Penny Dreadful, so named for the cheap pulp fiction booklets sold to the masses as entertainment in the 1800s, is a bizarre and beautiful mash up of all your Gothic horror favourites, twisted into an exciting tale of intrigue, violence, beauty and the occult fascination so prevalent during that time period at close of the 19th century.
Victorian London, a favourite setting for films, television shows, plays and literature, was a major turning point for man, both industrially and culturally. Mankind, having lived under the austere thumb of puritanism for so long, was breaking at the seams, giving birth to a hedonism that constantly battled with the propriety of high society. It was a time of great poverty and great wealth, and a wide gap in between. The emergence of science in its modern iteration, man making machine, right alongside a resurgence of mysticism, perhaps in outright defiance of the scientific unveiling of life's mysteries...
Penny Dreadful beautifully shows all aspects of this time period in all their glory. Eva Green's performance as the mysterious Miss Ives, in all of her forms, is quite stunning, and she's obviously the muse and the reason for this show. And yet, the rest of the cast beautifully support her award-worthy performance.
So what if Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde sat down to tea and conspired to write a story like no other? Penny Dreadful would be the result.
I truly don't want to give away any of the plot because to do so would be to rob you of the experience of discovering it firsthand for yourself. Let's just say that if you're a fan of that time period, Penny Dreadful definitely won't disappoint.
Victorian London, a favourite setting for films, television shows, plays and literature, was a major turning point for man, both industrially and culturally. Mankind, having lived under the austere thumb of puritanism for so long, was breaking at the seams, giving birth to a hedonism that constantly battled with the propriety of high society. It was a time of great poverty and great wealth, and a wide gap in between. The emergence of science in its modern iteration, man making machine, right alongside a resurgence of mysticism, perhaps in outright defiance of the scientific unveiling of life's mysteries...
Penny Dreadful beautifully shows all aspects of this time period in all their glory. Eva Green's performance as the mysterious Miss Ives, in all of her forms, is quite stunning, and she's obviously the muse and the reason for this show. And yet, the rest of the cast beautifully support her award-worthy performance.
So what if Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley and Oscar Wilde sat down to tea and conspired to write a story like no other? Penny Dreadful would be the result.
I truly don't want to give away any of the plot because to do so would be to rob you of the experience of discovering it firsthand for yourself. Let's just say that if you're a fan of that time period, Penny Dreadful definitely won't disappoint.
