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Dearly Departed

Before I heard of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels it had already joined the unhappy club of shows that are cancelled after only one season. This is not necessarily an indicator of quality, as I can think of three TV series that happened to which deserved better: Firefly, GCB, and Moonlight, so I went ahead and got the one and only season.

Horror shows are not really my thing. I'll cop to being a reluctant fan of the original Penny Dreadful series, mostly due to the acting by Eva Green, Josh Hartnett and Timothy Dalton, and the stylized retelling/reimagining of so many classic monster stories. It's also adventurous at times, and always beautifully styled, kind of like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen meets Frank Langella's Dracula. Only it's nonstop depressing, and it ends very badly, hence my reluctance.

City of Angels shares two connections with the original Penny Dreadful: the two words in the title, and a couple of supernatural figures. Other than that, it's completely different. It takes place in pre-WWII Los Angeles, and loosely follows the misadventures of the first Chicano detective on the LAPD and his Jewish partner as they face off with various stereotypical characters of the time period (secret Nazis, corrupt officials, radio cult evangelists and the Mexican-American criminal element.) Add to this the monsters: Mexican folk saint Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, and her murderous demon sister (whose name I never caught if she had one) and that's the mix.

The actors in this show were phenomenal; Daniel Zovatto Blanco was stunning as the Chicano cop, and it was nice to see a lead role go to an actual Latino. I've never seen Nathan Lane do better with any role he's played; he was the quintessential hard-boiled Jewish detective. I have to say that for me Natalie Dormer gave the most impressive performance of all; she played four different characters simultaneously and nailed all of them. The support cast was likewise excellent, and some shamelessly stole every scene they were in (Brad Garrett as a Lansky-era Jewish mobster was so good I fell in love with him.)

I think the reason this show got cancelled was the storytelling, frankly. Unlike the first series the mythology is unfamiliar to 99% of Caucasians, and therefore hard to grasp (I'm ex-Catholic and I grew up with Cuban-Americans, that may be why it was a bit easier for me to follow along.) I never really got a sense of what the show writers were trying to do with the supernatural aspects, either; that part of the plot tended to be all over the place, at times focused for maybe a couple of scenes before it went trotting off in another direction. I think it is important to show how minorities are really treated in America (almost always badly and shamefully), so I appreciated the often brutal candor on that front, but the plight of the Chicanos felt forced on rather than an organic part of the story (so did the Nazis, if I'm going to be honest.)

The hardcore horror of the first series was also missing this time around, and that may be the biggest reason why the original series fans didn't show much love for this reincarnation. I didn't miss it personally; as with skin I think it's sexier to flash a little rather than put the full Monty out there. Also, both monsters weren't something anyone could really fight. One was basically the Angel of Death and the other was the Devil with a Pure Murderous Chaos chaser. Only one human character could actually see them (the Chicano cop's mom.) In the first series there always seemed to be a chance that the protagonists would win their battles with the unholy; in this one they could only show themselves resisting what seemed inevitable.

I'm not sorry I watched Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, and the actors really did a fine job, but other than that I can't say spend your money on this one and only season.

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nightsmusic said…
I think I watched the first episode of Penny Dreadful and that was it for me. There was nothing really wrong with it that I recall. I just kept missing the episodes until I was lost when I finally caught another and it didn't interest me enough to binge. But boy do I miss Moonlight! In a field of CSIs and reality shows, it was such a breath of fresh air.
December 27, 2020 at 8:56 AM
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