Penny Dreadful

[Modern Panther]

Just watched Penny Dreadful, sky's new gothic horror-drama thing.  It seemed strangely familiar.

The plot revolves around a [spoiler]mysterious group based in Victorian era London, solving crime[/spoiler].  The group are led by the broodingly wonderful Timothy Dalton as [spoiler]a grizzled African explorer/hunter[/spoiler].  He's accompanied by Eva Green, [spoiler]the enigmatic and highly composed lady with a mysterious past.[/spoiler]

They're assisted by a [spoiler]brash American with a sixshooter, who doesn't really seem to fit[/spoiler]

Apparently, [spoiler]Dorian Gray[/spoiler] shows up next week. 

It's all fun, if stolen unoriginal, but I reckon it'll jump the shark with a Martian invasion, then descend into glorious 3D madness.

[Professor Bear]

It's so unoriginal that no-one can actually agree what it's ripping off - Showtime's Dracula, LOEG, Fox's Carnivale?

I will admit to finding the idea of Billie Piper with an Irish accent delightful, though there are several cast members in this who seem to star in nothing but shows that get canned before a full season airs, so I'd approach this one with caution.

[Modern Panther]

It even had an eccentric bearded bloke who didn't want to be involved.

[JamesC]

It's so unoriginal that no-one can actually agree what it's ripping off - Showtime's Dracula, LOEG, Fox's Carnivale?

I will admit to finding the idea of Billie Piper with an Irish accent delightful, though there are several cast members in this who seem to star in nothing but shows that get canned before a full season airs, so I'd approach this one with caution.

But this show has nudity. Pretty much guarantees a second season at least, right?

[Dandontdare]

Billie Piper .... nudity .... SOLD! 

[Spaceghost]

Is anyone else sick to death of Victorian/Cthulu/alternative literary/historical/monster hunting stuff?

All this 'Frankenstein and Queen Victoria hunt a vampire Sherlock Holmes and a Cthulu possessed Jack the Ripper in a fucking steam powered zeppelin for fuck's sake' same old, same old?

Comics are by far the worst offenders at the moment but it seems to be creeping into other media.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

'Frankenstein and Queen Victoria hunt a vampire Sherlock Holmes and a Cthulu possessed Jack the Ripper in a fucking steam powered zeppelin for fuck's sake'

SOLD.

[Professor Bear]

What Spaceghost describes is more Chronic Elevator Pitch Syndrome than aggressive unoriginality, but I liked the Dracula Showtime did a few months back - very melodramatic and in keeping with the attitude of the better Hammer movies, and the steampunk elements only added to it by helping distance it from other adaptations like that gash BBC thing from a few years back that would have been alright if you'd never seen any other Dracula ever.

[Link Prime]

1st episode was awful-ish I thought, to the point that I didn't watch the last 5 mins cause it over-lapped with Hannibal.
Any future viewings will be based on hyperbole & witticism on this very thread.
Otherwise, nah.

[amines2058]

The 2nd episode does up the ante slightly with an [spoiler]interesting séance scene interspersed with some colourful language[/spoiler] oh yes plus some pre-requisite shagging as is the norm for these HBO Showtime broadcasts.

[The Doctor Alt 8]

Billie Piper .... nudity .... SOLD! 

Tut tut tut. I remember when Dr Who companions only took their clothes off to pay unexpected tax bills....


I must be getting old.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

Well me and the Geoffery have had a go at this and it really is a mixed bag. COBBLED TOGETHER LIKE SOME SORT OF ARTIFICIAL MAN.

Pros

Some good casting - Timothy Dalton is screen gold all of the time, Hartnett is really quite likeable as well as Billie with her very silly accent, Simon Russell Baele's Lylle is quite fun too (reckon he'll die) also HELEN McCRORY SHOULD BE IN EVERYTHING.

The dynamic between *groan* Victor Frankenstein and Proteus is very charming until it is gloriously [spoiler]cut short by an emo Rory Kinnear[/spoiler]. This saved the second episode for us almost entirely -and made us decide to press on for at least one more


Cons


The series is written by blockbuster boy John Logan (Gladiator, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Last Samurai, Sweeney Todd, Skyfall ... that Time Machine from 2002) and boy does it show. Cliched as the day is long, tropey and ropey - and once I said aloud "this feels like a boring mainstream film that's been stretched out into a series" I couldn't get it out of my head and every plodding scene started to drag on and on. This is saved by aforementioned charming actors and interesting twists but the overall tone of the show is so forcibly "ominous and brooding" that had I not had Geoffery to joke over it with (we did a whole bit where an enthusiastic Danny Boyle kept trying to buy Timothy Dalton's four poster bed) it would have been unbearably one-note.

It's unoriginal - as mentioned above it's basically just the League. No beating around the bush it's a more tedious televised League, where instead of doing things they just stare at eachother for aaaaagges. The fictional crossovers are aggravatingly cheap - Dorian Grey and Frankenstein? FUCK OFF. WHO'S NEXT - A GRITTY CHESHIRE CAT?! It's already ripped-off enough without having the cavalcade of Victorian fictional canon butting their heads in every two seconds.

"Who are you?"

"WHY I'M OLIVER TWIST, SIR - THE SEXY VAMPIRE KILLER"

The entire 19th century is spinning in its massive steam-powered grave.

Hammy Green- I've never thought Eva Green was particularly bad whenever I've seen her in things but she's hamming it up big time here and the seance scene was awkward as hell. To be fair to her though her character is the least interesting so no wonder she feels the need to muck about  - also when she first showed up she did that odiously trendy Sherlock bullshit:

"Your left shoe is scuffed so you're an only child - you have a hat but it's a new hat so your father never loved you"

I'm sure he'll show up soon and all, guv.


Conclusions

Lot of negatives, some positives. The ridiculous ending of Ep 2 made us want to hang around to see if it stops dragging its heels but it probably won't.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

I seemed to have killed this dead with my essay!

What I will say is that despite its sluggish pace it does do something interesting every episode. Just watching four now and who shows up but DAVID WARNER


DAVID WARNER.

[Link Prime]

I seemed to have killed this dead with my essay!

It's doing quite a decent job of killing itself I thought.
Had a repeat of episode 2 on in the background while doing a spot of ironing. I was more interested in my shirt.
Forget David Warner, this would fail to grab me if Alan Moore turned up on it.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Very interesting the Van Helsing sequence and thought that was clever of them, how they used him!