Penny Dreadful Season 1, Episode 2 “Séance”
Written by John Logan
Directed by J.A. Bayona
Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on Showtime
Boy, Penny Dreadful did not wait long to get batshit crazy. It’s hard to say a pilot boasting vampires, Dr. Frankenstein, and hieroglyphics is showing restraint, but “Séance” proves it can be, an hour packed with allusions to the undead, Frankenstein’s OTHER creature (the angry one), and a completely unhinged performance by Eva Green. It might not be logical – and with the sheer amount of things this show’s packed into two episodes, might not last long – but boy, is it off to a fun start.
The episode’s first twenty minutes are pretty typical of a show’s second episode: it introduces a few other characters (what the hell is Dorian Gray doing here?) and widens the lens on what’s happening in post-Ripper London. Like most shows, it’s still a little rough around the edges – our token “old-timey prostitute” archetype isn’t quite that entertaining, and the ‘random victim dying in the opening scene’ is already getting tired – but the sheer audacity of creator/writer John Logan to throw in as many gothic literary characters as humanly possible into one show is engaging, to say the least.
With a few characters – like Hartnett’s Ethan Chandler, who is only seen in a few short scenes this week – it’s already paying huge dividends, alluding to what’s to come (see my random notes below for more on him in particular) and paying homage to classic works, all while constructing a coherent reality for this to exist in. So far, Penny Dreadful‘s tried to have cake and eat it too, indulging in the normal Blood and Boobs prequisite for cable shows, but already displaying an appreciation for the macabre without losing its human element underneath all the “holy shit, that’s Frankenstein’s First Creature!” surface appeal of the show. We may not know a ton about the things haunting Ethan, Malcolm, Vanessa, or the others, but “Séance” carefully builds the cases as to why we should care about them.
When it comes to Malcolm, “Séance” admittedly tries a little too hard: while it was a blast to watch Eva Green go absolutely cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, the way it delivers vague back story is really awkward and pointed – and worst of all, mostly nonsensical. Even after a third viewing, I wasn’t sure what to make of anything she said (he let her daughter die? He has a dead son? Someone saw him biting someone’s c*nt?), except that Malcolm’s clearly haunted by it all, haunted so badly by his failures that he’s chasing demons to find his presumably dead daughter with a woman who possibly has a demon (demons?) haunting her.
If anything, the seance scene is a great example of how off-the-wall Penny Dreadful is prepared to become on a weekly basis – certainly a hint towards how fun and confident the show already is, but something that also fails in its attempt to add emotional depth to two of its main characters (in the case of Ives, doing disservice to her when her possession causes her to bang some random guy in the alleyway behind the party they’re attending). When the show’s able to marry its darker material with its emotional centerpieces, however, it’s true potential comes to light: Victor’s intimate scenes with Proteus pick up right where the pilot left off, a series of slow, intricate scenes that display the humanity and curiosity and Victor, accentuating the supernatural elements of the show with a near-silent journey of a man returning from the dead. In an episode consumed by the ideas of death and rebirth (and vampires, the horrible combination of both, detailed by Lyle in his dissection of the hieroglyphics on the dead body), Victor’s care with Proteus as he re-learns the ways of the world (and begins to remember his old life) is far and away the show’s most affecting material so far – even more so when Proteus is destroyed from the inside by Frankenstein’s Original Creature (Rory Kinnear), completing the journey into light (at the end of the pilot) to darkness as the hour comes to a close.
Will Penny Dreadful be able to turn the momentum of two solid hours into a coherent season-long excursion into the supernatural? With all the stories and classic characters it’s throwing into the mix, it’s certainly not an easy task; however, it appears the pen of John Logan is up to the task, at least through the first two hours (and with most of its male characters; as with most young shows, the female characters need to be tweaked a bit before it falls into a cycle of dramatic cliches). If anything, it’s going to be a fun ride – whether or not it makes any sense remains to be seen.
Other thoughts/observations:
– What crimes is Ethan on the run from in the United States? We don’t have any idea, but our introduction to him in this episode certainly begs for analysis. He wakes up from sleep lying under a pier, his fingers digging into his skin so badly they leave claw marks. Claw-like marks, to be specific… could Malcolm’s comments about “man turning to beast” be an allusion to what Ethan is?
– Okay, the Dorian Gray introduction is creepy, having sex with a woman (while they’re being photographed) and she’s coughing “consumption” up all over him. One element too many? It remains to be seen.
— Randy