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Penny Dreadful |OT| League of Extraordinary Gentleman, Take 2 - Sundays 10/9c

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T

TheOddOne

Member
- Indiewire review: Eva Green Owns 'Penny Dreadful,' a Horror Series For the Dramatically Inclined (A-)
No, they've crafted (or at least started to craft) a vision unique to its medium with only one writer (a very filmic quality) and four directors. The tale they tell is specific and focused with grand sets, elegant art direction, and a constant tone of pragmatic unease. Rather remarkably, the team has struck the delicate balance between stylized fantasy and grounded realism, creating a world simultaneously inhabitable by monsters and flesh and blood human beings. Production comparisons are bound to be made between "Penny Dreadful" and "True Detective," and they won't stop there: John Logan's horror show is damn good television, and while not as groundbreaking in philosophical scope, it has at least one landmark scene already.
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Some early critics have decried the horror series for not being horrific enough. Granted, "Penny Dreadful" may seem tame when compared to the torture porn we've been forced to watch in theaters or the soapy gratuity of "American Horror Story" -- and thankfully so. Logan, Mendes, and director J.A. Bayona, who helmed the first two episodes, have made a conscious choice to scare you with the tactics of old: what you can't see is much scarier than what you can. Flashes of gore pop up from time to time as a reminder of what's facing our heroes, but it's tastefully laid out instead of affixed in front of your eyes. This is not Frankenstein's monster: this is horror for the dramatically inclined.
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F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
TheOddOne said:
- Indiewire review: Eva Green Owns 'Penny Dreadful,' a Horror Series For the Dramatically Inclined (A-)
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That particular scene sounds terrific in more ways than one.

Also, did anybody else noticed something weird with the show's production values? They are certainly not low, but at times it felt as if the people behind the camera were punching well above the show's weight. It's not quite a TV show, not quite a mid budgeted film. Everything looks fine, but some parts (such as the vampire lair) felt strangely movie-like and not completely in line with the rest of the episode.
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
Funky Papa said:
Also, did anybody else noticed something weird with the show's production values? They are certainly not low, but at times it felt as if the people behind the camera were punching well above the show's weight. It's not quite a TV show, not quite a mid budgeted film. Everything looks fine, but some parts (such as the vampire lair) felt strangely movie-like and not completely in line with the rest of the episode.
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Kind of.

- Behind the Work: Penny Dreadful’s ‘Just Like You’ Trailer
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
That tweet makes no sense. But yeah the pilot was pretty fun and certainly looked great. My favorite scene was probably the final one
 
bloodydrake

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
i don't get the Ryan McGee tweet..almost didn't make it thru the pilot?
Even if he wasn't a fan of the genre..I can't see in what way was the pilot almost unwatchable?..seems like so much hyperbole
 
K

Kevin

Member
Penny Dreadful is definitely my most anticipated series this year. There is obviously a lot of stuff that has yet to air so I mean it's possible that something will come out that I like more but Penny Dreadful just seems to have a lot of potential and decent production values.

Granted I only seen the pilot and anything could happen in terms of quality though it seems to be suggested that episode 2 was even better then the pilot. So that just makes me even more excited to see more of the show.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- Onion A|V Club review
To say much more about the plot or the other characters would be to ruin some of Penny Dreadful’s charming mystique—this is the type of show where a spoiler might actually be a spoiler. Suffice to say that you will recognize some names as characters introduce themselves, and begin to put two and two together on your own before any mysteries are solved on-screen. Penny Dreadful is a surprising show, one that offers both some putrid rotting at the core of London’s soul and a way of going about excavating humanity’s inherent darkness in a different and unexpected way. That is easily worth a penny, and maybe more.

Grade: A-
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C

Cornballer

Member
- Sepinwall's review
Through the two episodes I've seen, the plot is mostly gibberish — an excuse to bring all these figures together, and for Logan to give his actors a series of wonderful monologues about the boundaries between life and death, the normal and the paranormal. But the language is wonderful, the performances excellent, and the direction by Bayona so fluid and gorgeous that I found the whole thing a treat even as I quickly lost interest in whatever it is all these people are working together to accomplish.
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C

Cornballer

Member
- Maureen Ryan's review
Just as "The Walking Dead," "Breaking Bad" and "Scandal" provide a window into our fears about annihilation, greed and the consequences of venal ambition, the Victorians used sensational literature, sagas about wayward women and monstrous tales of excess to process their fears about modernization, industrialization and a society that was changing in terrifying and exciting ways. In the early going, "Penny Dreadful" does a fine job of capturing that social and personal unease. It's also tinged with compassion, pain and an energetic sense of discovery. Even if you're not a horror fan, you may well get sucked into its maw.
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T

TheOddOne

Member
- Variety review:
Showtime’s macabre drama that fills London with creepy-crawlies and a colorful assortment of characters working to thwart them. Solidly entertaining, well cast and oozing with atmosphere, it’s a shrewd genre stab for the network, albeit by hewing closer to the sort of pulpy terrain to which Starz has, er, staked a claim.
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D

demolitio

Member
Timothy Dalton AND Eva Green? That's one way to get me to watch a show.

I like these sort of shows anyway though but it was the cast that made me look into it.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Hours Left said:
The first episode is available for free, online.

The broadcast debut for the series is this Sunday.
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It's also available through most on-demand services if you prefer that and want to watch the pilot sooner than Sunday night.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Dan said:
It's also available through most on-demand services if you prefer that and want to watch the pilot sooner than Sunday night.
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Also, just a quick reminder that Showtime is free on most platforms this weekend, so people can sample it on Sunday night even if they're not a subscriber.
 
M

mm04

Member
Just watched the pilot not really knowing much about it. I loved it. It's now on my watch list and I can't wait to see the next episode.
 
Q

Qvoth

Member
just watched it, pretty good
kept thinking
frankenstein will just get killed right there and then
on the last scene lol
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Watching the pilot now...

I must say that the opening credits are very underwhelming. There's some cool imagery there, but the whole thing lacks momentum and the song is ineffective in whatever it's trying to convey.

As for the episode itself, I thought it was decent. The performances are good (Eva Green is, of course, the standout) and the myriad of monologues were fun to listen to. The action scenes were poorly directed and kind of hard to follow, though, so hopefully they fix that in the future. And the jump scares were easy to predict.

I was oddly touched by the scene between Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. I thought it was going to end poorly for the doctor, and was surprised to see just how nonviolent and innocent the monster is at this point. Also, I think it's interesting that they made the monster appear so human. He really isn't, physically speaking, a monster at all. (not sure if that's how it is in the original novel - I only know Frankenstein from the movies where he's that huge green thing)

Anyway, I'm interested to see where this goes.
 
obin_gam

obin_gam

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
Watching the pilot now...

I must say that the opening credits are very underwhelming. There's some cool imagery there, but the whole thing lacks momentum and the song is ineffective in whatever it's trying to convey.

As for the episode itself, I thought it was decent. The performances are good (Eva Green is, of course, the standout) and the myriad of monologues were fun to listen to. The action scenes were poorly directed and kind of hard to follow, though, so hopefully they fix that in the future. And the jump scares were easy to predict.

I was oddly touched by the scene between Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. I thought it was going to end poorly for the doctor, and was surprised to see just how nonviolent and innocent the monster is at this point. Also, I think it's interesting that they made the monster appear so human. He really isn't, physically speaking, a monster at all. (not sure if that's how it is in the original novel - I only know Frankenstein from the movies where he's that huge green thing)

Anyway, I'm interested to see where this goes.
Click to expand...
I think in the novel the monster looks like a black haired Fabio with purple lips or something like that.
 
T

TheOddOne

Member
Series premiere today:
Season 1: episode 1 "Night Work" (Directed by J. A. Bayona)

Vanessa Ives recruits Wild West showman Ethan Chandler and big game hunter Sir Malcolm to track down a killer that turns out to be more than human. Meanwhile, Victor takes an interest in the creature as well.
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R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
obin_gam said:
I think in the novel the monster looks like a black haired Fabio with purple lips or something like that.
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"Shelley described Frankenstein's monster as an 8-foot-tall, hideously ugly creation, with translucent yellowish skin pulled so taut over the body that it "barely disguised the workings of the arteries and muscles underneath"; watery, glowing eyes, flowing black hair, black lips, and prominent white teeth."

via wiki

dan2026 said:
The Egyptologist guy stole the show for me.
I could watch him forever.
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He was pretty fabulous. I hope we see a lot more of him in the coming episodes.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Funky Papa said:
As a bit of a history nerd, I loved his off-hand shade at the Assyrians.
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Aw2o5yS.gif
 
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