To be honest, I waited a few months for the release of this series, under the impression of a great trailer. There was, of course, a feeling that I had high hopes in vain, but I didn’t really listen to him. After all, the TV company Showtime released Dexter, and besides everything else, outstanding directors and an amazing screenwriter, John Logan, who helped create films such as Gladiator or 007: Skyfall Coordinates, worked on this project. So, looking ahead, I can’t believe that such interesting people as Juan Antonio Bayona, who worked on the films “Shelter”, “Impossible”, and Koki Gidroich, who helped create the famous and beloved British TV series “Sherlock”, are involved in such a completely empty project.
Plus.
The first series begins very well: creaking floorboards, brutal murder, blood everywhere, children's scream, etc. In some places I even immersed myself in the plot, thanks to perfectly shot scenes with a lot of inexplicable, but there were very few such scenes and most of them were created by the character Eva Green.
Minuses.
First of all, dialogue. Long, partly meaningless and too pretentious. At first, I just tried to relax and ignore them, but at times it seemed like an impossible task. They are all built on the same principle: a more pretentious and mysterious character with a serious face, turning to another, gives something like: “I already worked as a loader ... I don’t want to anymore!” or “Have you ever dug a potato?” What do you know about potatoes? ".
The second minus flows smoothly from the first. The plot of this series I would not consider predictable, and, nevertheless, there is something repulsive in it. You can, of course, suffer small errors in the plot, and in some details just do not go into, and generally strain and turn off the brain. I personally made a big mistake, the questions grew like a snowball, and I was not particularly obsessed with the plot. Vampires created chaos in my head. They looked so unnatural that if I saw such a person on the street, even in the dark, I would be stunned. Surprisingly, the writer somehow did not think that they, even at night, but need to go outside. The vampires from Penny Dreadful with eyeliner and licked hair look completely unadapted to the human environment. In addition, these creatures do not know how to bite through clothes and die from everything: be it a bullet, a dagger or the look of an angry woman. And subcutaneous hieroglyphs I will not even comment on. Another unpleasant moment, which, unfortunately, was remembered, was associated with the daughter of the main character, because of which, by and large, all this porridge started. I will not comment on this point either, because it will not do without spoilers, but for those who decide or have already looked, I just suggest paying attention to the situation with this girl and the illogical conclusions about her search.
Conclusion.
Of course, all of the above, especially the disadvantages, I was a little exaggerated. In general, the series made a pleasant impression on me, if there was something better than the same theme, I would love to watch. "Penny Dreadful" really only needs minor adjustments. If you’re a person who doesn’t get too hung up on small things, and you’re more interested in spectacular characters, then I think you’ll quickly fall in love with this series.
The series "Penny Dreadful" is currently at the divergence of two roads. On the one hand, the series can give the viewer to get used to their features, fall in love with their characters and become the most successful horror project from the TV company Showtime, on the other hand, continue to confuse the viewer and with failure leave the screens. I decided to watch a few more episodes for myself, and if the show doesn’t change for the better, I won’t waste my time.
“Horrors on the Cheap” is another nonsense project created in an attempt to mix everything into one TV show. There are vampires, and Dorian Gray, and Dr. Frankinstein, and mediums, and witches, and hell knows who. It would seem, okay, such an abundance of characters could be experienced in the presence of an interesting plot, but this is what the series has trouble with. You can see this from episode 1.
Cons:
1. It's okay. Not a bit. I was hoping that every episode of the show would be about an interesting monster investigation, that there would be really scary scenes, there would be an atmosphere. What's the result? Nothing. Eerily sagging plot, boogaga effect, "monsters" - which are more likely to mix than scare. What is worth only the creation of Dr. Frankinstein, which shines with its not at all impressive dignity and clearly looks at its creator in blue. Slashers almost gave birth at this point. And this Egyptian? It's just stupid.
2. Characters. Everyone sings praises to the heroine of Eva Green, but in fact her character is an ordinary dummy with big ears. She does not intrigue anything, an ordinary medium who helps the father of Mina.
Dr. Frankenstein is not a genius here, but an ordinary young loser who is chemically in his secret attic. And the actor for his role has such a nasty appearance that it would be his time to play the same monster.
Dorian Gray - outwardly, this actor does not attract Dorian at all, at best, to a bardel worker. But maybe it will. I don't think so.
Pros:
In fact, a plus, and even that very frail can only be called the very American who was a little intrigued, and Mina’s dad is of course a charming grandfather.
As a result: it will definitely not be scary, but it will be disgusting: excrement, dicks, flies, “beautiful” fed frogs.
Should I watch? If the great literary works of Wald, Shelley and Stoker are dear to you, then you should not spoil the impression of them with this all-pervasive parody of American Horror Story, and if there is nothing to look at, it will do.
When I found out about the release of this series, I was, to put it more accurately, confused. The arguments of 'Z' and 'Against' were constantly fighting in my head.
'Against'
Again vampires, werewolves, monsters, etc. Immediately comes the thought: ' Well, what else do you want to squeeze out of this topic when there is already Wannelsing and Blade!?'.
The creators of the series shot 'Skyline'...don’t judge strictly, but I am not a fan of such films, but rather their opponent. Although you can immediately note a plus - they also shot 'Gladiator'
'Za'
You can stay here. . After watching the first series, the opinion changed dramatically for the better. The series is more reminiscent of 'Jack the Ripper', which is certainly pleasing (i.e. sitting in astonished tension throughout the series).
The great cast and their great performance just please the eye throughout the film. Insidious and charming Eva Green, not aging and mysterious Timothy Dalton, matured Josh Hartnett, Harry Treadaway, who opened for me new interesting pluses in his acting skills and new moments in the life of his hero. The only thing that is incomprehensible is why everyone writes that the creature created by Frankenstein plays Rory Kinnear, if it is Alex Price.
Excellent costumes, dicarnations, effects also make you put another ball for this product.
In general, the series will please all fans of the genre. A share of horrors, mysteries and all this is seasoned with actors of the highest class.
P.s
There's only one question left. How will the great Dorian Gray play - Reeve Carney
Personally, my opinion, this role already had two great actors (already played just the same Gray) - Ben Barnes and incomparable Stuart Townsend!
Classical heroes of the mystic genre, like Frankenstein or Dracula, are so deeply rooted in the culture that they are almost impossible to scare anyone, their stories are not new and have long been known to everyone. That is why it is more entertaining to watch how the creators, with the help of completely new and no less vivid characters, try to captivate the viewer. We will be frightened, as stated in the slogan, not by mystical creatures, but by people. Presumably, these images must be so extraordinary as to outshine even Dorian Gray or Dr. Jekyll. The task is difficult, but along with the very idea, does not fail and execution. It’s too early to assess the plot as a whole, but the dialogue in its original sound is delightful. There is not a single random phrase here, each one embodies the essence of heroes unknown to us so far, like Sir Malcolm Murray, Ethan Chandler or Miss Ives. In this matter, the series is like a thoughtfully written novel of Gothic style, which, apparently, the creators counted on, transporting us to the Victorian era and calling the series the name of the publication of tabloid horror fiction of that time. Plunging into the dialogues and catching the meaning of each phrase, the viewer forgets to be alert, and therefore moments of slight flinching from surprise rather than from fright cannot be avoided. A significant role is played by the entourage, over which they worked for glory. The visual authenticity of both interiors and exteriors excites the imagination even more, and by the middle of the episode you begin to catch yourself thinking that you expect a catch in everything. It's very easy to imagine Jack the Ripper walking around these streets, looking at prostitutes who will be shown to us, and picking out the victim. And all of this must happen at night, because the world of Penny Dredful is insanely dark. Life here is divided into two parts: during the day - the highest educated Victorian elite society in its restless thirst to comprehend and adopt, at night - its representatives, but without fear to cross any line to quench this thirst. But besides this, the characters are also driven by truly human passions like lust, curiosity, boredom, hopelessness, blood kinship, friendship, affection, faith, conscience and loyalty. And of course, there was no need to guess on the cards, love.
Another review could be written about the caste of the project, but here it is enough to say that he could not be the best. After Barton’s “Dark Shadows”, to look no longer at the ironic, but at the mysterious and fatal Eva Green in captivity of inhuman forces is a pleasure. Timothy Dalton successfully got used to his African explorer, Josh Harnett to an American shooter with a dark past, and Harry Treadaway to Frankenstein.
And a separate bow for the accent, it's truly British.
After season 3 of “American Horror Story”, where I expected an extravaganza, and got the apogee of meaninglessness and near the family drama, where old Jessica Lange, like the burlaks from Repin’s “Burlaki on the Volga”, tried to pull all this nonsense with her magnificent acting... But I didn't. From all this my soul demanded two things: 1. According to the precepts of the hero Jack Nicholson from the film "The Shining" Maestro Kubrick to take the axe and cut off all who were involved in this outrage; 2) Crowd somewhere in a dark corner and cry quietly in the hope that in the future I will never see such obscurantism. The trailer for this series inspired hope for a lot, but rather that this project will fill the gap left by the 3rd season. But surprisingly, closer to the middle of the pilot, I realized that comparing this series with “American Horror Story” would be wrong; here it would be more appropriate to compare with “Supernatural”, or rather the first three seasons, where the emphasis was on the story of the guestbuster brothers and their hunt for evil spirits and people who are madly fond of all sorts of mystical tricks, and not on the marasmatic plot (probably the script for the rest of the seasons wrote manatees) about ...
Penny dreadful is a type of literature that became famous after the Industrial Revolution. Such books appeared in the late 19th century (when the series actually takes place). They were worth a penny (hence the name). Anyone could buy them. They were dark and dirty stories with elements of detective and mysticism. It is rumored that it was from these stories that Bram Stoker was inspired to write Dracula.
The series looks in one breath! This is not surprising, because in the director's wagon sit Koki Gidroic - one of the directors of the series "Sherlock", I respect and beloved Sam Madsen - the author of a masterpiece called "American Beauty" and a Spaniard with a sexual name Juan Antonio Bayona - director of the famous "Shelter". And the handwriting of the latter is very difficult not to notice - too much similar to the "Shelter", which is not so bad. The series is positioned as a well-seen adult Gothic tale with elements of a thriller and a detective story. And if at the very beginning I wrote that the series is usually compared to "Supernatural" - well, this is not quite so. Yes, there is its own team to eliminate evil spirits - except that the 1967 Chevrolet Impala is not enough - but most of all other pictures come to mind during viewing - I have already said "Shelter", "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Brothers Grimm" Gilliam, "Van Helsing" and "Labyrinth of Faun" del Toro. And the series borrows all the best from these paintings.
Starting with the scene of the showdown in the morgue, I began to come to puppy delight. In just one episode, we were shown a well-directed fight, interesting characters, a couple of just memorable scenes, a lot of blood and dismembered corpses and all possible creatures - witches, vampires, Frankenstein, dressed in what her mother gave birth and even a mummy!
To say that the series is beautifully shot is to call it a weak epithet. Decorators tried their best to recreate early Victorian London. Everything looks so beautiful and so atmospheric! Also worthy of praise is Abel Kozhenevski, who wrote a magnificent composition for “Lonely Man” with Firth. His music is nectar and joy to the ears! Owen McPaulin and P.J. Dillon work very skillfully with the camera, which makes it difficult not to notice the excellent camera work, especially in conversational scenes. There is no point in talking about actors. Eva Greene was born for this kind of character. Josh Hartnett, who, by the way, somewhere evaporated and it was not visible for a very long time, has always been loved by me and never irritated, even if he starred in a frank slag (read - "Black Orchid", "Pearl Harbor", "40 Days, 40 Nights"). I won’t say that he gave a real masterpiece to Al Day-Lewis, but it was nice to see him, and I was really happy to see him return to normal, never bad projects. The rest looked good.
“Boulevard Horrors” / “Terrible Tales” / “Terrible Tales” is a real holiday for a movie / seriesman. A real adult Gothic tale, from which it is difficult to break away. I will definitely be waiting every week like Hachiko for a new series, although it is a shame that there are only eight in the first season. And this is the wildest delight!
The new TV series of the channel Showtime, judging by the title, claims to take place on the glade of "American Horror Story", "Salem" and "Grimm". However, in this case, the name is deceptive and it will compete more with the series “Supernatural”. Horror is not much, monsters do not have the features of fairy-tale characters. This is rather a detective about the fight against unknown creatures, which is conducted by a group of “researchers” in London at the end of the XIX century.
The series looks like a no-American. Very accurate work on costumes, hairstyles, exceptionally high quality of scenery, interiors of houses, skeletons, etc. The artists will clearly qualify for next season's Emmys. Perfectly spelled dialogue, style of behavior of the heroes. The era was recreated incredibly reliably, which in my opinion was lacking in the series "Salem", where the flaws of the interiors, costumes and dialogues were clearly striking.
And of course, the cast stands out. I fit my roles perfectly with Timothy Dalton (not at all 68 years old) and George Hornett and Eva Green. I especially liked Harry Treadaway who played Dr. Frankenstein. This is a new reading of the already shabby image. Here we see not so much a fanatic obsessed with science as a “seeker of truth” in the spirit of Faust Goethe. The character is not farcical and template, but extremely deep and tragic. Well, the Frankenstein itself also does not correspond to the template of a giant stupid Golem, but rather looks like cyborgs - androids from Blade Runner.
In general, the first series left a very pleasant impression. It’s a logical, deep enough movie. Of course, there are many vampires on the screen now, as there are many “creatures” and “horrors”. But here we see a cool, most realistic approach to the topic. I think the amateurs will like it.