned fascinating!

[EricMontreal22]

There was a several page thread when it aired in N America. Of course I can't find it now (...) I loved the season, despite being underwhelmed with the finale, and am really glad that Logan is back writing every episode for season 2--and we get two more episodes than we did this season.

*edit* wait, what? Season 2 is starting now? *confused* As to its success, I believe it was a minor hit for Showtime (who don't get the number HBO does, so a lesser hit for them means more.) I'm still surprised at how many people I know who would love it, had no idea it existed, but I suspect after a DVD release that Season 2 will pick up viewers.

[henrikegerman]

I agree that Piper is otherwise quite captivating.

[CATSNYrevival]

Season 2 is starting in the sense that they just started filming it.

[JerseyGirl2]

Bah! Filming! You got me very excited for a moment.

[doodlenyc]

Yeah! No fair! I thought it was early for a new season.

[taboo123]

Caught the first 3 episodes. I'm kinda hooked. Thanks for the feedback.
It's such an amazing time/era.
Beautifully shot- lavish sets and costumes.

and yes, she is amazing to watch.

[doodlenyc]

So excited for this to start up with season two next month. 

Now with Patti LuPone!

[EricMontreal22]

Showtime has released the first episode of the season early to Youtube (and of course it's now also on all of the torrent sites.

[E.Davis]

Will Piper be in season 2? She isn't in any of the press photos.

[EricMontreal22]

She's still in the credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8LdbYbhnTI

[Jay Lerner-Z]

^

SPOILER She did in fact die, but is resurrected as the Bride of Frankenstein...apparently.

[EricMontreal22]

Right...  Not exactly one of the bigger surprises.

[CATSNYrevival]

Too much female nudity in this episode. Where is Dorian Gray when you need him?!? I'm also confused by Doctor Frankenstein. I totally got a gay vibe from him last season and this season he seems to be a necrophiliac which I guess makes sense but why Brona? I'm also curious to know how Patti is going to fit in this season. I hope she's not naked too...

[EricMontreal22]

Aside from a lot of Billie's corpse (which made sense,) there wasn't THAT much female nudity--not sure the Witches in their creatures of the night (or whatever) outfits count.  Given the stories shown in the premier, I'm not exactly sure where they could have shoe horned in some male nudity :P

 

I admit, I am curious to know what they intend to do with Dorian--John Logan says he'll play a bigger part this year.

I thought it was a fine premier--setting up points for the season to follow (and I'm glad we're getting two more episodes.)  I do kinda hope we get more information soon on Vanessa because right now it's playing a bit like a retread of what we saw in the final episodes last year, and the scenes with the Witches were a tad too campy and sorta modern for me (though I do love...whatshername...the seance lady playing a big part.) 

When I think about it, the wax museum setting seems expected--and yet it surprised me and seems like a fittingly creepy alternative to how they used the Grand Guignol theatre last year. 

I think Dr Frankie is just basically lonely and sucks at fitting into society, etc.  I have no doubt the homoerotic vibe was intentional last year, given the writer, but it seemed fitting that he has some sort of sexually weird vibe with this new creature--regardless of gender--he created just like he had with the male creature that was destroyed.  So I don't think it's really necrophilia, though of course there's that element.

I didn't think Patti would have too big a role?  Still it has to be better than her bleach enema given 10 minute role on American Horror 3.

[EricMontreal22]

Just caught up with the last two episodes, and I'm fully back into the Penny Dreadful vibe after being slightly let down (for some reason) by the Season 2 premier. 

OK, creepy dolls are always creepy, but I'm gonna be haunted by some of those...  (And I admit, the transvestite prostitute for Dorian completely threw me--something felt slightly off with Angelique in the first scene but I didn't realize it was a man.)

And, I'm not always Patti's biggest fan, but she was terrific in episode 3.  I love when Penny Dreadful does these episode long backstories (Vanessa had another great one last year,) even if some viewers complain that they drop the plot momentum, the show never seems to be about plot momentum anyway, but atmosphere and character.  All the stuff with Patti as a mentor witch, the town people turning on her, etc, was all classic Hammer Horror stuff most of us have seen before--but, for the most part--it was wonderfully done.

[henrikegerman]

Patti was great.  And such an inspired casting choice.

At first the accent may have seemed odd, but - as we later learn - the character being at least 250 years old (and West Country to boot) may have explained it.

[JerseyGirl2]

Patti was seriously fantastic! I loved every second of her in this episode!

[Luscious]

Everything about this week's episode was pitch perfect. And Patti deserves an Emmy for her performance!

[henrikegerman]

I wouldn't be surprised if she gets a guest star Emmy (or is Joan Clayton going to be recurring?... it's not beyond possibility given the genre).  At the very least a nod.

[CATSNYrevival]

I'd love it if she got a nomination. And I want her creepy Joan laugh as my ringtone.

[EricMontreal22]

Unfortunately, unlike say all the actors who get guest nom and win Emmys on American Horror Story (and I know it's impossible to compare in style or quality this show and that show but I will say a few times I thought that at least some of Coven could have been more like this--not to mention how they handled being tarred or burned--or the quality of role given to Patti...) Penny Dreadful still seems just too below the radar for the major award shows to pay it any attention.  I was disappointed to see that it's already pretty low numbers have been lower this year (just slightly, but still, I would have hoped after some good word of mouth and the availability of a Season One DVD it would have picked up a few more viewers.)

Henrik, I thought the same thing about the odd accent (which I suppose could have been even broader if she was meant to be from Elizabethan Devon.)  I did like how they incorporated several famous pre Victorian phrases into her speech (the MacBeth quote I suppose could be too on the nose--but maybe young Joan was into the theatre, but there was a reference to the famous Owen quote "All the world's queer save thee and me," in one of her rambles and I think some others.)  Of course maybe the show is just weary of accents--I'm sure it was not entirely a plot contrivance that Brona/Lily has lost her much hated Irish brogue.

And Helen McCrory, who I worried might this season be a little too camp for this show (which has its share of camp of course but for the most part nothing in the style of Ryan Murphy's stuff,) but she has fully won me over as Evelyn--I mean I was always a fan but mostly knew her from Peaky Blinders (I assume she was cast partly due to being a fave of exec producer Sam Mendes.)

Going back to episode two, she seemed to have creepy doll/puppets of a few other characters--Mina, as well as Ferdinand Lyle (who I hope sticks around as a character despite being blackmailed--the way he flirted with Ethan and Ethan flirted back in that episode was delightful.  I had a friend who insists that nobody would get away with that in Victorian London, but I think that's completely wrong, at least among the upper classes.)

[henrikegerman]

Love McCrory too, Eric.

Speaking of accents, I'm curious why Victor sounds English rather than Swiss.  Did they ever identify him as English in this version of the Frankenstein story?  Perhaps they decided a lilt of Genevese would also overly expand the wearying dialect palette.  And if Viktor sounded middle European, then so would Caliban/John.

It might well make sense though that Lily would speak like her creator rather than like she once did as Brona.

[EricMontreal22]

I don't think they ever said much about his background--except that he saw his mom die.  I rather like the idea that one reason he (and to a much more degree John Clare) always speak as if they were in the romantic era to be due to the fact that Frankenstein was written then, and isn't a Victorian creation.