Tag: Showtime

PENNY DREADFUL

Penny Dreadful, a Showtime horror TV series that is certainly lurid, melodramatic, frightening, and intriguing.

Set in London, 1891 as the world hurtles toward the 20th century; the old meets the new featuring literary horror staples: Dorian Gray, Victor Frankenstein and creations, Mina Harker, etc.

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The cast is repulsively enchanting:

Billie Piper, again as a companion of sorts (come on Doctor Who fans), also more of a Secret Diary of a Consumptive Call Girl.

Reeve Carney as oh my, Dorian Gray, a portrait of a guy who likes to have a good time, no matter what, a sort of rock star version of the endless playboy.

Timothy Dalton glowers and growls his way through, hey, I’m not complaining he does it so well.

Eva Green as the unfathomable and flexible Kill-Jill-of-all-Trades with many secrets.

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Harry Treadaway as Dr. Frankenstein, defies all that is natural by making himself some friends, literally making them.

Josh Hartnett as a handsome cowboy with a past.

Plus Rory Kinnear, Alun Armstrong, Simon Russell Beale, Alex Price, Anna Chancellor, Helen McCrory, Olivia Llewellyn and more.

John Logan (The Aviator, Rango, Skyfall, Sweeney Todd, Any Given Sunday, Star Trek: Nemesis and more) offers up his own monster in this macabre yet novel series. While this has striking similarities to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, it has a more sinister tone and not as cheesy.

I’ve only seen 2 episodes, but so far so spine-chilling.

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Penny Dreadful, also the term for garish and shocking serial stories sold in parts in bookstores during the 19th century. Each part cost a penny. As time went on, the term came to represent all sorts of poor quality, sensational fiction for the working class.

Penny Dreadful, not Penny from The Big Bang Theory or my lovely and hilarious British cousin Penny whom I would instead refer to as Penny Delightful.

“The suspense is terrible…
I hope it will last.”
~Oscar Wilde

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Posted in Televison, Uncategorized

Goodbye Dexter

Posted on by D. Parker

dexter4Dexter is sort of the Jiminy Cricket of this millennium.

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Dexter let his conscience (or Harry as his conscience) be his guide, but it was telling him to kill people. It’s an ambiguous thing, the conscience, depending on who owns it. Dexter Morgan is both hero and villain, the grey area of this show is everything. Dexter is doing all the wrong things, but for what he feels are the right reasons.

The world not only accepted a serial killer warmly into their homes, but also embraced him, worried about him, felt his pain. Why?  Maybe in some strange way his Dark Passenger made people feel a little safer in a world where bad guys often seem to win, where sometimes the police themselves are the bad guys, and where justice can seem elusive.

No spoilers. I liked the ending of the series. To me, it harkened back to the early days of Dexter. So much has happened, so much has changed and yet in the end, nothing changed.

Various macabre cast & gory guests include: dexter3

Michael C. Hall,
Jennifer Carpenter,
James Remar, Desmond Harrington,
Julie Benz, David Zayas, C.S. Lee, Aimee Garcia,Geoff Pierson, Mos Def,
Yvonne Strahovski, Erik King,
John Lithgow, Lauren Vélez,
Keith Carradine, Colin Hanks,
Edward James Olmos, Jimmy Smits, Sean Patrick Flanery, JoBeth Williams,
Peter Weller, Julia Stiles.

I can’t wait to see what Michael C. Hall does next, his acting has changed a lot since his days on Six Feet Under and even the early days of Dexter.  As he said to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, he believes actually playing the part has changed him.

So the world moves on to the next show, the next news story, and we have only blood-splattered memories…

I hope people see the point of Dexter, he’s a representation of what can be done to children, to people if they are not treated with dignity and respect…if they are damaged.

Remember the Monsters?