Another horror series? A show that will make use of various Victorian and Gothic settings, characters, and ideas? A penny dreadful motif? ...You have my attention.
Of course, they are now getting to their...season finale? ...So I am a little behind. As I mentioned elsewhere, I've had some technical, among other, issues. Still, if you haven't heard about the show, or are undecided on watching it, enjoy.
In case you've never come across the term before, Penny Dreadfuls were beloved pastime of Victorian London society. A penny each issue, they were a cheap and popular periodical of the day. They covered various lurid tales. Monsters preying on the citizenry. Murderers brutally killing God fearing families. Dark tales of the criminal life in London, from the thieves to the opium dens. The more dark and terrible the story, the better, as that brings people back looking for more. I looked a little at this in reviewing the
origins of Dracula, and the penny dreadful tale of
Varney the Vampire.
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Penny Dreadful examples - the super natural Spring Heeled Jack and
murderous Sweeney Todd |
As a source, they are quite rich. They have given us, or made us of such notables as Varney the Vampire, Spring Heeled Jack, and Sweeney Todd. The output of the penny dreadfuls were wide reaching. A developed fictional world taking advantage of these ideas is bound to be horribly fantastic.
Also, Victorian horror as a whole is a heady source. The works of Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Robert Louis Stephenson, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Oscar Wilde, and others...What a menagerie! Maybe we'll get a bit from Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle as well?
But will it be fully taken advantage of?
The series has been created by John Logan. That may be a good or bad thing depending on your mood. He's written
Star Trek: Nemesis,
The Time Machine (2002), and
Skyfall. He's also written
Gladiators,
Sweeney Todd, and
Rango. It all depends on your love and hate for these individual movies. I can't say I hate any of them. But I do note that he's written a take on
Sweeney Todd, a story that came from the Penny Dreadfuls that inspire this show. It shows a previous interest in the topic.
From the look of the show, this seems to be a labor of love. He even preemptively constructed a show bible for the story and character. There is some passion here.
But to be honest, when I did first see his name tied to this project, I was paused. But, maybe we shouldn't be too quick to judge.
Let's see what
Penny Dreadful does to entice us to buy into this first chapter of their lurid tale.
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