[Warning: General spoilers in the images, preview, and video.]
Full disclosure 1: I will watch Josh Hartnett in anything. Full disclosure 2: I’ve adored Timothy Dalton since he did this. Full disclosure 3: I have a massive girl crush on Eva Green. Full disclosure 4: I was an English Lit major. Full disclosure 5: I love a good Victorian scary story. So, I was going to watch Penny Dreadful regardless, but I’m happy to tell you that it is a balls-out bananas creepy, gory, scary monster mash up in a very good way. And best of all, because Showtime wants you to get sucked into it (and hey, subscribe to them), they’ve made the entire pilot available online now.
The plot unfolds in layers that I will not spoil for you here except to set it up with the basic elements. Hartnett plays Ethan Chandler, an American putting on Wild West tall tale shows around Europe. His prowess with firearms draws the attention of a mysterious woman (Green) who solicits him for night work. When he arrives for the job, he meets Sir Malcolm (Dalton), who would seem to be in charge. Then their evening falls completely down a very dark, terrifying, and bloody rabbit hole that puts them on the path of a young doctor (Harry Treadaway) who like to take apart the dead.
And that’s about all you need to know to dive right in. Penny Dreadful is the brainchild of John Logan, who’s done boogedy things as varied as the deliciously cheesy Bats and Tim Burton’s take on Sweeney Todd, and he wrote the last Bond film, Skyfall. He’s also had three of his screenplays nominated for Academy Awards, so he knows how to spin a tale, and he deftly weaves in and out of the highest highs and lowest lows of 19th century London society and then throws in the supernatural elements that Green’s character calls the Demimonde. The cast is solid–I love that somebody thought to put all of these people together in a series. In the second episode, Reeve Carney and Billie Piper join the fun.
You can watch the entire episode at Showtime‘s website, YouTube and IMDb/Hulu. “Night Work” premieres on Showtime at 10 pm/9c on Sunday, May 11th. Here’s a sneak peek:
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