Penny Dreadful

Premier is 10 EDT tonight (5/11) on Showtime.
http://www.vulture.com/m/2014/05/tv-review-showtime-penny-dreadful.html

I just saw the preview today (Timothy Dalton looks amazing!)...how did this one fly under my radar?? I just set the pvr...looking forward to watching it tomorrow!

Free feed (official!) of the premier:
http://t.co/Oyi2oUXZQh
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Verdict: that was awesome. I have to figure out how to watch this now. (What a way to end the episode!)

I was pre-sold of course (Victoriana, literary(ish), supernatural, force-of-nature Eva Green - directly to brainstem) but I was fully prepared for it to be, well, bad. And to not care. I loved 'Dracula' but it really was all about Rhys-Meyers (and Ms Smurfit) and was otherwise, well, bad. I shall miss it, but this is a more than satisfactory replacement. Talent galore, style, substance. Talent and style, at any rate. Mr Lyle was a shriek. Bring on Wilde and leather pants!

What a remarkable show. I was spoiled for the end, but still got chills when he said the final line.

Strong performances, honestly creepy and spooky moments, real suspense, and an excellent cross-section of all of my favorite Victorian weirdness. I couldn't be happier with this show.

For those who've seen the second Penny Dreadful, this will seem familiar. (Not a spoiler, but it won't make sense without the context.)
Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière: The Physician and the Hysterical Women
and the related book
Sorcellerie Magnétisme, Morphinisme Délire des Grandeurs
("Magnetism, witchcraft, Morphinism, Megalomania" says google translate)
Both from 1886-70, so period appropriate, too.

I absolutely love this show. The seance scene was actually quite creepy, and I refuse to hear what the demon was suggesting! Solid episode. But...Proteus...No!

Me watching Penny Dreadful

Poor Reeve Carny. He's doing his best, but never had a chance. I can't think of who would. Stuart Townsend? Rhys-Meyers?

Ferdinand Lyle is my favorite. He's giddy silly yet I take his ominous curlicued vaticinations entirely seriously.

And Ms Green. So far over the top that the top is a wee earthbound speck far below us. Who'd have thought all this time (Dreamers, Dark Shadows, Camelot, Bond) she was holding back.

I want Eva Green to win some kind of award for that séance performance. She really made my skin crawl. Who do you think the second entity who saw the fucking was? My theory is that it's present-day Mina talking about what little-girl Mina had witnessed?

That séance was amaaaaaaaaazing. Just from the look on her face before she erupted, I knew we were in for something good. I am not sure Mina saw the sex (hopefully she wasn't, uh, the partner as might be implied), the only certain thing seems to be that Vanessa did. The spirit denied being Amunet, saying s/he was around before her? And that bit about Peter and dysentery, Malcolm seemed more sad than shocked.

And Proteus won my heart and then, well, it was all over within minutes. God, the Frankenstein scenes are so good.

Poor Reeve Carny. He's doing his best, but never had a chance.

I assume this is referencing Young Trent Reznor/Dorian Gray? I actually love him, I would like the show more if it was entirely him and Josh Hartnett doing the Absinthe and making out.

I think this show *looks* great but is otherwise kind of bad. I've been wondering if they are using the same sets as Copper. It's fun to see so many literary and genre characters tossed into one soup but that's about it.

referencing Young Trent Reznor/Dorian Gray?

Yes, though no fault to Carney, but when he's flirting with force-of-nature Eva Green he looks about twelve. He did better in the arboretum scene, but still. The scenes with Hartnett were very good, easily could have come off as cheesy or 'unearned', but both fellows were remarkable.

Meanwhile, after last nights episode, it is evident just how simple the plot really is. Dazzling performances, as usual, and otherwise 'well, okay then.' Very tidy storytelling.

I think this show *looks* great but is otherwise kind of bad.

Agreed, but bad in the way that I am consistently entertained even when it's ridiculous. It's funny because I think the show is both trying really hard to be DEEP and winking at me. I like it. Plus, you know, pretty.

That said, I found last night's episode about 25 minutes too long and lord I'm so over the Eva Green grimace. The Search for Mina was already my least favorite part of the plot and last night made me care even less.

I found last night's episode about 25 minutes too long

Again I found my favorite part involved making out, Demon Dalton/Eva Anne Hathaway Green with the poetry and the forward touching was smoking, and of course the screwing made her moms drop dead. Am I alone in assuming that Vanessa is his daughter? Could the actors cast as Mina/Peter look any less like Dalton, and Green anymore like him? And if Vanessa is the daughter he deserves, I guess that means Viktor is the son.

I assume the next two episodes will do deep dives on Malcolm and Dorian, before winding up with some sort of pull it together finale.

I assume the next two episodes will do deep dives on Malcolm and Dorian,

Not so fast. We're still waiting for the deep dive of Dorian and Ethan. The toe in the water was... Oh, wait, you meant... Never mind.

P.S.: My hope on that front is that in tit-for-tat for no one telling him anything, ever, he never says anything about playing tonsil cricket with Dorian. Who just looks at him every now and again and sighs. Which Vanessa totally picks up on... Oh, never mind again.

So I thought I had a moment during Sin City but wrote it off so I watched August god help me and had yet another moment so then I just shut it down. But it is now official - Josh Hartness is hot.

Last night's episode was so crazy but I LOVED it. Then again I'm a sucker for the devil outing dirty secrets and Eva Green rocked the shit out of possession as did Josh Hartness throughout. And more than ever I'm convinced they cast this show with the premise that any two (or more) of these people could make out at any time.

Ha, I've always mostly found him hot, for me I saw him in The Faculty and was one and done on that. All he had to do was lean on his muscle car and smoke weed, hella hot just like Tim Olyphant in Go. I will say this is the first time his acting has impressed me at all. Also my 66 year old mother is his #1 fangurl and has seen every Josh Hartnett movie that exists.

Man Eva Green, was there anything left in her body she didn't put on stage in this role? Like I hope the woman took a nice vacation where all she had to do was drink cocktails and get spa treatments. Sir Malcolm really scraped the bottom of the scum covered pot last night. Beyond cruel, so I want even more for Vanessa to be his daughter, the demon can drop that dime on his ass.

My only complaint: when it concerns the question of who fucked who, SHOW don't TELL.

So Eva Green doesn't deserve an Emmy, she deserves a Purple Heart. Watching that was not only terrifying, it was exhausting.

It appeared to me that other than two moments that I could see (some stunt work on the walls and a bit of blood) that entire episode, which was as harrowing as any big budget horror movie wishes it were, was all acting. (And makeup and lighting and art direction and sound and writing and Hartnett being hot, to be sure.)

"We're in trouble with Dad!" HAHAHA!

truecrystal wrote:So I thought I had a moment during Sin City but wrote it off so I watched August god help me and had yet another moment so then I just shut it down. But it is now official - Josh Hartness is hot.

Check out Thirty Days of Night. It's the movie that clinched it for me. I'm also really loving his role in this.

I really enjoyed this whole series. Yes, it tries too hard...but it entertains me to no end!

I am tired of the search for Mina, but I love the relationship between Malcolm and Vanessa. The two actors seem to challenge each other every time they work together. Eva Green lays it all out on the table, while Timothy Dalton responds with subtle changes in facial expression and barely controlled anger. Love them! (plus...everyone is really pretty.../shallow :) )

I'm so happy this has been renewed! <Shanndee goes away doing a happy dance>

Now that the first season is available on DVD, I just binge watched the last six episodes all in one sitting. While the plot itself isn't setting the world on fire, the characters and the acting are so damn good that I am completely drawn in. I also read that for season two Simon Russel Beale (Ferdinand Lyle) and Madam Kali (Helen McCrory) are going to be back on a recurring basis.

I have to say, this was definitely a show that left you with wanting more after the finale episode. And just to echo everyone else: good lord Eva Green. That woman really doesn't hold anything back, doesn't she?

It is normally a director's job to coax/entice/bully the best performances from the actors. When directing Ms Green, I imagine the director calls 'action' and runs out of the room.

I'm a tough customer, takes a lot to get my jaw to drop. This show did it twice - Green's possession, and um Hartnett and Carney.

I worship at the altar of Lyle.

This show really is massively elevated by the quality of the acting. Eva Green is a phenomenon, and Josh Hartnett is somehow a hundred times more charismatic than anything else I've ever seen him in. The overarching plot is a bit flimsy, but it's well covered up by bags of style and some brilliant single scene set-pieces. I'm genuinely looking forward to the next season.

Melk wrote:This show really is massively elevated by the quality of the acting.

I give the show runners a lot of credit for assembling such a great cast.  I expected Timothy Dalton and Eva Green to be good (I've loved her work since Casino Royale), and I knew of Rory Kinnear mostly by reputation.  Josh Hartnett has certainly proven to be a very pleasant surprise (and I think he looks way better with the facial and longer hair), and I don't think I'd ever seen the guy who plays Victor in anything before, and he's great as well.  The only member of the regular cast I'm not super impressed with is Reeve Carney, but I mostly chock that up to the fact he hasn't had to do much except stand around partially or completely undressed and look pretty.  Here's hoping they find more for Dorian to do next season.

Also, am I the only one hoping that when this whole thing with the Bride goes terribly wrong (because you know it's going to happen), that Caliban decides to get out of London and take a trip to Paris?  Because with all the stuff from the first season, (he worked in a theater, his obsession with the ingenue, the scarring on one half of his face) I keep thinking he'd make a phenomenal Phantom of the Opera.  Season 3, maybe?

I don't think I'd ever seen the guy who plays Victor in anything

Brothers of the Head. Playing a conjoined twin (with his twin brother Luke). Save it for a weekend, it is fantastic and disturbing.