S03.E01: The Day Tennyson Died

[maczero]

On 5/3/2016 at 2:07 PM, RedheadZombie said:

I'm very confused by the sexual overtone of Victor and Jeckyll's interactions, and I didn't get an evil vibe from Jeckyll.  He talked Victor down from killing Lily to making her love him. 

That's a much more positive interpretation than what I got out of that scene.  Jeckyll's phrasing seemed more like he had a way of taming a dangerous beast rather than making Lily come to her senses.  And for the record, Lily is a dangerous beast that needs to be put down.  Victor was on the right path when he was making plans to kill her.

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The show is very confusing in this aspect.  Ethan and Dorian's encounter led me to believe that Ethan was bisexual, but it now seems to be indicative of Dorian's overwhelming appeal. 

I'm of the opinion that Ethan is straight.  I chalked up his romp with Dorian as a mixture of being emotional about Brona, absinthe and Dorian giving off some sort of supernatural pheromone that makes him attractive to everyone.

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I would have loved to have a scene of hot-mess!Vanessa and hot-mess!Victor crossing paths. Could have been hilarious!

When I first saw the mess, I thought it was Victor's place.  I even thought the slender arm hanging off the bed was Victor's until they panned on Vanessa's face. lol!

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I'm waiting for another monumental event in history to appear in this SL - the invention of vibrators that physicians used to treat female "hysteria".  I believe it happened in this era.

I watched a comedy on Hulu where women were being treated for hysteria with a gigantic steam punk version of a vibrator.  I didn't realize there was any real history to that scene.

Glad the show is back.  I gotta say that scene with Renfield being surrounded by vamps and then meeting Drac was the scariest thing I've seen on television in a long time.

Edited May 5, 2016 by maczero

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

Rare Penny

Why Penny Dreadful does genre television better than anyone else.

[AuntieMame]

6 hours ago, maczero said:

That's a much more positive interpretation than what I got out of that scene.  Jeckyll's phrasing seemed more like he had a way of taming a dangerous beast rather than making Lily come to her senses.  And for the record, Lily is a dangerous beast that needs to be put down.  Victor was on the right path when he was making plans to kill her.

I'm of the opinion that Ethan is straight.  I chalked up his romp with Dorian as a mixture of being emotional about Brona, absinthe and Dorian giving off some sort of supernatural pheromone that makes him attractive to everyone.

When I first saw the mess, I thought it was Victor's place.  I even thought the slender arm hanging off the bed was Victor's until they panned on Vanessa's face. lol!

I watched a comedy on Hulu where women were being treated for hysteria with a gigantic steam punk version of a vibrator.  I didn't realize there was any real history to that scene.

Glad the show is back.  I gotta say that scene with Renfield being surrounded by vamps and then meeting Drac was the scariest thing I've seen on television in a long time.

There is actually a movie about the invention of the vibrator. The doctor who invented the treatment of orgasm was so busy he had to hire another doctor to take the overflow of patients. The two of them were not only busy, but had the worst case of hand exhaustion since the invention of writers cramp, thus prompting the invention of the vibrator. The movie is called Hysteria. I have mixed feelings. I know that Victorian times were repressed and all but other things I've read across history give explicit reference to female desire and pleasure. I guess it depends o. Who you were.

[AuntieMame]

On 5/4/2016 at 10:49 PM, dr pepper said:

Ok, a few thoughts.

I hope that Malcom stops off somewhere to get Lyle some fresh patchouli ointment for his whiskers,

Agreed in hoping Moreau shows up. In fact a Frankenstein/Jeckyl/Moreau would be a deadly combination. Especially in a setting where vitalism seems to be a real thing.

As for Dracula, i think the show writers will make up their own look and speech patterns for him.

As for penny dreadfuls in the Wild West, they were called dime novels, and they were mostly thud and blunder adventure stories. a lot of them were devoted to outlaws. In fact Jesse James was killed by fanboy who had joined after years of reading about him, but was disappointed to be relegated to sweeping the hideout. Still, some had fantasy elements. You can download a few of them here: https://www.lib.umn.edu/clrc/digital-dime-novels

Thank you for that Dr.pepper! I love me some genuine Victoriana. I will be checking this out. Jesse James, killed by a fanboy and a disgruntled one at that strikes me as funny in the blackest way. I recently read a novel in a new genre called Weird West where the devil ran a saloon and brothel. I'm a transplant to the intermountain west and try and get the feel of my new land. Your site will help.

[darkestboy]

Caught up with this later than I would've liked but I really enjoyed this episode.

They didn't need to make a connection with Dr Seward and the Cut Wife but I'm intrigued that they did and yet again, both Patti LuPone and Eva Green play off each other so well.

Vanessa needs someone in her life pretty soon. I don't mean romantically, I mean friends. I liked that Lyle tried to help her but she also needs Victor, Malcolm and Ethan and possibly a female friend too.

Dr Sweet is clearly going to be revealed as Dracula in a later episode. I did like that Seward's secretary was revealed to be Renfield too.

Not sure I like Hecate still being around but I guess she has more business with Ethan. Also nice that Malcolm and Ethan will be catching up with each shortly.

Domesticating Lily is never going to happen but I loved the scenes with Victor and Dr Jekyll. I also got the impression they were former lovers as well.

Not much Caliban in this episode and I missed not seeing Dorian/Lily too, 8/10

[ganesh]

Vanessa doesn't strike me as one of those women that has other women friends. 

[ganesh]

And that turned out well. 

[Vandervecken]

I'm thinking the leader of the western bandits/gang has to be someone of note. Two thoughts:

 

It's a famous gang of the time, like Butch Cassidy and his wild bunch.

It's Quincey Morris.

 

The second doesn't strike me as likely, though. He was well spoken, and Morris should be, but Morris is a gentleman adventurer and not even remotely a criminal. No doubt we are going to meet Quincey Morris though, eventually.

[RedheadZombie]

I loved when the bad guy told Ethan to cheer up because he was going home, and Ethan responded, "Good luck".  It's that same tone he used in Possession when Vanessa told him she could have fallen in love with her, and he tells her she still could.  Of course the beauty of the scene was ruined when "Ethan" was revealed to be the devil.

I will not be happy this season until Ethan sees or learns something bad, and he responds, "Fuck me".  He's done it every season. 

[AuntieMame]

On 5/6/2016 at 9:13 AM, Grashka said:

Well she had. She had Mina.

Hmmm. I'm pondering this. Usually when women eschew other women it's implicit or explicit misogyny or the competitive demands of the patriarchy, but I don't get that vibe from Vanessa. She over Mina, admits her jealousy of Mina for being a simpler character than Vanessa and finding love first while Vanessa was still trying to figure herself out. Vanessa loved the cut wife, and that love made her vulnerable to Dr. Seward. She was kind to Lily. Actually, it would be interesting to see Vanessa with a female peer. The cut wife relationship might have evolved from mentorship to friendship but the cut wife sacrificed herself. If anything I think Vanessa might avoid women out of guilt that they will die n her company.

[dr pepper]

On 5/6/2016 at 8:55 PM, AuntieMame said:

Thank you for that Dr.pepper! I love me some genuine Victoriana. I will be checking this out. Jesse James, killed by a fanboy and a disgruntled one at that strikes me as funny in the blackest way. I recently read a novel in a new genre called Weird West where the devil ran a saloon and brothel. I'm a transplant to the intermountain west and try and get the feel of my new land. Your site will help.

"Weird West" is also a genre of roleplaying game where you can mix outlaws and gunfighters with werewolves, folk magic, ghosts, curses, etc.

[ganesh]

That sounds ridiculously fun.

[FurryFury]

It is! I've played Deadlands and it was awesome. Still miss this setting, it's basically Wild West crossed over with horror, magic and mad science.

I did like the episode, but holy shit, does this show move slow. I'm so ready for the gang to meet again! Except for Creature who can remain in the Arctic or wherever he is. I don't think he'll ever stop boring me.

I'm not one for seeing HoYay usually, but daaaamn, do Victor and Jekyll give me these vibes. I was waiting for them to kiss all the time. They totally should do a Jekyll having had a crush on Victor in the past backstory.

The Vanessa/Lyle scene in the beginning gave me all kinds of feels. This man is a treasure.

Not thrilled to see Hecate. Eugh.

Really looking forward to seeing Ethan's father. I guess there will be a time jump for Malcolm to get to America, however.

[rozen]

On 5/2/2016 at 9:48 AM, BuddhaBelly said:

It was jarring to see how they disparaged Dr. Jekyll as he walked along the street but not surprising. I thought it was interesting that he got more verbal "abuse" than Angelique who had a similar coloring, but maybe this is the story the writers want to highlight at the moment.

It just annoyed me because we got more about Jekyll's struggles in England in 2s than we did for Sembene in two seasons. It just shows how disinterested the writers were in his character, as he surely went through some terrible shit being a dark skinned man with ritual scarring in Victorian England. But he's buried alone in the mountains somewhere, so it's cool! /sarcasm

Jekyll's actor should have been Dorian, because he was alluring and also somewhat terrifying at the same time. Ugh, Frankenstein, always giving a new moral ditch to fall into when he's nearly made it out of the other one. I swear, if Lily had still put on a show of being a gullible 12 year old girl who just happened to want to Take Over the World he'd give her a smooch and wish her luck.

New Cut Wife was too on the nose, but I'll wait. She looked nonplussed when Vanessa left, I wonder if the original Cut Wife set out some rules for her progeny to take Vanessa in if she ever appeared again?

Gosh knows Vanessa's screwed otherwise. The two people who best know what danger she's in are too busy chasing their own demons to give a shit. Victor thinks she's a hysterical female, so even if he were clean he'd be at best a condescending prick about everything. A friendly condescending prick, but he's like Daredevil in that he refuses to acknowledge any supernatural other than his supernatural even when it hisses in his face.

Ferdinand is legit the hero of this show. Ran double agent on a coven of witches that could liquefy his insides, and stomping right in on feral Vanessa Ives and doing what her family should have done. He should be Lupus Dei, he's got the whiskers for it!

[MsChipper]

On 5/3/2016 at 10:11 AM, attica said:

Ah, I see Christian Camargo is playing the Museum dude. We all remember him as Rudy

  Reveal hidden contents

the Ice Truck Killer

in Dexter, S1. 

OMG that was Rudy? I loved Rudy! I couldn't recognize him here!

 

Also - I just wanted to say I loved the dialogue between Vanessa and Dr Sweet...there was something so charming and intriguing about their banter.

[Andromeda]

I LOVE THIS SHOW. So excited to see Dr. Jekyll there, and I have been waiting for Dracula. As soon as I heard the other vamps call him "Master" I got very excited. Then to discover the secretary was Renfeild... It's funny, I don't generally think about how many of our classic horror stories came from this era, but watching this it's clear our modern horror genre was basically invented by Victorian England (with a good dose of Grimm and other sources, of course).

So glad that Vanessa didn't linger in her morose state. I cheered when Lyle appeared at her door. I adore that man. His beard was awesome, too, with the highlights...

[bobbysgurl]

On May 1, 2016 at 9:24 AM, clack said:

I'm not hopeful about how the show is going to portray Dracula. It's a difficult characterization to pull off -- he must possess a surface suaveness while still coming across as deeply inhuman, alien and vile. Lugosi got it right, but no one else since then.

Lugosi-types aren't what is wanted anymore.  It's a great loss for the audience.  The people who make vampire shows want their vampires to be more human than evil.  It's a big draw for their much younger audiences, but it's a turnoff for me. The audiences are utterly shocked when a vampire behaves the way his nature says he should behave.  The audiences attribute human qualities to beings that are inherently evil.  Vampires are dead creatures walking among and preying upon the living.

Edited May 16, 2016 by bobbysgurl
added evil after inherently

[millennium]

If ever I find myself in the throes of a debilitating depression, or plagued by a spiritual malaise so crippling that my will to live is ebbing away, I hope and pray that it is Mr. Lyle who comes looking for me.

Edited September 19, 2016 by millennium