There is a mystery at hand. A person is missing, an unassuming but skilled man is pulled into the chaos and horrific creatures lurk in the shadows. This is the barebone setup of this series and is every bit interesting and worth the watch.
Premise:
Set in late 19th century, this is a story set in Victorian London. Timothy Dalton (Sir Malcolm), Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) are three key players who are involved in the mission to rescue the daughter of Timothy. Timothy's daughter is taken by vicious creatures of the dark who live in the world between ours and thereafter. But all three of them don't know much about these creatures and in order to rescue the girl, they need to find out who they are fighting. On their path, they seek the help of an ambitious Dr Victor who knows a lot about human anatomy and who is eager to learn a lot more. Thus begins their journey into the dark world filled with unspeakable horror and danger.
Review:
In short, I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it for many reasons, most of all because it was a great horror piece. I'm a big fanatic of horror genre and whenever a good horror project comes along, I relish it like a homemade blueberry cheesecake (with extra cheese). In many ways, it reminded me of Lovecraft's stories (and this is a great plus point). Not just the era this series is set in but many other themes, like the creatures in the hidden world which surrounds us but is somehow largely mysterious. There is a great mystery at hand, much like many of Lovecraftian stories, there is a very eager but scientific and rational mind pulled into the world of credulousness and myths which all turned out to be much more than that. As Timothy says to Dr Victor "..a place where science and superstition go hand in hand". Then there is also an "Egyptian Book of Dead" and ancient hieroglyphs, found on a creature, symbolizing the horror which has lived for many thousands of years. In Lovecraft's stories, that book turns out to be Necronomicon and the hieroglyphs are often the language of some ancient and powerful otherworldly force . These are all quite likely the genuine nods to the literature's classic writer and his stories because apart from this, the series also happen to contain many other creatures and characters from literature of the past, namely Frankenstein, vampires, Jack the Reaper among others which we hope to see later on.
The story is fast paced and doesn't drag but still provide enough personality to the main characters that we believe them and want to continue on this journey with them. John Logan wrote a great script with a fine balance of action and exposition although sometimes a little too much time spent on the latter making few sequences overwrought; namely the meeting of Timothy of Dr Victor. But overall, I liked the pacing and how the mystery was handled. There was a lot of tease of how much more there is to discover and me as an audience craved that unknown information. They showed me through a peephole and now that I've seen what I did, I want to enter through that door and unravel what lies beyond in all its glory. I hope this doesn't turn out to be another Walking Dead where every bit of interesting incident is dragged through till the finale and when you reach there, you've already lost interest. But I have a very strong feeling this won't be the case as Bayona is directing it. J.A. Bayona is a great visual director with great repo, who doesn't like to waste a frame without any beautiful and mysterious imagery. That beauty doesn't come from vibrant colors but often though symmetry of shapes within the frame, the mysterious lighting full of dark corners and slow deliberate camera movement. He uses a lot of extreme closeups of faces too, which instantly bring us closer to the characters and creatures. He knows how to direct horror and he showed this in the wonderful "Orphanage" before.
Conclusion:
As always, I try to keep away from the specifics of the narrative as to give you the whole unspoiled experience but try to explain what worked in terms of script, themes and direction in broader sense. Penny Dreadful is indeed a great horror series; there is horror, dread, mystery and lots of character to this series. The pilot episode was great in setting up the puzzle pieces and slowly moving towards the unknown horror lurking in the Victorian London. Horror which comes in many forms and sizes, not just from outside but also from within, as the logline reads "there is something within us all".
