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Penny Dreadful: CoA in the Media

numbnut

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AuntieMame

AuntieMame

On 1/5/2019 at 7:53 AM, numbnut said:

I guess this is the only place to post this. Showtime has ordered a new installment of the drama series “Penny Dreadful.” “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” is set in 1938 Los Angeles, a time and place deeply infused with Mexican-American folklore and social tension.

I'm intrigued. I loved watching the first Penny Dreadful until they dropped the ball at the end. I love the idea of a Depression era setting combined with a little far urban fantasy. Could be fun. 

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numbnut

numbnut

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7 hours ago, AuntieMame said:

I'm intrigued. I loved watching the first Penny Dreadful until they dropped the ball at the end. I love the idea of a Depression era setting combined with a little far urban fantasy. Could be fun. 

Totally agree about the ball drop. I hope the new show stars someone on the same level as Eva Green.

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millennium

millennium

On 1/5/2019 at 9:53 AM, numbnut said:

I guess this is the only place to post this. Showtime has ordered a new installment of the drama series “Penny Dreadful.” “Penny Dreadful: City of Angels” is set in 1938 Los Angeles, a time and place deeply infused with Mexican-American folklore and social tension.

Thanks for letting us know.

Thing is, 

Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful,[1] and penny blood.[2] The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts, each costing one penny. The subject matter of these stories was typically sensational, focusing on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities. First published in the 1830s, penny dreadfuls featured characters such as Sweeney Todd, Dick Turpin and Varney the Vampire. The Guardian described penny dreadfuls as “Britain’s first taste of mass-produced popular culture for the young.”

To call a series set in 1938 Los Angeles "Penny Dreadful" is not only chronologically inappropriate but geographically as well.   The original series was indeed a "Penny Dreadful" and had all the right elements -- the most important of which (IMO anyway) was that the action took place in dreary old 19th-century England.   When they moved the action to the American southwest in Season 3 (and away from Eva Green), it was a terrible fail.   The series never recovered and the tail end of Season 3 felt hurried and half-assed.

Besides, all the classic monsters were located in Europe -- Frankenstein's creature, Dr. Jekyll, Dorian Gray, Dracula ...  I'm trying to think of fictional monsters associated with 1930s Los Angeles and having trouble naming even one.    The promise of "Mexican-American folklore" just isn't doing it for me.

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krankydoodle

krankydoodle

On 2/12/2019 at 2:14 AM, numbnut said:

I hope the new show stars someone on the same level as Eva Green.

It's just been announced that Natalie Dormer's been cast as a shapeshifting demon. I wish I could be excited about this show because I loved Penny Dreadful, but I don't trust the folks behind it after that mess of an ending.

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millennium

millennium

(edited)
1 hour ago, krankydoodle said:

It's just been announced that Natalie Dormer's been cast as a shapeshifting demon. I wish I could be excited about this show because I loved Penny Dreadful, but I don't trust the folks behind it after that mess of an ending.

Natalie Dormer's no lightweight, and I love her .... but the project still seems misguided.   And I agree with you -- the original had Eva Green, Josh Hartnett, Christopher Dalton and even Patti Lupone, yet the people running the show still screwed it up in the end.

Edited by millennium
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AuntieMame

AuntieMame

I could have coped with a tragic ending, the characters were fatally flawed and in tragic circumstances after all, but the ending we got felt more like hopeless resignation than tragedy. As for the new series, I don't mind the change of venue, pulp fiction was extremely popular in America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the thirties saw a huge explosion in fiction and the rise of comics. It isn't like this form of popular entertainment was unheard of in the US.  I just hope the writers work out a rough plan so we aren't disappointed. 

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Bort

Bort

More casting news.

Quote

Michael Gladis (Mad Men) is set as a series regular opposite Daniel Zovatto and Natalie Dormer in Showtime’s upcoming series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, a follow-up to Penny Dreadful from the original series’ creator, writer and executive producer John Logan. Additionally, Lorenza Izzo (Once Upon A Time In Hollywood)has been tapped for the pivotal recurring role of Santa Muerte, and Adam Rodriguez(CSI: Miami), Thomas Kretschmann (Avengers: Age of Ultron) Dominic Sherwood (Shadowhunters), and Ethan Peck (Star Trek: Discovery) also are set to recur.

Quote

In addition to Zovatto and Dormer, the series stars Kerry Bishé, Adriana Barraza, Rory Kinnear, Jessica Garza, Johnathan Nieves and Nathan Lane. Amy Madigan, Brent Spiner and Lin Shaye will also recur.

spaceghostess

spaceghostess

(edited)
On 2/12/2019 at 5:37 PM, millennium said:

Thanks for letting us know.

Thing is, 

To call a series set in 1938 Los Angeles "Penny Dreadful" is not only chronologically inappropriate but geographically as well.   The original series was indeed a "Penny Dreadful" and had all the right elements -- the most important of which (IMO anyway) was that the action took place in dreary old 19th-century England.   When they moved the action to the American southwest in Season 3 (and away from Eva Green), it was a terrible fail.   The series never recovered and the tail end of Season 3 felt hurried and half-assed.

Besides, all the classic monsters were located in Europe -- Frankenstein's creature, Dr. Jekyll, Dorian Gray, Dracula ...  I'm trying to think of fictional monsters associated with 1930s Los Angeles and having trouble naming even one.    The promise of "Mexican-American folklore" just isn't doing it for me.

I couldn't agree more that the title of the new show is a complete misnomer. Of course I get that they're trying to reel in Original Recipe Penny Dreadful fans, but in this case the Marketing! annoys. L.A. and the time period place this squarely in the pulp fiction genre. Yes, Tarantino owns "Pulp Fiction," so they can't use that, but how about just calling it Pulp and headlining it "From the Creator(s) of Penny Dreadful"? They could lean into whatever similarities there are without conflating two completely separate genres. Sure, pulp fiction grew from penny dreadfuls, but they have different names because they're different things. I love all stuff 1930s and 40s, especially noir, but it's not penny dreadful. Does the Mexican-American folklore aspect push it over that line? Eh, seems too far a reach for this title.

As far as season three of PD, I was similarly disappointed, but it was more the isolation of the characters for most of the season that bothered me than the trip to America in itself. The Old West dime novels skewed pretty close to Penny Dreadful territory (and, incidentally, were the precursor to pulp) so I was willing to hand wave it. But splintering the characters off the way "they" (Logan/the writers?) did just undermined and ultimately destroyed the glorious web they'd woven among them the prior two years. The ending of this show broke my heart like no other because at its peak, it was the most transformative television viewing experience I'd ever had. It still stands as that, but I haven't been able to rewatch the first two seasons because of the way it ended. 😞

Natalie Dormer is serious catnip, but what would definitely get me to take a look would be finding out that Rory Kinnear is reprising his original PD role. And if Josh Hartnett were available...? I'd be there to see how those two moved through this "new" world.

Edited by spaceghostess
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AnimeMania

AnimeMania

Piper Perabo has joined Penny Dreadful: City of Angels in a recurring part, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The former Covert Affairs star will play a woman who is unsatisfied with her life in 1938 Los Angeles.

Perabo will play Linda Craft, the wife of Dr. Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear, a veteran of the first Penny Dreadful), who is head of the isolationist German-American Bund, and mother to Trevor (Hudson West) and Tom (Julian Hilliard). Linda is described as "a fading American Beauty rose," disappointed with her husband and bored with her constrained suburban life.

yourmomiseasy

yourmomiseasy

On 8/3/2019 at 4:07 PM, DoctorAtomic said:

I'm usually meh on LA as a venue but I'm intrigued by the time period. 

There better be high levels of sweater porn though. 

There's no way it is living up to the original in that regard.  That episode where they go to the moors is probably the single greatest achievement in televised knitwear.

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mammaM

mammaM

37 minutes ago, scrb said:

Review talks about balancing the real and the supernatural:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/04/penny-dreadful-city-of-angels-walks-a-fine-line-between-realism-the-supernatural/

 

Never watched the original PD.  

This spinoff is getting lower reviews than the original though.

The original Penny Dreadful was wonderful. Great cast, great chemistry among the cast, it goes off the rails toward the end but still, wonderful.

FrankOFoley

FrankOFoley

I just read this on TVLine.com and my immediate reaction was "damn!" I really liked the show. I liked the fact that it was noirish, that it took place in late 30's LA, that it blended latino and anglo cultures, that it incorporated the "spiritual and mysticism" as it were, the costumes, the choreography, the suspension of reality (especially in these times), the acting, especially Nathan Lane. I was really looking forward to season 2 but I had a feeling that the themes it presented wouldn't fly with those who weren't somewhat acquainted with them and it would likely be cancelled, but I held out hope. For me it really hit home on so many levels and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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