Penny Dreadful comes to an end. Where do we get our Victorian Gothic weirdo fix now?
Only watch this video after you’ve seen the final episode.
Is there any heroine in Victorian horror fiction or outside it who has worse taste in men than Vanessa Ives? Yet that is one of the reasons why we love her. Apart from the fact that she is portrayed by Eva Green, who is so awesome she needs no CGI. She needs no co-stars, actually, and the show acknowledged that by giving her a one-woman acting showcase every season. Though her co-stars are fabulous: the ageless Timothy Dalton, Rory Kinnear who gave the Creature a touching humanity, Harry Treadaway as the disturbed genius Frankenstein, the beautiful Josh Hartnett in a role that really suited him. Billie Piper, so grating in the first season, was great in her final scene in the third. Patti Lupone came on so strong in the second season that she was brought back as a different character in the third. As the New Yorkiest alienist (what they used to call shrinks) in London, she delivered the best dismissal of Dracula: “Fuck you.”
Tempting to campaign for a fourth season—the material has even more ways to resurrect the departed than Game of Thrones does—but this is how the creators always envisioned the end and we have to respect that. On the other hand, any of the characters could star in a spinoff…
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
June 22nd, 2016 at 14:30
Bittersweet indeed.
A reboot of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is in the works.
The Lady Trent series is in the same Victorian tone; like a humorous On The Origin of Species written by a grande dame, about her adventures with dragons.
June 22nd, 2016 at 20:18
Will miss everything about this show, particularly the conversations between Ms. Ives & the creature.
Meanwhile let’s hope this surprise series finale will not become a trend.
June 22nd, 2016 at 20:41
I’m crushed that it has ended.
I was really hoping for a renewal, and while I do think the creator envisioned this to be the end, I do believe he was somehow forced to fast-track it to this season (based on rumors – likely due to ratings) instead of a future season.
There was some opportunity for Imhotep / the Mummy for Season 4 after they dropped a tease when the fabulous Ferdinand Lyle (Simon Russell Beale) went to Cairo. Of course, that could just be wishful thinking. That, and a hope for some kind of extension to Sembene’s story (he may be dead, but that never is a problem for shows like these).
Eva Green is of course the true star of the show, and it’s no surprise that the strongest episode were Vanessa-centric: the possession episode in Season 1, the cut-wife episode in Season 2, and the white room hypnosis episode in Season 3. (It also is probably no coincidence that two of these three are basically Eva Green / Patti LuPone episodes, with the last having the orderly-future-creature Rory Kinnear).
As for a spinoff, I vote for Ethan Chandler or Ferdinand Lyle. The latter could be a fabulous Egypt-based series.
June 22nd, 2016 at 20:41
*Strongest episodes (because self-correcting my grammar is essential)
June 22nd, 2016 at 21:02
allan: Yes, Simon Russell Beale’s campy Mr Lyle was always a comforting dash of humor in the grimness.
adcaquino: I miss the show already, so I started watching it again from the series premiere.
June 22nd, 2016 at 21:38
“Never underestimate the power of a queen with lovely hair, my dear.”
June 22nd, 2016 at 23:42
The one good thing out of this for me is that I can now deliberately pace myself with viewings. I’ve barely gotten through the first series.
June 23rd, 2016 at 15:09
Awww… been meaning to bully someone into downloading the series for me.
Looks like Eva Green’s little sister — my first thought when I saw Jessica Jones. Lots of possibilities there.