Penny Dreadful Reviews!

Victorian and Gothic literature has produced some of the most fascinating and well-known characters in all of fiction. Some are classics of monster media like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’s monster, but there are other greats like Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll (and Mr. Hyde) and of course Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. They’re all very compelling in their own stories, imagine if they were to meet and interact.
When I was a kid I read novels especially from this era as opposed to something more typical like comic books. And so, something like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was MY Avengers. I never got around to reading it then, but the idea of a bunch of my favourite literary characters coming together as a kind of superhero team was incredibly alluring. Even though their movie was shit, I’m very excited for the upcoming reboot. But it’s come to my attention there’s a series on Showtime offering something in a similar vein. Though with a particular focus on horror.
Penny Dreadful created by John Logan and produced by Sam Mendes I’ve heard rumblings of for a while and though it’s not a super hit, everything I’ve heard has been positive. From what I understand, it follows a number of famous nineteenth century Gothic characters inhabiting the same world while dealing with supernatural threats and developments. And that premise intrigues me incredibly. It also helps that this show has the perfect title: penny dreadfuls being pulp fictions of the Victorian period noted for their sensational levels of violence, sex, and most of all horror. It gives a perfect impression of the tone of this show. And I look forward to seeing if it’s justified.
Yes, I’m going to be doing episode reviews of Penny Dreadful. It’s a series that interests me enough to do a blog series on. Now unlike my Disney Sundays or Doctor Who reviews, these may not be every week. They might be slightly more frequently or slightly less considering the first two seasons are already released. But I’ll try to do them fairly regularly. While I’m at it I might as well say I also intend to do by the week episode reviews of the new season of Game of Thrones once it premiers. There’s some good TV out there that’s just as good and in some cases better than movies, and I’d like to critique and discuss them.
For a start, let’s see what terrors and adventures await in Penny Dreadful!

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