TV: "Penny Dreadful" Episode 1 Review

- by Ninja Ross, 14 May 2014

The supernatural seems to be a pretty common theme in TV, these days; we’ve got True Blood, Grimm, Sleepy Hollow, Being Human and, of course, Supernatural. There are more, but that’s plenty enough to make my point, right? There’s a lot, is the point.

It’s probably going to become as boring and predictable as procedural crime shows before long, but for now it’s still a pretty interesting concept that has a lot to offer.

“Penny Dreadful” takes its name from the 19th century fictional publications featuring stories that were considered shocking and horrific, most notably involving characters like Sweeney Todd and Sexton Blake.

The show follows three major characters: Vanessa Ives (played by Eva Green), Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) and Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett).

Eva Green as Vanessa Ives.

Chandler is new to the supernatural entities that inhabit the world of Penny Dreadful; he’s essentially there so the characters have a reason to explain everything (His main job is to say “Ooh, what’s that?!?”). There is more to him than that, of course.

He’s a travelling performer, focusing his act on trick shots with the classic six shooter. After one of his shows, Ives finds him in a pub and offers him a job. The job is to provide muscle for herself and Sir Malcolm, as they meet a group of what appear to be vampires. Vampire who can be killed with a shot to the face.

As things progress, our heroes meet their leader, a tall, skinny monster with some extremely vicious looking teeth. They DO look pretty clean; despite belong to something that feeds off human flesh.

We find out this is all in aid of Sir Malcolm trying to find his daughter. A daughter by the name of Mina Harker. Does that name sound familiar?!? It freaking should! This TV show isn’t exactly using original characters.

Chandler (front), the "Ooh, what's that?!?" character.

Along with Harker, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, we also have the likes of Victor Frankenstein and Dorian Grey in future episodes. Throwing public domain characters together like this isn’t anything new, but it’s something that’s not really that prominent. The names are dropped casually and there are no glowing neon signs trying to make sure you know who these people are.

As you’d expect, the first episode focuses primarily on world building and setting up important plot points. It’s establishing characters and trying to introduce them before the real action begins. 

It does this admirably, not relying too heavily on action but not getting carried away with explanatory dialogue. Characters are introduced naturally, without being crammed in where they don’t belong.

Penny Dreadful is not only a fun pulp TV show, but it’s also darn good horror. While it doesn’t have many jump scares (the few it does have would only frighten those new to the genre) it does have a fantastic gothic horror atmosphere, which is emphasised by fantastic sets, costumes and acting. Also, it has spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. What’s scarier than that?!? NOTHING IS SCARIER THAN THAT.

While the original Penny Dreadfuls were actually pretty tame, this TV show ramps up the violence a bit. There’s one scene in particular which features a family ripped apart (literally) and left in their home, guts everywhere.

Timothy Dalton's Sir Malcolm and his co-stars.

The acting is one of the shows major strong points. Eva Green plays a very cold, smart character while Timothy Dalton adds a bit of warmth. Hartnett gives one of his best performances since Lucky Number Slevin. While they’re all fantastic individually, the characters don’t actually spend enough time together in the first episode to really show off what they can do when playing off of each other. That’s something to look forward to in future episodes.

The supporting cast is pretty excellent, too, especially Simon Russell Beale as the eccentric expert in all things Egyptian. His eccentricity is a nice change of pace, which helps keep things fresh. It’d be nice to see more of that guy.

Overall, the show is very worth watching. A lot of things happen but nothing big is revealed, which is nice. We have plenty of time to learn about our heroes and villains, without anything being rushed. Enough is hinted at in this first episode to make you want to tune in next week, which is kinda what first episodes are supposed to do.

If you haven’t already, I highly suggest giving this a shot. Fantastic acting, great atmosphere and a very intriguing story. That’s how you do a first episode.

Spiders are bad, though. Screw spiders.


Have you seen the first episode of "Penny Dreadful"? What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments section!

Tagged: movies & TV, Reviews.

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