Underplayed Gems

Penny Dreadful (2014)

Penny Dreadful poster
Directed by
J. A. Bayona
Genre
drama television series, horror television series, fantasy television series, thriller television series, LGBT-related television series, werewolf television program
Country
United Kingdom, United States
Length
3 seasons, 27 episodes
Rated
TV-MA
Rating
7.8 of 10 from 1,528 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

In 19th-century London, a group of people with hidden connections and occult interests confront supernatural threats. The show blends characters from classic Victorian horror stories.

gothicdarkmoodyslow-burnatmosphericbroodinghauntingvisceral

What happens

Penny Dreadful is a horror drama television series created for Showtime and Sky by John Logan, who also acts as executive producer alongside Sam Mendes. The show was originally pitched to several American and British channels, and eventually landed with Showtime, with Sky Atlantic as co-producer. It premiered at the South by Southwest film festival on March 9 and began airing on television on April 28, 2014, on Showtime on Demand. The series premiered on Showtime in the United States on May 11, 2014, and on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2014. After the third-season finale on June 19, 2016, series creator John Logan announced that Penny Dreadful had ended as the main story had reached its conclusion. The title refers to the penny dreadfuls, a type of 19th-century British fiction publication with lurid and sensational subject matter. The series draws upon many public domain characters from 19th-century Victorian Gothic fiction, including Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray; Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, John Seward, Renfield, and Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's Dracula; Victor Frankenstein and his monster from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; and Henry Jekyll from Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, showing their origin stories as an explorer searches for his daughter. Justine from Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue by the Marquis de Sade also appears. A spin-off series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, aired from April 26 to June 28, 2020. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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