What I Saw: Penny Dreadful, Season 2; Orphan Black, Season 3
A big bag of Good Trash TV is back. Must be Spring cleaning to bring so many good shows back this time of the year.
I was hooked on Penny Dreadful last year. I watched after the first season was over because I had nothing else to watch. I didn't think that it would be any good, but I was wrong.
It takes place in 1890's London and is probably, but not to a suing level of probability, based upon the comic series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore. Like The League, a group of paranormal and supernatural and mythical, mystical people come together to fight evil for the life and soul of an innocent maiden. The show has excellent production values and writing and atmosphere.
Timothy Dalton plays the leader of the group. He is an educated gentleman explorer who lost his son on an expediton to Africa. Just what happened to his son was beyond the usual death by the usual African diseases of the body. And now his daughter is in peril (Season 1).
Eva Green plays the best friend of his daughter and former neighbor of the family. She has got a bit of the devil in her. No exorcism has removed the devil. The character hangs between good and evil and can see both sides.
Dr. Frankenstein, the same actor is making a career of playing scientific types, he was a scientist on Fortitude, appears with his Monster who is importunate and very verbal.
Josh Hartnet re-appears from Hollywood exile as a sharp shooter in an Old West Show on tour of England and the continent. He is originally hired by the group for his shooting talents, but by the end of the season, we, if not the other members of the group, become aware that he has a hidden side and another set of talons talents. The character also gets to kiss a boy, Dorian Grey of portrait fame, to name that boy.
Spiritualism, seances, tarot cards, Egyptian curses, weird science, possession, vampires and devils are just a few of the systems of belief that float around the dark and chilly (there is a lot of snow) alleys and streets of London. And there are characters that Dickens would be proud to acknowledge. My favorite of the Season 1 was Alun Armstrong who was master of ceremonies at the Grand Guignol theater and who hired Frankenstein's Monster as his backstage manager. The master never lost an opportunity to speechify theatrically about anything that occurred to him. And his theater pieces were about innocent maidens threatened by witches and wolves and mad rapists who always manged to cut the maiden's throat with the accompanying torrents of stage blood (there is subtext about cherry popping here which just adds to the fun). And what is happening in the theater is mirrored by what is happening in the alleys of London.
The first episode of Season 2 is on the Showtime website to stream.
Highly Recommended.
Orphan Black is also back for Season 3.
The question about this show is if Tatiana Maslany will ever receive conventional credit (i.e. an Emmy) for the best performance on TV for the past two years.
Last season left one of the clones, Helena the Wild Girl and Card, pregnant and taken away by the military who have cloned a male, Castor project, much like the female clones of Sarah, Allison, Cosima, Helena, and others. This season appears to be the Rescue of Helena by her sister clones.
I understand that all the sister clones that Miss Maslany plays must exhaust her. She is in almost every scene as one if not more of them. I am assuming that the introduction of the Castor Project with the male clones was to take some of the hard work of the show off her shoulders and immense acting talent, but it ain't working for me. The male actor who does the male clones doesn't even present one fourth of the talent of Miss Maslany. I can't tell the differences between any of his clones. The only thing that distinguishes them is their hairdos. And for the first two episodes, his story is just another boring villain or set of villains. You know his clones are the villains by the way that they all roll their eyes.
This show comes alive with Miss Maslany's clones. I truly believe when I am watching this show that all the sisters are played by different actresses. Is that weird? I know that they are characters in a show, but I am convinced that they are all played by different actors. That is how good Miss Maslany is. Acknowledge? Emmy Idiots?
Fortunately for me, the sister clones are not just out to resue Helena but they are also running their own sideshows and schemes. Allison the suburban housewife is now in the drug trade with her fired husband Donnie. She is also becoming political and running for office. Sarah is always seizing her opportunities when she can find them. Cosima the biologist is looking to get her genome. And Helena has become re-acquainted with her BFF, a talking scorpion.
Watch the first season and then you will be jonesing on the next two seasons.
I was hooked on Penny Dreadful last year. I watched after the first season was over because I had nothing else to watch. I didn't think that it would be any good, but I was wrong.
It takes place in 1890's London and is probably, but not to a suing level of probability, based upon the comic series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore. Like The League, a group of paranormal and supernatural and mythical, mystical people come together to fight evil for the life and soul of an innocent maiden. The show has excellent production values and writing and atmosphere.
Timothy Dalton plays the leader of the group. He is an educated gentleman explorer who lost his son on an expediton to Africa. Just what happened to his son was beyond the usual death by the usual African diseases of the body. And now his daughter is in peril (Season 1).
Eva Green plays the best friend of his daughter and former neighbor of the family. She has got a bit of the devil in her. No exorcism has removed the devil. The character hangs between good and evil and can see both sides.
Dr. Frankenstein, the same actor is making a career of playing scientific types, he was a scientist on Fortitude, appears with his Monster who is importunate and very verbal.
Josh Hartnet re-appears from Hollywood exile as a sharp shooter in an Old West Show on tour of England and the continent. He is originally hired by the group for his shooting talents, but by the end of the season, we, if not the other members of the group, become aware that he has a hidden side and another set of talons talents. The character also gets to kiss a boy, Dorian Grey of portrait fame, to name that boy.
Spiritualism, seances, tarot cards, Egyptian curses, weird science, possession, vampires and devils are just a few of the systems of belief that float around the dark and chilly (there is a lot of snow) alleys and streets of London. And there are characters that Dickens would be proud to acknowledge. My favorite of the Season 1 was Alun Armstrong who was master of ceremonies at the Grand Guignol theater and who hired Frankenstein's Monster as his backstage manager. The master never lost an opportunity to speechify theatrically about anything that occurred to him. And his theater pieces were about innocent maidens threatened by witches and wolves and mad rapists who always manged to cut the maiden's throat with the accompanying torrents of stage blood (there is subtext about cherry popping here which just adds to the fun). And what is happening in the theater is mirrored by what is happening in the alleys of London.
The first episode of Season 2 is on the Showtime website to stream.
Highly Recommended.
Orphan Black is also back for Season 3.
The question about this show is if Tatiana Maslany will ever receive conventional credit (i.e. an Emmy) for the best performance on TV for the past two years.
Last season left one of the clones, Helena the Wild Girl and Card, pregnant and taken away by the military who have cloned a male, Castor project, much like the female clones of Sarah, Allison, Cosima, Helena, and others. This season appears to be the Rescue of Helena by her sister clones.
I understand that all the sister clones that Miss Maslany plays must exhaust her. She is in almost every scene as one if not more of them. I am assuming that the introduction of the Castor Project with the male clones was to take some of the hard work of the show off her shoulders and immense acting talent, but it ain't working for me. The male actor who does the male clones doesn't even present one fourth of the talent of Miss Maslany. I can't tell the differences between any of his clones. The only thing that distinguishes them is their hairdos. And for the first two episodes, his story is just another boring villain or set of villains. You know his clones are the villains by the way that they all roll their eyes.
This show comes alive with Miss Maslany's clones. I truly believe when I am watching this show that all the sisters are played by different actresses. Is that weird? I know that they are characters in a show, but I am convinced that they are all played by different actors. That is how good Miss Maslany is. Acknowledge? Emmy Idiots?
Fortunately for me, the sister clones are not just out to resue Helena but they are also running their own sideshows and schemes. Allison the suburban housewife is now in the drug trade with her fired husband Donnie. She is also becoming political and running for office. Sarah is always seizing her opportunities when she can find them. Cosima the biologist is looking to get her genome. And Helena has become re-acquainted with her BFF, a talking scorpion.
Watch the first season and then you will be jonesing on the next two seasons.