The plot synopsis for Penny Dreadful makes it sound like a cross between Ripper Street and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; an experiment in interbred Victoriana which could go either way. Showtime’s new series paints a suitably grimy portrait of Victorian London’s supernatural underbelly, where fouler things than Jack the Ripper roam the dark streets and reanimated corpses languish in candle-lit attics. The first episode introduces us to monster-hunters Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton), as they recruit Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett), an American showman with a murky past, to join them in their crusade against a Vampiric menace that’s been terrorising the city. Along with a certain infamous doctor (Harry Treadaway), the trio begin to show the makings of a fledgling team, but before the first episode’s even over their own dark secrets are threatening to tear them apart.
It’s no spoiler to say that a sprinkling of characters from Victorian fiction will be making appearances in Penny Dreadful (marketing for the show has been keen to emphasise it), and so the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comparison seems an apt one. The good news is that, in terms of quality, the show is much closer to Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s original comic than Stephen Norrington’s justly-maligned 2003 film version. Instead of simply assembling a cast of oddball characters and throwing them into a series of action sequences in a period setting, Penny Dreadful takes its time to introduce the main players, and to hint at their complex motivations. There’s really only one action set-piece in the whole of the first episode, during which we share Ethan Chandler’s sense of shock and disorientation as he makes his first foray into a darker, stranger world. Much of the rest of the running time is given over to cultivating a sense of creeping dread, punctuated with a few genuinely chilling moments. A vampire nest’s connection to ancient Egypt, Murray’s quest for his lost daughter and Ives’ past indiscretions are all mysteries which show promise of developing into compelling plot threads as the series progresses.
In keeping with its lurid namesakes, Penny Dreadful doesn’t flinch from gory spectacle, with a graphically dismembered corpse and buckets of blood gracing the first episode, but there’s also a sophistication to its production that raises the show above schlocky exploitation. Big-budget TV has become an attractive medium in recent years for serious Hollywood acting talent, with shows like True Detective, Hannibal and Fargo boasting some very big names. Penny Dreadful follows this trend, featuring solid performances from all three leads, and it’s good to see Dalton (obviously the best James Bond) in particular getting some serious screen time again. In addition, Sam Mendes’ executive director credit lends the show further artistic credibility, and despite there being room for improvement in J.A. Bayona’s (The Orphanage) uncharacteristically pedestrian direction, on the basis of its first episode Penny Dreadful shows an awful lot of promise.
Penny Dreadful airs on Sky Atlantic from Tuesday 20th May
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