Penny Dreadful 1.04
Jun. 4th, 2014 02:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAt last I could get my hands on the latest Penny Dreadful episode, and would you believe it, the recording ended seven minutes before the ep did. And thus I had to go and spoil myself in other reviews to find out what happened in the missing minutes.
I dimly seem to recall there was some Sawyer slash in the Lost fandom, so I expect Josh Harnett fans to be particularly happy. Me, I continue to be glad the show isn't coy about the m/m, but my problem is that I never cared about Dorian Gray in any incarnation. (Sorry, Oscar.) So Vanessa being at the very least intrigued and Ethan Chandler having sex with him doesn't do much for me beyond being glad about the lack of nudge-nudge-wink-wink coyness in favour of direct depiction, same as the m/f scenes.
This being said, the scriptwriters in this show really have done their research - the bit with the various perfumes is very Wildean, and of course if you do Dorian Gray, there needs to be a portrait, so I'm glad the very opening scene showed there is one.
There were more heavy hints about Ethan Chandler being a werewolf - not wanting to offer his blood for transfusion, his reaction to the rat fight where he clearly identified with the dog and just in case we didn't get that was attacked by the walking rats, err, English gentry afterwards -, and Sir Malcolm pointing out the not!Ripper tearing apart people in London doesn't drain them of blood. They're probably building up to a big transformation scene, and I hope their werewolf will be a good one because there have been embarassing precedents (the wolves on Buffy and on Harry Potter, film versions, come to mind; I did like the Doctor Who werewolf, though, and the ones on Being Human were okay, too, as depictions of supernatural wolves go). I also guess that the transformation will occur in the presence of either Brona (still wearing a DOOMED sign on her head) or Dorian (in which case we'll find out whether that portrait-granted immortality also covers werewolf attacks).
I was surprised that Caliban is still working at the theatre - I had assumed something tragic must have happened there between the last flashback and the present, but evidently not (yet) - which offers the show the chance not only to let various ensemble characters be at the same place at the same time but also show us all the backstage work for a Victorian melodrama, and I must admit that was incredibly charming - as were Caliban's delight and the audience reaction. I expect showing us in detail the backstage will be a Chekovian gun, though, since Caliban isn't just the Creature but also the Phantom. *eyes that chandelier*
Meanwhile, relations start to form within the group, and it amuses me that Victor is jealous that Sir Malcom would take Ethan on his hypothetical trip to find the sources of the Nile, and not him. Sir Malcom basically replying with "Ethan is the muscle but you totes remind me of my dead son" was interesting - and not the only time he compared a person of the not so named league with one of his children. We finally find out more about him and Vanessa when they realise Mina appearing to them and giving them information wasn't designed to help them rescue her but setting a trap for them. At which point it turns out that they're both guilt tripping about Mina (we only knew Sir Malcolm was before), Vanessa because she betrayed Mina (once, only once, she insists) and Sir Malcom for neglecting her "her entire life". And that's when we get "you are the daughter I deserve", spoken as an accusation and in self loathing, which is my kind of messed up. More, please!
Vanessa gets referred to as "mother" by the not!Renfield Fenton - and we get our very first glimpse at the Übervampire who looks like Nosferatu, not like Bela Lugosi; given that nobody uses the word "vampire" so far, even when discussing drinking blood, plus there's that Egyptian origin story, my guess is that he will be called Nosferatu on the show, too, not Dracula. Now, "mother of us all" plus the Egyptian myth told by Simon Russel Beale's character about the world ending if the two Egyptian deities, male and female, in said myth unite, plus her connection the spirit world which however she can't quite control all seem to tell us that Vanessa is most likely a (re)incarnation of the Egyptian goddess named last episode, and that's why Not!Dracula who is also the Egyptian god wants her. Alternatively, Vanessa is a walking mummy, not just because of the bad pun with mother but because that's the established horror film creature still missing. Would cover her effect on the insects, too. In that case, she's not yet the Egyptian goddess but could become her if the villain gets his way; since Egyptian mummies in horror movies are all either priests or princesses (nobody seems to reawaken a gardener's mummy!), Vanessa was probably a priestess who broke her vows and thus is cursed to walk the earth, or something like that. You heard it here first.
Lastly: I thought last episode Victor had refused to create a Bride, so I was surprised he and Caliban were talking about him having agreed to do it. Apparantly my English isn't as fluent as I thought.
I dimly seem to recall there was some Sawyer slash in the Lost fandom, so I expect Josh Harnett fans to be particularly happy. Me, I continue to be glad the show isn't coy about the m/m, but my problem is that I never cared about Dorian Gray in any incarnation. (Sorry, Oscar.) So Vanessa being at the very least intrigued and Ethan Chandler having sex with him doesn't do much for me beyond being glad about the lack of nudge-nudge-wink-wink coyness in favour of direct depiction, same as the m/f scenes.
This being said, the scriptwriters in this show really have done their research - the bit with the various perfumes is very Wildean, and of course if you do Dorian Gray, there needs to be a portrait, so I'm glad the very opening scene showed there is one.
There were more heavy hints about Ethan Chandler being a werewolf - not wanting to offer his blood for transfusion, his reaction to the rat fight where he clearly identified with the dog and just in case we didn't get that was attacked by the walking rats, err, English gentry afterwards -, and Sir Malcolm pointing out the not!Ripper tearing apart people in London doesn't drain them of blood. They're probably building up to a big transformation scene, and I hope their werewolf will be a good one because there have been embarassing precedents (the wolves on Buffy and on Harry Potter, film versions, come to mind; I did like the Doctor Who werewolf, though, and the ones on Being Human were okay, too, as depictions of supernatural wolves go). I also guess that the transformation will occur in the presence of either Brona (still wearing a DOOMED sign on her head) or Dorian (in which case we'll find out whether that portrait-granted immortality also covers werewolf attacks).
I was surprised that Caliban is still working at the theatre - I had assumed something tragic must have happened there between the last flashback and the present, but evidently not (yet) - which offers the show the chance not only to let various ensemble characters be at the same place at the same time but also show us all the backstage work for a Victorian melodrama, and I must admit that was incredibly charming - as were Caliban's delight and the audience reaction. I expect showing us in detail the backstage will be a Chekovian gun, though, since Caliban isn't just the Creature but also the Phantom. *eyes that chandelier*
Meanwhile, relations start to form within the group, and it amuses me that Victor is jealous that Sir Malcom would take Ethan on his hypothetical trip to find the sources of the Nile, and not him. Sir Malcom basically replying with "Ethan is the muscle but you totes remind me of my dead son" was interesting - and not the only time he compared a person of the not so named league with one of his children. We finally find out more about him and Vanessa when they realise Mina appearing to them and giving them information wasn't designed to help them rescue her but setting a trap for them. At which point it turns out that they're both guilt tripping about Mina (we only knew Sir Malcolm was before), Vanessa because she betrayed Mina (once, only once, she insists) and Sir Malcom for neglecting her "her entire life". And that's when we get "you are the daughter I deserve", spoken as an accusation and in self loathing, which is my kind of messed up. More, please!
Vanessa gets referred to as "mother" by the not!Renfield Fenton - and we get our very first glimpse at the Übervampire who looks like Nosferatu, not like Bela Lugosi; given that nobody uses the word "vampire" so far, even when discussing drinking blood, plus there's that Egyptian origin story, my guess is that he will be called Nosferatu on the show, too, not Dracula. Now, "mother of us all" plus the Egyptian myth told by Simon Russel Beale's character about the world ending if the two Egyptian deities, male and female, in said myth unite, plus her connection the spirit world which however she can't quite control all seem to tell us that Vanessa is most likely a (re)incarnation of the Egyptian goddess named last episode, and that's why Not!Dracula who is also the Egyptian god wants her. Alternatively, Vanessa is a walking mummy, not just because of the bad pun with mother but because that's the established horror film creature still missing. Would cover her effect on the insects, too. In that case, she's not yet the Egyptian goddess but could become her if the villain gets his way; since Egyptian mummies in horror movies are all either priests or princesses (nobody seems to reawaken a gardener's mummy!), Vanessa was probably a priestess who broke her vows and thus is cursed to walk the earth, or something like that. You heard it here first.
Lastly: I thought last episode Victor had refused to create a Bride, so I was surprised he and Caliban were talking about him having agreed to do it. Apparantly my English isn't as fluent as I thought.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 05:37 pm (UTC)Possibly you're thinking of Josh Holloway, who was Sawyer on Lost? Josh Hartnett was never on that show, but apparently Tumblr is well pleased with the slashy developments.
I expect showing us in detail the backstage will be a Chekovian gun, though, since Caliban isn't just the Creature but also the Phantom. *eyes that chandelier*
A chandelier in a Phantom homage ALWAYS FALLS. That thing's coming down, probably when the first attempt to make a Bride goes wrong.
Alternatively, Vanessa is a walking mummy, not just because of the bad pun with mother but because that's the established horror film creature still missing.
OH! OH THAT WOULD BE EXCELLENT. I was kind of wondering where they could shoehorn that in (along with my deep and desperate wish for Spring Heeled Jack and Sweeney Todd), and that would work with the Egyptian mythos floating about and Vanessa's connection with spiders.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-04 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-10 11:55 pm (UTC)