SHO Penny Dreadful

[quartermainefan]

New show stars Eva Green, Timothy Dalton and Josh Hartnett.

[Juliajms]

Oh, how cool that they are letting us see the first episode. I'll definitely watch it later tonight and update this post. Thanks Q!

[ChitHappens]

I wish I had never clicked on that link because 10 minutes in, and I love it already. I don't have ShowTime and can't get it unless I switch my Tivo boxes.

[quartermainefan]

I liked it. It seems to be a lot of classic characters all teaming up to battle supernatural evil of some sort. The fact the missing girl's name is Mina is a big clue who that evil might be, but I like the inclusion of ancient egypt. The world's most famous mad scientist lives again hanging out with this crowd, and I believe Dorian Gray is expected to get into the story.

Eva Green is always good. She was the best thing about the failed TV show Camelot, and she was cited as being the best thing about the 300 sequel--apparently starring in a most memorable sex scene. Timothy Dalton is sufficiently melodramatic and I don't know where Josh Hartnett has been all these years but he was good too. The guy who plays Frankenstein was good, the creepy Victorian sets and stuff was good, the Egyptologist I liked, the roaches in the cross, the spider, the vampires...there is nothing not to like about this show! This will be an unexpected spring show now that all the shows are going off for the summer

[ChitHappens]

What are my options for seeing this show? Q, you know?

[quartermainefan]

i imagine it will be on couchtuner.com. Just about all genre shows are.

[Juliajms]

I really liked it. I just adore Eva Green, I'd give anything she's in a chance. She has such a great voice too. There's something about it that gives me chills when she's playing a fearsome character (Camelot, The 300).

The scene with the Vampires and all those bodies was pretty gruesome, but I don't mind that too much.

[EricMontreal22]

I love it--but I'm (mostly) a big fan of John Logan's plays and most of his film work (he's scripting every episode this season, which is rare for American TV.)

I posted this on another blog so apologies for the comment on whether the Creature was circumcised or not LOL--someone complained that in 1890s England it would be unlikely that he would be (!):

Yeah, Dorian Gray and his nipples weren't even in the pilot (nor were some of the other major characters in promos like Billie Piper.)

Frankenstein's Creature definitely looked cut to me--but as others have said, I don't think that is necessarily historically incorrect (facts placed above aside, couldn't that part of the body have come from a Jewish corpse?) but this isn't Mad Men--I'm sure they wouldn't care about historical details that much given some of the dialogue and the fact that it very much seems to be set in a fictionalized gothic London based on later pulp takes on the era. I kinda appreciated that Frankenstein wasn't shown with the world's best physique the way I expected for some reason - maybe simply because creator John Logan has talked in interviews about elements of it come from his own issues with his homosexuality as a teen, or something (or maybe just cuz if this were a Ryan Murphy horror show, he would have.)

I really enjoyed the show, but I suspect it will sharply divide critics. The dialogue was beyond ridiculously arch and purple and I have no doubt that that was completely on purpose, but will put off some people. It gleefully goes for every gothic horror trope (the lights going out and when they go back on the body is missing from the table, someone coincidentally watching someone else from her window just as he walks by, etc) It worked for me, because I felt that the actors, particularly Eva Green and Tim Dalton, as well as Harry Treadaway as VIctor Frankenstein who managed to deliver some especially crazy dialogue, and I felt like the camp worked much better than, again, Ryan Murphy's camp take on this past season of American Horror Story again because they, so far, seem more committed to the tone and I liked Juan Bayona's directing. I also appreciated that the pace was actually often quite deliberate, but this may just bore some people.

[EricMontreal22]

Good review (from one of AVClub's Mad Men critics) that I mostly agree on based on seeing the pilot. I would argue some of the dialogue IS meant to be camp though--just not wacked out Ryan Murphy camp. And it's *not* steam punk. Sure it fetishizes the Victorian era, but there're no Jules Verne machines etc... http://www.avclub.com/review/penny-dreadful-penny-delight-204249

[ajsp35801]

Really, really enjoyed this show.

I also thought it would be more steam punk but it isn't. I like that.

As for the Frankenstein's monsters being "cut"...nah. He looked very much intact to me.

[EricMontreal22]

Does SHowtime always make their episodes available a week in advance online? I seem to remember they did for Masters of Sex--and any way the second episode is online. I loved it--the Seance scene in particular was ridiculous, scary, and terrific--as was that shock ending. My one complaint is for the life of me I can't understand half of what Billie Piper's prostitute character says...

[EricMontreal22]

I'm a little surprised more people aren't watching this? The ratings were...not bad for Showtime but far from great.

[~bl~]

The show was posted online and was available on demand before the premiere on Showtime to everyone even if they didn't have the channel. I think the fact that the cast while known to many people are based out of Europe (other than Josh Hartnett whose I thought was no longer acting as he hadn't been in anything in years), I think cuts down the chatter.

[EricMontreal22]

Perhaps. Eva Green is a big geek-guy fave, isn't she? (I actually had never been aware of her before, but she is astonishingly good in this--the way she commits to the 2nd episode scene is amazing.)

[quartermainefan]

Eva Green has major geek cred.