Created by John Logan (Gladiator), the first season of Penny Dreadful focused on African explorer Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) and the search for his kidnapped daughter Mina (Olivia Llewellyn). With the help of enigmatic Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), a friend from Mina’s past, as well as Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadway), Malcolm must locate his daughter before any harm can be done to her by her supernatural captors.

Debuting to 1.44 million viewers this past April, Penny Dreadful stars Reeve Carney (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) as lonely, self-isolating Dorian Gray; Rory Kinnear (Skyfall) as reanimated corpse Caliban, who tracks down the man who brought him back and demands a mate; and Billie Piper (Secret Diary of a Call Girl) as Irish immigrant Brona Croft, a woman seeking escape from her troubled past.

The 10-episode second season of Penny Dreadful is slated to premiere in 2015. You can check out a teaser for the second season below, as well as a recap of the first season finale here.

Will you be purchasing the first season of Penny Dreadful? If you’ve already seen the show, are you going to use its availability to introduce it to others? What would you like to see out of Penny Dreadful next season?

The post Penny Dreadful Season One Available for Purchase appeared first on TVHackr.

Additionally, Helen McCrory (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and Simon Russell Beale (King Lear) have been promoted to series regulars after recurring during season one. McCrory, who plays shifty medium Madame Kali, is said to be the primary antagonist of the second season, while Beale’s Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle will continue to advise Sir Malcolm and company about the impending threats coming their way.

In addition to her prolific stage career, LuPone has appeared on the likes of American Horror Story: Coven, Life Goes On, and Oz. Also joining the cast of Penny Dreadful for season two are Douglas Hodge (Robin Hood) as Scotland Yard investigator Bartholomew Rusk, hell-bent on figuring out who’s responsible for the recent string of murders in London; Sarah Green (Vikings) as Madame Kali’s daughter Hecate; and Jonny Beauchamp (How to Make It in America) as a young man with a singular past.

The second season of Penny Dreadful is set to premiere spring 2015. You can check out a recap of the first season finale here.

Will you be watching the second season of Penny Dreadful? How do you think LuPone’s character will relate to Vanessa? Who else would you like to see join the Penny Dreadful cast?

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Malcolm heads to the weaponry store and purchases a pistol with an automatic firing mechanism, all in preparation for his time in the theater. Along the way, he runs into Madam Kali (aka Evelyn Poole) and the two chat about her sentimental attachment to gun oil, the health and wellness of Vanessa Ives, and Malcolm’s latest adventure, which he claims will take him away for two years. Kali seems disappointed that she won’t be able to continue getting reacquainted with him, but he assures her that they’ll meet again. Meanwhile, Caliban has trouble at a rehearsal and gets chewed out by Simon when he doesn’t lower a rope quickly enough. Though Vincent tries to comfort him with the knowledge that all people in show business are bitches, it takes Maude coming backstage with an orange, an apology about Simon’s behavior, and literary talk for his mood to lighten. He even cracks a smile when she gives him a kiss on the side of the head before leaving.

Vanessa confronts Malcolm about a missing photo of Mina and Peter as he loads his new pistol. When she presses him on that issue, as well as why she wasn’t allowed on the plague ship, he informs her that he would sacrifice her if it meant securing Mina’s safe return to his arms. However, since Vanessa is his most direct connection to his daughter, he can’t afford for her to get hurt, so his move to block her from the plague ship was about protecting her. And the photo? It breaks his heart, even though he claims to not want to be freed up from the guilt he feels. Back at the theater, Caliban attempts to put some color on his face and sneaks into Maude’s dressing room with the orange that she gave him, thinking that the two could share it. However, the way his face looks and the manner in which he entered the room put her off and when he tips his hand regarding his omniscience of all things in the theater, he forces himself on her and slams her against a wall. He ends up leaving before anything happens, though she gets him fired from his position as pseudo stage manager. Vincent then comforts Caliban with a hug, all the while The Master slumbers in the rafters of the theater.

At the atrium, Vanessa and Dorian run into one another and he assures her that he doesn’t need an explanation for her sudden absence after they were intimate. However, she writes this off as more evidence of his pleasant neutrality and tells him that she’s not the woman she wants to be when she’s with him, not when their intimacy released a kind of darkness that she was unable to control. Not used to rejection, Dorian starts to cry and Vanessa kisses him before leaving. Caliban moves his things into Victor’s office for the time being and again laments the fact that he’s alone. While his creature’s back is turned, Victor raises his gun and prepares to end its life once and for all, only to lose his nerve when Caliban says that his monstrous inside is reflected in his monstrous outside and wonders aloud why he was allowed to feel. Ethan then comes by to snag the doctor and bring him over to Brona, who’s weakened from her already tenuous state that morning; Victor asks her whether she’s comfortable and while her body is comfortable, her soul isn’t. She’s afraid of making the transition to the afterlife, so Victor sends Ethan to get something in another room and tells Brona of a world between heaven and hell, between life and death – a world with everlasting rebirth and possibly salvation. He then smothers her with a pillow and when Ethan returns, he promises to do something with the body, leaving his friend to grieve his love.

After drying his eyes, Ethan goes to the bar and runs into the two men who’ve been stalking him. The reason they’ve been tailing him? They’re bounty hunters, of sorts, sent by his father to retrieve him and bring him back to America. But instead of going with the two and confronting the blood he left in his wake, Ethan attacks them both and leaves the bar unscathed. That night, he meets with Vanessa, Malcolm, Victor, and Sembene, the five of them heading to the theater to begin looking for Mina. Once they make it inside, they slowly, surely, and (mostly) silently climb their way upwards toward the rafters, only stopping when Vanessa spots The Master. Before he can do anything, a trap door sends Ethan into a viper’s nest of vampires, with Sembene jumping in after him and Victor following shortly after. As The Master wakes up and begins doing battle with Malcolm, the three men do their damndest to fight off the seemingly unending stream of white-haired creatures. Though it looks like the trio are down for the count, too many creatures standing between them and salvation, Malcolm manages to kill The Master, thereby killing each and every vampire it sired in the process.

Just then, Mina emerges from backstage and takes Vanessa hostage when her former friend hugs her. It turns out that Mina is a creature, as well, and she claims that each man in the theater is going to come face to face with the Devil before too long now that he has his bride. As Mina begins to bite Vanessa, Malcolm shoots her once and knocks her to the ground. Stunned, she uses her status as daughter as leverage, only for him to say that he already has a daughter before shooting her again, this time killing her. Later, Vanessa comes into Malcolm’s study as he packs up his explorer paraphernalia; he admits that he’s not going back to Africa and the two comfort one another, crying on the other’s shoulder. While Victor shows Caliban Brona’s corpse, Ethan gets hassled by the two hunters as he drinks alone and looks out at the water. This time, though, he turns into a werewolf and kills them both accordingly.

Vanessa enters a church and takes a meeting with the local priest. The topic? Her terror regarding what she’s capable of and the possibility of him performing an exorcism on her. He warns her about how long and grueling the process is, how it can sometimes take months and years in order to work, and leaves her with a single question.

Do you really want to be normal?

Additional thoughts and observations:
-“Don’t be naïve. It doesn’t suit you.”
-“Show business. All bitches.”
-“Remember us better than we are.”
-“I already have a daughter.”
-So, has this been one of the weirdest paced seasons of television we’ve had in a while? Not just when you look at an eight-episode order with a flashback episode and a bottle episode, but also the amount of information given out, the time between episodes, and the parsing out of the action/genre-heavy scenes. I like how unorthodox it is, since there’s very little on television that surprises anymore, but I wouldn’t be opposed to it moving a hair toward normativity for its extended second season.
-Favorite episode of the season: “Possession,” in a walk. The whole season has been good, minus some bumps here and there, but that was some extraordinary television. I already like bottle episodes and a show like this with so many seemingly disparate threads bringing everybody together in a house is like television catnip to me. Combine that with Eva Green showing that she’s the best dramatic actress on television and it was some spellbinding, scary, sensational stuff that shows that the show is capable of oh so much.
-Interesting that after last week’s Eva Green showcase, this episode had a very subdued Vanessa. It’s understandable given everything she went through last week, and how much physical punishment Green endured for the sake of her performance; it’s just that the show always shines just a bit brighter when she’s in the middle of the action.
-Did you have Ethan as being a werewolf? I had it pegged when the gang went to the London Zoo and he scared away the wolves, so it was a long time coming on my end and I’m pretty satisfied with how they chose to reveal it. Now, though, I’d love to see them do an Ethan-centric flashback episode next season and explain how he became a wolf and the journey he took from America to Europe.
-Malcolm is a bit of a bastard, but hearing him call Vanessa his daughter and seeing him choose her over Mina was quite touching, as was them comforting one another. They’ve had one of the most interesting dynamics on the show this season and I liked seeing him soften toward her after pushing her away/marginalizing her for much of the season.
-Should Vanessa go through with the exorcism? I think she’ll end up doing it and the show will wring some more Eva Green possession scenes out of it, so it should be a worthwhile endeavor. I would say that I don’t know how long they can drag that type of storyline out, but the show has done some strange things with time and there’s nothing stopping them from leaping ahead whenever it starts to drag.
-The way the show does vampires is especially awesome. Visually, they’re my favorite on any genre show and I like their physicality, how they’re not painted as sympathetic figures, and the way the show lights them whenever they make their appearances. Here’s hoping the show can find a way to keep that part of its mythology from closing in on itself now that The Master has been defeated.
-Let’s talk about the cool shot of Sembene jumping down the trap door hole to help Ethan and how Malcolm did something that very few heroes in genre fiction do – he made sure his opponent was dead. The show could’ve easily allowed The Master to escape and set up some type of revenge-type storyline for season two; instead, Malcolm stabbed the creature multiple times and didn’t stop until it, and the rest of its hoard, were dead. Smart people doing things smartly can make for strong television, television industry, and this is Exhibit A of this fact.
-It’s interesting that Victor chose to kill Brona himself. When he recreates her next season, will she remember that she died at his hands? If so, could he be in danger? If not, will the guilt of what he did cause him to act out and possibly even confess?
-Also on my wishlist for next season: an expanded role for Sembene. I like the mystery surrounding him and the fact that he’s a strong, silent type, but it just feels like he has a killer backstory and like he could contribute more to the overall vibe of the show than he currently does.
-While Caliban’s whole story kind of petered out after the first third of the series, his monologue about his physical appearance reflecting his inner monstrousness and his desire to be a corpse again was beautiful. For some reason, it reminded me of this scene from The Green Mile.
-My favorite shot of the episode was when Caliban’s head was on the bottom right of the screen, his face half hidden, and Maude was blurry on the left side of the screen. The entire episode (and series, for that matter) was technically marvelous (cinematography, especially) and the direction was especially tight these last two weeks.
-How do you think Dorian fits into the second season? Will he continue to pursue Vanessa after facing his first bit of rejection or will he be woven into another storyline completely?
-Thank you guys for following my coverage of Penny Dreadful this season. I hope you all join me for the second season this time next year.

The post Penny Dreadful Season Finale Recap: Did Sir Malcolm Rescue Mina? appeared first on TVHackr.

On tonight’s episode of Penny Dreadful, Vanessa has to confront the truth in two separate instances, as she lets Dorian in on the fact that she can’t continue their courtship, not when intimacy led her to lose control of herself. As lonely as Vanessa is, she would rather spend eternity by herself than put those she loves in danger, so while it might be for Dorian to accept, she’s doing this because she thinks too much of him, not because she doesn’t want to spend time with him. But Vanessa’s commitment to her loved ones and loyalty to Sir Malcolm don’t get rewarded, with the latter succinctly informing her that if a choice came between Mina or her, he would choose to save Mina and sacrifice her. It’s not a surprise, since Malcolm’s dedicated his life to finding his daughter and knows just how troubled an individual Vanessa is, but it’s something that could permanently fracture their relationship going forward and lessen the resolve that Vanessa has toward rescuing Mina. And though Malcolm might be a brave explorer who’s traveled to dangerous lands, Vanessa is still his best bet at finding Mina, so at least for the time being, he needs to put her physical, mental, and emotional welfare above all else.

Elsewhere on Penny Dreadful, Victor seeks to fulfill his agreement with Caliban, while Ethan gets into a scuffle at the bar.

The season finale of Penny Dreadful airs tonight at 10:00 on Showtime. The show has already been renewed for an expanded second season, which will premiere in 2015.

Do you think Malcolm will find and rescue Mina? What happens if it looks like her fate is a lost cause? Should Vanessa be honest with Dorian about what happened the night they were intimate?

The post Penny Dreadful Season Finale Sneak Peeks: Vanessa Confronts the Truth appeared first on TVHackr.

On tonight’s episode of Penny Dreadful, Malcolm, Ethan, and Victor must deal with Vanessa’s possession, figuring out what exactly is inside her and the best course of action to expel the demon once and for all. Not only has Vanessa been a key figure in Malcolm’s journey, the two have grown personally close, so he has extra motivation to nurse her back to health. But with her possession coming during the time he needed to be going after Mina, who he caught a glimpse of on the plague ship before having to flee, Malcolm has to make a choice between saving his friend and saving his daughter, which is all the more interesting since Vanessa is his best weapon against the being that took Mina to begin with. If Malcolm decides to use Vanessa’s condition and connection to the spirit world in order to locate his daughter, though, will she ever forgive him, should she come out of her possession with most of her mental faculties still in tact?

Penny Dreadful airs tonight at 10:00 on Showtime.

What will it take for the demon that resides in Vanessa to be driven out? Is Malcolm wrong for using Vanessa’s condition to help him find Mina? Even if Vanessa’s demon is vanquished, will this be the straw that breaks her relationship with Malcolm and commitment to rescuing her former friend?

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On tonight’s episode of Penny Dreadful, Vanessa’s latest vision leads Malcolm and company to a plague ship, but before the men can find the location, Sembene confronts Malcolm about the plan once they locate Mina. Even if Vanessa is being pointed in the right direction and they manage to defeat Mina’s captor, that’s only half the battle; there’s the whole matter of what physical, emotional, and psychological damage was done to Mina during her time in captivity and the seemingly impossible task of reassimilating her back into society. What if Mina isn’t the same girl that Malcolm once knew? What if she can never become that girl again due to what she’s been through?

Elsewhere on Penny Dreadful, Van Helsing reveals more about the creature that abducted Mina, while Vanessa’s night with Dorian unlocks something dark within her.

Penny Dreadful airs tonight at 10:00 on Showtime.

What would happen if Malcolm manages to rescue Mina, only to find out that she’s irreparably damaged from her time with her captor? How will Malcolm’s team prepare to face down the creature that abducted Mina? Will the darkness that threatens to overtake Vanessa impact the mission to save Mina?

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On the next episode of Penny Dreadful, Vanessa delves into her troubled past, including the events that led up to Mina’s disappearance. Based on the sneak peeks, the most likely scenario seems to be Vanessa harboring feelings for Mina (be they requited or not), letting her jealousy over the girl’s impending departure from London fester, and acting out against Mina’s suitor in an attempt to keep her from leaving the city. However, Vanessa ends up paying for her (presumed) crime by spending time in an asylum and carrying around the guilt from her actions ever since – guilt in driving away someone she cared about, guilt in taking an innocent life for her own selfish gain, guilt in giving in to her baser instincts and failing to rise above her id. So there’s a chance that Vanessa’s loyalty to Malcolm isn’t about Malcolm at all; instead, it’s about her own personal quest for salvation and the lingering hope of reconciling with someone she once held near and dear.

Penny Dreadful airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime. The show has already been renewed for a second season that will consist of 10 episodes.

What do you think ultimately led to Mina’s disappearance? Could Vanessa have in any way contributed to the situation Mina finds herself in, hence her loyalty toward Sir Malcolm? Will Malcolm ever see his daughter again or is she lost to her new master?

The post Penny Dreadful 1.05 Sneak Peeks: Vanessa Recalls Traumatic Events From Her Past appeared first on TVHackr.

“Picking up Penny Dreadful was one of the easiest decisions I’ve made,” said David Nevins, President, Showtime Networks Inc.  “The series has had worldwide impact, drawing big, passionate audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, and more than any other show on our network has hit the bullseye with viewers who want to watch television in all the new ways that are available.  John Logan has deftly created an epic series that has drawn raves from a wide-range of audiences from quality drama lovers to critics, to hardcore genre fans. We look forward to working once again with our partners at Sky Atlantic and are extremely excited for what’s in store for season two.”

Drawing an average of 4.8 million viewers weekly, Penny Dreadful‘s series premiere  ranks as the biggest sneak preview ever and the largest online streaming sampling ever for Showtime, surpassing Ray Donovan and Masters of Sex’s premieres by half a million viewers through the premiere week. The series, created by Oscar nominee John Logan (Gladiator), also debuted as the second-highest-rated launch for an original commission ever for Sky Atlantic and will have special edition classic horror books boxed sets, cast action figures, and tarot cards hitting the market soon.

Starring the likes of Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down), Eva Green (Camelot), and Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights), Penny Dreadful follows American marksman Ethan Chandler as he’s exposed to the darkest corners of Victorian London while searching for a missing girl. In addition to Logan, the series is executive produced by Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and Pippa Harris (Revolutionary Road).

Penny Dreadful airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime. You can check out a preview for the next episode below.

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On the next episode of Penny Dreadful, Malcolm hires Professor Abraham Van Helsing to collaborate with Victor in order to suss out a cure for the disease afflicting Mina. Malcolm’s thinking is that should they be able to cure Mina, rescuing her will be easier, as she’ll be fighting for her freedom just as hard as they are; however, not only is this line of thinking dangerous, in that free will could land Mina in an even more precarious situation than the one she’s already in, it’s impossible, since Victor and Van Helsing don’t even know what disease they’re looking to cure. A disease with this kind of symptom is a medical abnormality, something even the brightest minds in England have yet to encounter, and asking two men to pull out a cure for something no one even knows exists is an awfully tall order. And then there’s the time crunch that comes with having Fenton in captivity, a pressure that will only intensify when the creature summons his master and brings him to Malcolm’s doorstep.

Elsewhere on Penny Dreadful, Vanessa’s infatuation with Dorian grows.

Penny Dreadful airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime.

Will Van Helsing be able to help Malcolm in his quest to cure the disease afflicting Mina? Can Malcolm’s team effectively neutralize Fenton’s master? What will result from Vanessa’s infatuation with Dorian?

The post Penny Dreadful 1.04 Sneak Peeks: Sir Malcolm Hires Abraham Van Helsing appeared first on TVHackr.

On the next episode of Penny Dreadful, Vanessa has a vision of Mina pleading for her help, the sounds of animals accompanying her in the background. Since Mina mentions being fed on by beasts, something that came up during the séance, Vanessa interprets this as the London Zoo possibly being where Malcolm’s daughter is being held; however, with Mina’s previous appearances to the group not being entirely her, it might not be wise to listen to this white-clad figure as it tries to appeal to Vanessa’s emotional side. This could easily be Mina’s captor playing mind games with the conduit, luring Vanessa and Malcolm to the zoo for some nefarious reason, but at this point, Vanessa doesn’t know about the goddess that possessed her during the séance and Malcolm isn’t likely to clue her in to the evil forces closing in on them. Therefore, the two, along with Ethan and Sembene, will head to the zoo and hope that it won’t be an entirely fruitless endeavor.

Elsewhere on Penny Dreadful, Victor is confronted by the consequences of his past in the form of his first monster.

Penny Dreadful airs Sundays at 10:00 on Showtime.

Should Vanessa trust her vision, even though Mina has been quite confrontational in her appearances? What will the group find when they head to the London Zoo? How will Victor handle being confronted by his first creation?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wLWawdi6jA

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