PENNY DREADFUL: GOTHIC SUPER-TEAM-UP

 Along with my older brother, I recently re-watched episodes 1 and 2 of Penny Dreadful, a TV horror series from 2014.

Rated 18, its quite gory, hence the age limit.

Its the story and in particular the characters that have me intrigued. Its like a Universal Studio monster reunion!

There's Mina, a werewolf, vampires, Frankenstein and his monster and a baronial fellow rather like Van Helsing. There's a sharpshooter too.

Set in foggy 19th Century London, the monster action takes place whilst Jack the Ripper is about and a demonical quest is afoot with Eva Green's sensational Mina and one-time James Bond Timothy Dalton's superb aristocrat at the helm. Josh Hartnet is the gunslinger and Billy Piper the tavern moll. Dorian Gray adds further weirdness.

The séance scene alone was astonishing.

This literary mashup reminds me greatly of the 2003 adventure movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

Described as a steampunk rendition of a well-known comic series, League was largely panned at the time I for one enjoyed it, largely because it brought together a ragtag of monsters and famous characters. Alan Quartermain, played by James Bond himself, Sean Connery, Tom Sawyer - a Secret Service agent, Captain Nemo, Dr, Jekyll, Dorian Gray and Mina.

These last two characters above all connect this flick to Penny Dreadful. Both are in the public domain as may well be other characters in both.

Many of the characters have literary lives elsewhere. Tom Sawyer featured as a detective in one of Twain's novels in 1897 and Alan Quartermain is the leading man in both King Solomons Mines, 1887, and The Lost City of Gold among others by H. Rider Haggard.

Its worth noting that the Granddaddy of Horror itself, Dracula by Bram Stoker [1897] contained a sort of super league and perhaps the very first one. Besides Count Dracula, theres Jonathan Harker the solicitor, Mina Murray his fiancée, Jack Seward the doctor, Quincey Morris the Texan gunslinger, Arthur Holmwood or Lord Godalming and of course, Professor Abraham Van Helsing, the Dutch vampire-hunter.

Here's the male cast from the 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula.

With all this extraordinariness in mind, I'm looking forward to the rest of Season 1 of Penny Dreadful.

Have you seen it readers?