Penny
Dreadful Season Three a Disappointing Finale
by
Kristin Battestella
I
loved me some Penny
Dreadful.
Previously, I watched the First Two seasons twice or more before
writing my reviews a few months after I had simmered in the immersion
of all things sophisticated Victorian macabre. I re-watched the
entire series again when finishing this obviously late review, but
Season Three's still blindsiding finale and haphazard resolution of
the series undermines the glorious potential that was yet to be found
in Penny Dreadful.
Year
Three hits the ground running with some delightful circumstances in
“The Day Tennyson Died.” Our quirky little family of evil
fighters – Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy
Dalton), Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett), Victor Frankenstein (Harry
Treadaway), and His Monster (Rory Kinnear) – is scattered about the
globe from London to the Old West and Africa to the frozen north.
Their townhouse base is shabby with covered furniture and piled mail
before the titular solemn and lovely poetic references reconnect old
friends with tenderness and sympathy. After all they've been through,
those in London are allowed to stew and cry – unlike the
unforgiving railroad and lawless land of the New Mexico Territory.
Though blindingly bright compared to the British bleak, there's an
underlying ominous to the witches and werewolves among the lawmen.
Letters from Africa with burials made right also find Chiricahua
Indians in the most unlikely Zanzibar alley while faraway frozen
trawlers debate cannibalism and melodies remind monsters of when they
were men. Famous names face racism at Bedlam as pale minions with
anemia excuses lurk. Penny Dreadful has
a lot to do but does it with superb conversations, new allies,
and bloody vignettes. “Predators Far and Near” adds vintage
photography, jurisdiction technicalities, a modified barber's chair
for experimenting on patients, and fear of the gramophone cylinders
recording one's sin. Therapy confessions recount prior indiscretions,
but the prescription for godless loneliness is doing something
innocent and happy no matter how small. Women
debate on light and dark souls while men bond over their love of
daughters and a son not birthed to them but bound with their
suffering. Talbot family history, ritual chanting, and colorful
vision quests counter the sophisticated Victorian science lectures
and whimsical memories of adventures the likes of 20,000 Leagues
under the Sea. Unfortunately,
our dreadfuls are more familiar with lunatics and monsters rather
than childhood heroes, with Jekyll and Hyde-esque transformations on
crazed victims, deceptively charming courtships, a wise Apache woman
reminiscent of the fortune teller in The Wolf Man, and
a desert full moon to aide one's bone cracking escape.
Unholy
alliances between witches and the Wolf of God continue in “Good and
Evil Braided Be.” Is it the beast or angel, good or evil that's the
real persona? Does the mind create phantoms and demons to explain the
darkness and pain? Do you bury the animal inside or unleash it?
Between the werewolf curse, divided locales, tug and pull father
figures, and hints of Hyde, Penny Dreadful creates
superb dual themes alongside several racial moments and of the
time derogatory Native American comments. Sophisticated light and
dark visuals and good and evil motifs are interwoven against
crudeness, triumphing over those who define what's black and white or
right and wrong solely based upon skin tone rather than soul. The
audience isn't hit on the head with the social commentary, but one
scene beautifully addresses the sadly still lingering attitudes
upfront. New, risky hypnosis techniques further retrace past darkness
and despair in Episode Four “A Blade of Grass.” Memories and
present offices blur in a dreamy act with current doctors and
familiar faces in unexpected places uncovering new revelations of a
forgotten padded white room. In camera foregrounds and backgrounds
accent the confined or expanded four walls as needed with overhead
views, zooms, face to face close ups, and wide angle warped. Finite
descriptions of precious few details, amplified sounds, and demon
shadows match the kindness of an orderly or the evils that await.
Precious blankets are taken away amid growling, crying, straight
jackets, and water torture. Can God find you in a place like this or
are you alone? Our patient fears the evil within and wants to die
over the betrayals and sins committed, yet the tender bonding with
her jailer turned poetic advocate provides an unlikely compassion.
Whether you can face yourself in the mirror or not, these fugue state
manifestations overcome evil with the truth at Christmas in one
excellent parable. The least amount of effects, minimal characters,
and few locales leave nothing but the emotion and anguish upon their
faces. It's divine, just everything television should be and perhaps
the best episode of the entire series.
And
then, somehow, Penny
Dreadful went
to shit.
Series
writer and creator John Logan hands Penny
Dreadful over
to new writers mid season – a maneuver suggesting a viable
transition rather than leaving unknowns to resolve your planned
finale with rushed characters and compressed stories. Andrew
Hinderaker (Pure
Genius)
pens “This World Is
Our Hell” with The West as a barren purgatory full of symbolic
multi-layered pursuits on who the righteous should save or whom the
evil would kill. Water is scarce among the grave sins and shame worn
as redemption; forgiveness versus temptation comes in revealing
fireside chats recounting past ambushes and the difficulty of serving
multiple masters – fathers, duty, Lucifer. Unfortunately, these
lofty topics are undone by nonsensical mysticism. Witches can summon
snakes to conveniently wipe out pursuers but cannot heal injured
mounts or conjure water and dying people somehow have enough energy
for awkward evil sex after days of thirst. The Victorian mad science
and desert shootouts jar in an anchor-less back and forth when the
confrontations between our converging father figures are more
interesting. Lengthy exposition on past horrors feels odd in a series
that often shows rather than tells. Why not have an entire Talbot
past hour the way “Closer than Sisters” showed us how Penny
Dreadful really
began? Otherwise the audience is left confused over who's really at
fault for the faithful turning evil. It was Ethan's dad's fault for
making it the army's fault who made the Apaches to blame??? Penny
Dreadful
always had pacing issues and uneven characters, but this Old West
excursion could have ditched the dead weight characters and been back
to London in half the time. I don't think it is necessarily
Hinderaker and newcomer Krysty Wilson-Cairns' fault, but “No Beast
So Fierce” throws even more at the screen with too
many threads regarding who's evil or who's the law amid busy
shootouts, vampire minions, Bedlam serums, how to kill a man
tutorials, Egyptian wonders unrealized, and new steampunk
introductions. What's
supposed to be important – monsters
being kind to sick children or sassy sword wielding new characters?
If the key to defeating evil is holding fast to loved ones, why has
our family been apart all season? Perhaps one writer should have been
responsible for one set of characters the entire year, as Dracula's
apparently content to wait out the cowboy adventure while other
isolated and aimless immortal plans go round and round and pull Penny
Dreadful
apart at the seams.
Penny
Dreadful has an innate
melancholy – cemeteries, grave digging, mourning shrouds –
but the dark romance is used for unnecessary preachy in “Ebb Tide.”
Separated characters finally meet, but one knock on the door and a
brief scene reconciling the past and present is not enough. Friends
that could fill this empty manor and fight the bloodshed are pushed
away while our team in the West doesn't heed ancestral warnings.
Despite insisting London is home, characters remain obstinate just
for the sake of creating drama, leading to contrived betrayals and
more speeches begging for the fast forward button. Touching
conversations on who will bury whom are interwoven with weaker plots,
straying from the core and repeating exposition we already know.
Visions unite players who have been apart but such mystic
conversations and wisdom on rescuing one another from darkness should
have happened much sooner – two episodes ago, nobody cared. Krysty
Wilson-Cairns writes the quick at forty-three minutes “Perpetual
Night,” and it's the shortest episode of Penny Dreadful when
the series desperately needed more time. The boys rush back to
Londontown amid foggy cityscapes, morbid voiceovers, tasty frogs
multiplying, and rats amok. Dead wolves and toothy minions everywhere
require swift blade work and fireplace pokers to stave off vampire
infections – but no one thought to call Dr. Frankenstein away from
Bedlam's dungeon when people are said to be dying by the thousands?
Penny Dreadful bites
off more than it can chew, takes too long to achieve what matters,
and spits out the excess when there's no time left. Ironically, the
“The Blessed Dark” finale also delays, saving choice moments with
its stars rather than going full tilt with the dream hazy, bodies on
hooks, and bats as sad lullabies over the special credits recap the
sad state of our separate characters. It's very exciting to see the
reunions and werewolves fighting vampires in true monster mash up
fashion as it should be – Dr. Jekyll passes by as Dr. Seward
hypnotizes Renfield! As a season finale, this hour provides closing
moments on some toiling plots. However, as a series finale, it barely
resolves anything. Brief mentions on her destiny, his destiny, and
previous prophecies don't make sense anymore, and Victor literally
bumps into the gang at Bedlam. The
team is together again by accident! Major
moments with his monsters earn one scene each, and none of those
super strong immortals join the End of the DaysTM battle.
Instead, bad ass walking down the street filler and a few
ridiculously outnumbered pistols struggle with conveniently confusing
action choreography. Bitter ties to the First Season become
unrealized tangents, and new characters are inexplicably more
steadfast than our original crew. Four episodes ago, life was worth
fighting for but now isolated characters give up because the script
says they should in a one hundred and eighty degree turn that's
painful to see end this way.
Vanessa
Ives begins alone, a recluse living in squalor before rising thanks
to words and wits with her therapist. Eva Green's heroine cleans up
and humbly restores the manor. Despite losing her faith, Vanessa is
inspired by Joan of Arc's confidence and says she will remain
resolute. Oddly, she doesn't seem as psychic or intuitive anymore and
fails to recognize evil tendencies she previously pegged so astutely.
It's sad to see Vanessa open herself, revisiting innocent things that
make her happy or having a man's company once again end in terror.
She's willingly hypnotized to face her repressed psychiatry
treatment, addressing her past doubts, regrets, and battles with
Lucifer. “A Blade of Grass” shows her at rock bottom before a ray
of hope and renewed prayers – if you believe in evil, then you must
believe God is there to defeat it. Unfortunately, Penny Dreadful
squanders the Lucifer
issues, fast tracks Dracula, and circumvents Vanessa's body and soul
versus the fallen brothers with a past event cheating viewers out of
a current victory. Vanessa can sense and see Kaetenay when the plot
says so, but her lack of psychosexual possession and failed insights
inexplicably have her give up despite knowing overdue help is on the
way. Green saves this sloppy writing and deserved more hardware for
Penny Dreadful. I don't blame her if she recognized the tone
had changed and was ready to depart. The series could have continued
in searching for an evil Vanessa as an absent lead a la Blake's 7
rather than two scenes with bad
girl red eye shadow trying to make up for rushing to resolve
Vanessa's story. Josh Hartnett's Ethan “Lawrence Talbot”
Chandler is also not only reluctant to see his real father, but he's
angry at being adopted as Kaetenay's Apache son. Ethan knows there is
blood on his teeth and his soul deserving of punishment and wears his
guilt on his sleeve. Unfortunately, his history comes from three
different sources – so for all this New Mexico excursion, we don't
get a clear picture. The Wolf of God also spends about fifteen
minutes being evil, standing up for Hecate over Malcolm because he
won't repent and belongs in hell. Ethan speaks evil prayers at the
dinner table, but isn't this the guy who's Latin single-handedly
exorcised Vanessa? His reciting of the Lord's Prayer in the finale
feels hollow thanks to his satanic reversal just a few episodes
earlier. Was Ethan's western escapade and Vanessa's evil each meant
to be it's own season storyline? They both have a scene or two of
darkness, and one moment in the finale doesn't make up for Ethan's
back and forth. Meanwhile, Sarah Greene as Hecate travels in white,
an unassuming Gibson girl who loves horses and animals but loathes
people. She wants to be evil beside Ethan, but her powers are both
handy or nonsense as needed. Hecate kills unnecessary to teach him a
lesson and lingers too long in this uneven capacity – crowding an
already busy Penny Dreadful while
not being a character in her own right. The English Sean Glider
(Hornblower) may be an
unusual choice as a U.S. Marshall, but his crusty ways balance the
British tidiness of Douglas Hodge as Inspector Rusk as they pursue
Our Mr. Talbot. Rusk may ask for tea in the bar car and insist
Scotland Yard Inspectors do not carry firearms, but he doesn't
underestimate the ruthless West. He begins to believe the Occult upon
his case and does take up more violence as the blood on their path
increases – before a thankless end, of course.
The
beard is back for Timothy Dalton as Sir Malcolm, and even if he
doesn't know all the details, he's ready to respect Wes Studi's
(Geronimo: An American Legend) Chiricahua Kaetenay if it will
help save Ethan. Like an oasis in white in the mostly unlikely place,
it's wonderful when Malcolm and Ethan finally meet up for some
shootout action. However, Malcolm really doesn't have a whole lot to
do this season beyond listening to Kaetenay. Most of his dialogue is
responsive filler, and even before the surprise series finale, I
suspected Dalton would not be returning for Season Four. You don't
keep a talented name without giving him quality writing, and Malcolm
ends up repeating the same plot. Chasing after lost lamb Ethan,
fighting a vampire to rescue Vanessa – he's again saving his family
even as his travels keep him from his home and any relationship with
Victor. Malcolm could have returned to London post-Africa, maybe to
meet Catriona sooner or dislike Dr. Sweet, as it's a disservice to
reduce him to little more than Kaetenay's sidekick. That said, yes
please to more of Studi's set in his ways Apache. He still scalps
because old habits die hard, but he doesn't drink and believes one
can't die until his purpose is served. Granted, Penny Dreadful is
trading the mystical negro trope for the mystical Apache
stereotype, but the moonlight visions and enigmatic destiny talk tie
the blood, suffering, and wolves together. Kaetenay pushes on after
Ethan no matter what – he and his people have endured much but he's
prepared to face this darkness over London. There should have been
more time for his revelations, and Penny Dreadful only
makes use of Kaetenay when needed. It takes seven episodes for Ethan
to heed his warnings about what is to come, and he should have
mystically connected with Vanessa from the start. As Ethan's father,
Brian Cox (Coriolanus) also has some great one on one's
with Malcolm. They are wonderfully alike, right down to the conquest
map on Jared Talbot's wall, the mountains named after him, and an
empty home as the cost. However, a boat load of family history that
Ethan already knows is repeatedly told rather than seen, leaving
Talbot Senior unevenly written with sorrowful or crazed exposition
amid one gunshot and stand off after another. Had we seen the first
terrible shootout that has him so angry, then this second battle in
his ranch chapel would have had much more meaning. Kaetenay provided
connecting visions when necessary, so why not have some kind of
mystic Talbot dream that showed the betrayals and horrors causing all
this pain?
Fortunately,
Rory Kinnear's Creature aka Caliban aka John Clare has some superb
redemption on Penny Dreadful. He
won't harm a dying cabin boy, recalls more about who he was,
and realizes who he may yet be after touching moments in the Fourth
and Fifth episodes showing his life before his death and
resurrection. He is again at the window or in the eaves, on the
outside peering in on those that think he is dead. The Creature risks
rejection and reaches out despite the pain, blossoming from being an
angry violent child to almost the man he used to be. His resurrection
allows Caliban to find his family – only to loose it again thanks
to innocence versus the unnatural. This season, Clare is almost
totally separate from everyone else, alone on this sympathetic
journey beyond too brief moments with Vanessa, erroneously on the
fringe without even seeing Dr. Frankenstein. He may piece together
his past, but not enough was done with the connection between Vanessa
and the Creature. She recognizes him, but not him her, and Penny
Dreadful cops out by resolving their past in a flashback. Again,
just because we the audience saw it does not mean the characters
themselves received any current resolution. Why didn't Caliban ever
knock on Malcolm's door? He would have been welcome in this misfit
family dang nabbit! Reeve Carney's Dorian Gray and Billie Piper's
Brona cum Lily Frankenstein, however, should have stayed home. By
his very nature, Dorian is a supporting character that never changes.
They aren't missed when absent but Penny Dreadful uses
him and Lily to shoehorn in some kind of modern feminism vengeance
that goes nowhere fast with repetitive, ad nauseam speeches.
Whether it is justified man hate or not, the appearance of Jessica
Barden (The End of the F***ing World) as Justine perhaps a la
the de Sade wastes time with back alley torture, nudity, and bloody
threesomes. The warped justice is all over the place with even less
to do Dorian getting stabbed for funsies before he gets bored from
having seen such depravity already. Episodes grind to a halt with
their round and round male behavior psychoanalysis, briefly tossing
in suffragettes and violence that makes them just as bad as the
abusers from who they claim to rescue women. Penny Dreadful has
done better psychosexual themes, and compared to Caliban's
soul searching, Lily realizes her humanity too late in one great
soliloquy that should happened the moment she was reborn, and Ethan
never finds out
Brona has been resurrected!!!!
Harry
Treadaway's junkie Victor Frankenstein becomes a mopey little piss
ant bent on proving his superior science can conquer death,
and he arrogantly thinks he can perfect on Jekyll's methods. Maybe
there's a parallel between his wanting to create angels instead of
monsters and Lily's superior woman army, but their uneven storylines
barely intersect beyond a few redundant stalker scenes and never
factor into other plots. Victor goes about getting Lily back in the
worst way possible, becoming like his originally angry Creature in a
fitting poetic justice. He's deluded in thinking Lily owes him
anything, and it should be a great destructive character arc.
However, rather than having him freaking call on Vanessa while they
are both in London twiddling their thumbs, Penny Dreadful treats
Frankenstein as an afterthought before one last lesson on how
to be a human rather than the monster. One poetic voiceover from
Victor such as, “Sir Malcolm, I hesitate to confess it now, but I
must inform you I have a singular talent for defeating death as we
know it...” could have ended Penny Dreadful in
a uniquely twisted vein. Sadder still is that Shazad Latif
(Mi-5) as Dr. Jekyll
somehow turns into a handing Victor the scalpel lackey. He has
history with Dr. F. – roommates and dare I say something more –
and faces much “half breed” Victorian racism. Jekyll despises his
white father but wants his acclaim and title to help prove his serum
on anger and duality. Simply put, there is no way he was intended as
a throwaway character and we deserved to know him more. Although
scheduling conflicts necessitated the departure of Simon Russell
Beale as Mr. Lyle, his being written off as going on assignment to
Egypt just begs to be told! Did everyone forget all the prophecies on
Amunet and Lucifer or the hieroglyphics carved onto the vampire
bodies? Of all the friends still about London who never bother to
visit, it's Lyle who draws Vanessa out and into therapy because
thanks to his closeted sexuality, he understands what it is like to
be unique and alone. Of course, he might have mentioned
Perdita Weeks' (The Tudors) thanatologist Catriona Hartdegen
when they were studying all that Fallen Angel and Mother of Evil
stuff. She's a woman of occult science fencing and wearing pants who
doesn't blink at the thought of Dracula being in London. Her one on
one scenes with Vanessa are well done with possible replacement or
lover vibes, “It's 'Cat' for you, as in cat o' nine tails.'”
Wink! She calls Malcolm “Sir M” and I would have liked to see
more of them together, but Catriona's style provides a steampunk cum
The Time Machine and albeit
meaningless potential. Her cool fighting skills are ultimately
convenient and inexplicable – if we weren't going to learn more
then all these superfluous characters should have never been
introduced.
We
are however given some divine new characters with Patti LuPone
returning to Penny Dreadful as Dr. Florence Seward – an
alienist said to have distant Clayton ancestry due to her resemblance
to LuPone's previous cut-wife role. Though rigid and progressive,
Seward is there to heal the ill, who aren't bad or unworthy, just
ill. She calls out every politeness or mannerism, pegging Vanessa's
loss, isolation, and depression in delicious two-hander scenes with
award worthy dialogue and delivery. A moving session recounting
Vanessa's tale, however, makes the doctor strike up a cigarette. She
refuses to believe the paranormal causes or that vampires are after
her patient, but she does understand pain and has some murderous
history of her own. Samuel Barnett's (Dirk Gently's Holistic
Detective Agency) seemingly innocent Renfield is Dr. Seward's
secretary, but his red light district cruising leads to bloody
encounters and insect snacks. Where Penny Dreadful initially
had to dance around the Stoker limitations, these superb character
interpretations deserved more than this season's rushed attention.
Christian Camargo (Dexter)
as zoologist and charming widower Alexander Sweet is a man smitten
using rapid fire science references to woo Vanessa, but his reveal as
Dracula is too darn early. This romance seemed so happy and Sweet is
almost empathetic, but evil lurks in the House of Mirrors of all
places! He doesn't want Vanessa's submission, just to be seduced by
she, the Mother of Evil and serve her. Sadly, unraveling toppers
instead go unresolved. After admitting he was directly responsible
for Mina's demise and all of Season One, Penny Dreadful
lets Dracula exit stage right
and we aren't supposed to notice? What is worth noticing are
the trains, dime western action, and steampunky flair alongside our
usual penny blood, gore, buzzing flies, broken necks, and bat
silhouettes. The cobwebbed and boarded manor opens the windows and
clears the dust as the camera focuses on the period touches –
vintage motion picture cameras, spectacles, brandy decanters, nibs,
and ledgers contrast the hay, canteens, wagons, saw dust, and Native
American motifs. The fashions are a little more modern, but the
museums, taxidermy, skeletons, and specimens in jars invoke Victorian
sciences amid the carriages, cobblestone, and tolling bells. Although
some CGI backgrounds are apparent with a foreground actor and fakery
behind, the desert vistas, mountains, and ranch compounds create
bright lighting schemes to contrast the British grays, developing a
unique style like nothing else on television.
Unfortunately,
with NBC's Dracula long gone, Crimson Peak's less
than stellar box office, and Penny lost too soon, the
promise of more Victorian horror and a new dark romanticism appears
short-lived. Whether the cast or Logan wanted to depart or Showtime
disliked the production expenses, something behind the scenes was the
final nail in Penny Dreadful's coffin. The two hour finale
burned off the last episodes yet advertising promoting the event as a
season finale later backtracked with the series' fate. More
merchandising opportunities never seemed capitalized upon, and there
was little award campaigning. Having had Season One available on
other streaming platforms might have helped the show find more
audiences, however Penny Dreadful wasn't
available on Netflix until after its cancellation in a tidy Three
Season binge package. The series' props have been auctioned
off, so it appears no one shopped Penny Dreadful to
any other networks. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but in late
2015 while this Third Year was filming was also when Tom Cruise swept
in to take over The Mummy and start Universal's highly
anticipated but ultimately D.O.A. Dark Universe monster revival. Did
somebody squash the competition? Maybe it isn't as simple as that,
but I will always be skeptical of Logan and Showtime's he said/she
said claiming that this was always how Penny Dreadful was
supposed to end. With new locales and more colorful literary
characters among our beloved team, why couldn't Penny Dreadful
sustain itself? Previously, one could overlook any small
inconsistencies because the sophisticated scares and morose
design far outweighed any negatives. This season, however, becomes a
chore to continue and is best left at Episode Four. After finishing
Dexter and losing interest in Homeland and Ray
Donovan, we've canceled our Showtime subscription since Penny
is no more. There were
other ways to do Penny Dreadful justice
than this, well, what seems like internal sabotage, but gothic
viewers shouldn't let this rushed Season Three dampen what has
otherwise been a stellar and macabre program.
