There’ll be some British time travel Sunday and I’m not talking about Doctor Who. Returning for its second season on May 3, Showtime’s Penny Dreadful has shed the set-ups of Season 1 and truly become, as they used to say about Lord Byron, mad, bad and dangerous to know – in all the best and bloodiest ways.
As my video review above says, John Logan’s series about Victorian mystics, pure evil and literary icons has become more extravagant, haunted and hellish than ever. Led by Eva Green and Timothy Dalton, Penny Dreadful takes us to an era of tightly contained social manners and colonial expansion, with seething surprises just under the floorboards and the skin.
One thing that really sets this season apart from its first cycle is the deeper development of Frankenstein’s creature, played by Bond alum and The Casual Vacancy’s Rory Kinnear. I also like the new villain, delightfully camped up and captured by Helen McCrory as the spiritualist specializing in fulfilling Lucifer’s will. And of course there is Dorian Grey, Dr. Victor Frankenstein himself and Josh Hartnett as gunsel and American werewolf in London Ethan Chandler.
Watch my review of Penny Dreadful. Are you planning to see the show? Tell us what you think.
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