Penny Dreadful was a terrifying and brilliant idea from director Sam Mendes and John Logan, screenwriter de Gladiator, The Aviator And Skyfall – in short, not two beginners – who have collected and mixed in a writing that travels between fascination, terror and monstrosity, the popular horror and gothic tales popular in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century, also paying homage to the comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Of Alan Moore. The series was made for Showtime, a US television network, and for Sky Atlantic in 2014, providing for a total of three seasons. In Italy the first season was broadcast by Rai 4 in 2015 while the other two landed on Netflix. In 2020 the spin-off of the series was also made, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, broadcast in Italy by Sky Atlantic and Now TV.
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For lovers of the genre this series with protagonists Eve Green, Josh Hartnett And Timothy Dalton is a real gem because it represents a fascinating anthology to discover and deepen the origins of iconic characters of horror literature such as Victor Frankestein, Dorian Grey, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll, but also archetypes such as witches, vampires and werewolves who have nurtured and populated the terrifying fantastic imaginary of literature and audiovisual that has come down to us.
“Penny Scares”, what does Penny Dreadful mean
You know ours Little shivers? In short, little books that didn’t cost much but with captivating covers and a story scary enough to frighten its target audience, teenagers grappling with the first times of life and therefore also the first suggestions and fears. Here are the Penny Dreadful short stories, which means literally penny scaresalso famous for being called horrible pennies, penny awful, penny number And pennybloodwere small English-language weekly publications dating back nineteenth century that were fashionable in the UK. These “penny scares” were defined as such not only for the low cost, precisely a penny, but also to indicate trivial stories, certainly not high literature.
Ungrammatical, emphatic, banal and sketchy illustrations were an unsuccessful attempt to do something great, in fact the publishers seem to be serious about offering a serious work anyway. The narratives, however, even if simple because they were designed to entertain an audience of proletarians and petty bourgeois employees, not only helped to popularize the gothic novel genre but were also at the origin of pulp and horror literature in general. In fact, they ended up influencing the literary authors of the following years anyway.
Penny Dreadful, the horror series with Eva Green: what it’s about
Penny Dreadful spans three seasons and is a melting pot of characters
brilliant, ruthless and monstrous that characterize the series: it starts with Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, the Dr. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley to mention those best known to most, but above all the seductive and diabolical stands out Vanessa Ives played by Eva Green, who to many has been commonly referred to as the real star of this show. In fact, without too many artifices, make-up or special effects, her character is the most terrifying: rather than interpreting the actress, she actually wrote her character, and it is certainly one of the most captivating reasons to see Penny Dreadful and admire her test as an actress.
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The series also deeply fascinates those who grew up with terror literature in general: there are numerous references to Goethe, Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft and for the first time we see together iconic characters such as Dracula, Victor Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and Dorian Gray interact, ally or simply fight against each other, because in this series there are no trivialities and no one makes discounts. This gives rise to different narrative lines, characters and personalities who, however, manage to coexist along the thread of the main plot. To make this succulent dish even tastier there is the music of Abel Korzeniowski who gives melancholy, poetry, mystery and seduction – his trademark – through music that blends perfectly with the narration
The story of Penny Dreadful: it all started with a search for a girl…
The main backbone of the plot, which will then kick off all the terrifying phantasmagoria of the characters and what happens in the series, starts from a simple search: the daughter of the explorer Sir Malcolm Murray/Timothy Dalton, Mina, is not found more because kidnapped by monstrous creatures of an unidentified nature. Vanessa Ives/Eva Green, friend of the girl, protégé of Sir Murray relies on an all-rounder, the American showman Ethan Chandler/Josh Hartnett who arrives to discover a nest of vampires. They then enlist the help of the scientist Victor Frankenstein, who between one analysis of what happened and the other is secretly working on resurrecting a corpse. In the meantime, however, Vanessa has to deal with her demonic possessions that give her real torment, while along the search for her the figures of other characters emerge: the sick prostitute Brona, the rich libertine Dorian Gray And Calibanthe Creature brought to life by Victor.
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Where to see Penny Dreadful: only on Sky and Now TV
Some time ago there was talk of a fourth season of Penny Dreadful but in the end it was decided to focus on a spin-off of the series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angeles, and so this elusive fourth chapter never arrived despite the good response from the public and the success recorded by the series. If you are thinking of retrieving, reviewing or perhaps seeing the TV series with Eva Green for the first time, know that you will not find it on Netflix, however, as it has been canceled from the catalog, probably because the acquired rights have obviously expired. Don’t worry though, at least before starting the first episode of the first season, because currently all seasons of Penny Dreadful I’m just up Sky or up Now TV.
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, what the spin-off of the series is about
Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, always produced by John Logan introduces new characters and takes us to a different setting, the Los Angeles of the 1938, a period strongly characterized by social and political tensions. The protagonists are the detective Tiago Vega, played by Daniel Zavotto, together with his partner Lewis Michener, played by Nathan Lane, involved in the investigation of a terrible murder. For them, however, it will already be much of an investigation, because in a short time they will end up in a story where they will end up rediscovering the memories of the city, its traditions, the espionage actions of the Third Reich, until they collide with supernatural forces that undermine the their own existences. First of all, the powerful Magda, played by Natalie Dormer, a demon who constantly changes shape.
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Penny Dreadful: everything you need to know about the horror series