The Frankenstein Chronicles: Season 2, Episode 5: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

And lo we learn that not only is everyone really creepy and really evil but quite possibly all working together as well

Except Sir Robert Peel - but he’s desperate to get his admittedly very nice sounding reforms passed so is willing to work with just about anyone to make that happen despite the opposition of the evil dean of Westminster and his evil murdering coroner Renquist. We’ve already seen him willing to work with Dippel and now he introduces his new advisor who will hopefully convince Prince William (heir to the throne, brother to George IV, current king who seems to side with the the Dean but is also not in great health) to support him. Oh Sir Robert, such good intentions, such terrible bed fellows

His whole moment is somewhat disturbed by Nightingale's body washing up, minus heart

Seriously show, I’m not going to forgive Nightingale's wasted death.

We see Queenie, naturally, consumed by grief over this - revealing she loved him and also fears she may have been responsible for his death by telling him about the creepy things in creepy Dipple’s creepy home. She is convinced to go to the police with this but the Inspector isn’t exactly thrilled with the idea that a ranting Nightingale may have gone after one of the richest men in London because he thought a hanged man had committed a murder. He dismisses her

But when Sir Peel comes to him to point out they’re now competing with evil church people so there better be some leed, the Inspector seizes on it as better than nothing

Marlot has gone full angst mode because Sean Bean, that’s why. He’s driving poor Esther off, convinced that everyone around him dies because Nightingale’s death is good for some Manpain. He does ramble about being haunted by the ghosts of murdered people he can’t help. Which sounds bad but it’s not like any of these ghosts even invest in chains or anything. It’s pretty low key haunting

He does get a lead on Lord Hervey though, from Boz, who is more than a little miffed that the church Coroner Renquist feeding him lies has made him look like a fool. Boz recruits Marlot and tells him LORD HERVEY LIVES and is working for the Home Secretary.

This leads to Marlot intimidating Renquist just because he can for some reason but not learning much beyond how evil traders in body parts have lots of ice - so he’s now off to harass Dipple. While Renquist goes to Lord Hervey because it turns out he is Lord Hervey’s protege and has a kind of creepy devotion which may or may not be gay subtext but if it is I’m going to break things because this is nooooot a good look. Lord Hervey reveals his plan to basically throw Dipple to the wolves (because, yes, Hervey knows Dipple. Seriously all the bad guys are working together here) if the king dies and they don’t have a powerful patron. Renquist is smart enough to realise Hervey may do the same to him but too devoted to actually follow through with that

The Frankenstein Chronicles: Season 2, Episode 4: Little Boy Lost

Spence has previously warned us that going against the Dean of Westminster will get you murdered. But when he sends out a directive to have his reverends spouting that the plague is the fault of the naughty naughty sinners his temper snaps since he knows the well is being deliberately poisoned. He speaks up, ranting in church

And the Dean catches up with him, wielding a knife to stab him into silence - while also making an evil evil speech about how he likes to listen to the noises people make as he murdered them. Just in case we were under any real illusion about how evil this man is. He just needs an evil moustache to twirl.

This doesn’t make Merlot’s life any easier because he discovers Spence’s body and is duly horrified and grief stricken and, well, Sean Bean. Honestly when this man smiles the world will end.

He’s also discovered near the body and chased by the police who naturally suspect he is the murderer. He’s even seen by Nightingale leaving the scene which leaves Nightingale convinced he’s the murderer

Of course telling the Inspector that a dead man is behind the murders reassures no-one: and his Inspector suspends him on account of the fact he’s accusing dead men of murder and that’s not a good look in a policeman.

Merlot does follow Billy Oate’s lead on the dead man in the well and finds that a ship was quarantined due to plague. Following that they find the rest of the crew - where they’ve been put in an abandoned room basically to die. Merlot walks through the gauntlet of ghosts they’ve left behind - this time not reacting. It looks like he’s finally accepted what they are.

Meanwhile at the House of Dipple-this-man-is-definitely-a-serial-killer Queenie the maid continues to be freaked out by the creepy serial killer house she’s living in. She tries to tell Nightingale (who may live there? They’re both foundlings from the same orphanage which is their link) but she’s distracted comforting him about seeing dead people and his unresolved issues over Flora.

Dipple is holding a party to show off his murder doll and he invites Esther - who in turn invites Merlot to be her plus one because she needs another poor person to be super awkward and out of place in the rich guy’s home.

There the doll is every bit as creepy as you can imagine and Dipple focuses on emitting the most intense serial killer vibes ever. Even though the doll is a woman in make up it still manages uncanny valley. For some reason rather than watch the marionette in case it launches itself at the crowd and starts killing people, Merlot decides to go wandering through the house instead. As one does. Seriously I can see no reason why Merlot decides it’s appropriate to do that. He finds Dipple’s secret spooky door but Queenie the maid shows up to shoo him off for appalling house guest manners.

The Frankenstein's Chronicles, Season 2, Episode 3 Seeing the Dead

The plague continues to kill many people, including whole families. We see more utterly poor people dropped into plague pits, unable to afford a consecrated burial and having to invent their own burial tradition.

Moved to pity, Merlot goes to try and offer charity to a woman who has lost so many of her children already - but she’s already plagued and would rather have his help cleaning up. She also begs him to bury her and her remaining children next to each other

Ouch…

There’s also more talk about god abandoning them and we learn more about the evil Dean of Westminster from Spence, Merlot’s new friend/contact/boss. He was an ex-priest. He admits he used to drink - but the reason he was kicked out wasn’t the drink, it was opposing the Dean. He further reveals that the three dead priests (there’s been a third murder) were part of an alliance fighting against the wicked Dean and his terribad plant to sell lots of church land to make himself super super super rich. And now they got murdered. Spence doesn’t think it’s a coincidence

But Merlot goes further - grabbing a map of the area and plotting the people who died - and find that the deaths are clustered very closely together - all on Pyre street. An area which will be worth a lot of money… IF the slums are cleared out. Spence doesn’t believe a man can call down plagues - but Merlot is convinced Lord Hervey could do it with his evil science. Of course he kind of thinks Lord Hervey is behind everything

They go investigating and Merlot realises that the dead all get water from the same well (take a moment to praise John Snow who did this in real life. No, not that John Snow; your history teacher is ashamed of you) - and when he excavates he finds a body in the well, with a sailor tattoo. Clearly put there deliberately to contaminate the water.

While he discovers this Merlot also screams and rants and raves at a crowd of people only he can see - which i think are the ghosts who died. I’m definitely going with ghosts not visions.

Also in town is Mrs. Wild’s Penny exhibition which is, amusingly, presenting a play of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I think we’re going to see a lot more of Mrs. Wild as she’s already showing compassion, wit, snapping intelligence and insight which makes her interesting in the brief moments she appears.

One of the members of her troupe is Billy Oates - from season 1. He was a criminal who controlled Flora and sorta worked for Lord Hervey and who Merlot got transported. He is now back, after becoming a sailor. Merlot and Billy have a few confrontations (involving punching and knives) since, obviously, their history is not great and Merlot is super obsessed with Lord Hervey - but Billy insists that he is not involved with the man and has no idea where he is. And the fact both he and the corpse became sailors with similar tattoos is coincidence. He does agree to help find where he got the tattoo though

About that latest murder - Nightengale finds the body before the Parish watch and quickly steals it so they can do their own autopsy much to frustration of the evil Dean’s evil minions. This means he gets the actual autopsy -including that the heart was carefully removed by an experienced and capable killer and probably not an escaped lunatic from Bethlem.

He also earns the respect of Sir Peel who is currently on side with anyone who opposes the evil Dean. Especially since the Dean is preventing him creating new cemetaries to help ease the burden of the over-burdened plague cemeteries. Because that would eat into the Dean’s profits. Yes, he’s evil.

The Frankenstein's Chronicles: Season 2, Episode 2: Not John Marlott

Merlot continues to have lots of ominous dreams and visions about Lord Hervey, dying, Flora, despair and general awfulness. Especially since father Ambrose his one real friend has been brutally murdered - and despite Nightengale’s attempts at investigation, the Dean of Westminster is being super evil and not letting the police get involved. Instead they want to just evacuate the area because it’s not just got a big murderer but also the plague. The poor people are duly mocking of these instructions because if they had the means to actually leave this squalor, well, they’d leave it already. But they’re poor and we’ve already established the evil church Dean is pretty evil and is also all olde timey and rich (two features which mean he doesn’t give a damn about the poor anyway).

The Parish watch may not be good for anything except annoying Nightengale, being nastily racist (which both shows that he’s evil and also kind of exposes the anachronism of how no-one else seems to be?), getting in the way of the murderer but they manage to be even worse when one of them spills dramatic stories to Boz, our journalist friend who is also a young Charles Dickens, about the killer being a beast and how the body was ripped apart. Boz, surprisingly sensibly for a tabloid journalist, considers this fanciful and absurd and encourages much mocking.

Because even tabloid rags in the 19th century had better journalistic standards than the Daily Mail.

Nightengale is also disturbed that there’s clues to Marlot all over this case with Father Ambrose carrying some of Marlott’s old pictures of his wife and child and it’s generally worrying him. There is an assumption that the escaped inmate from Bethel is just obsessed with John - which doesn’t encourage Nightengale any. Especially since he’s convinced Marlott killed Flora, his betrothed, while insane due to syphilis (which is why Marlot was hanged) and still has a lot of anger and hatred for him.

Marlott scrapes a living in the poor part of town, meeting and exposing a man who seems to have contacts (and is apparently an ex priest so expect Complications). Despite exposing one of the cons he’s running he decides to recruit Marlott as an obviously educated man to do some work for a finders fee - the work involves carting dead bodies from the plague ridden hovels and dropping them into plague pits. We also learn that churchyards are being dug up, the bodies dumped into pits, so the church can then re-sell the land to interr more bodies. In case we missed the not subtle themes here: the poor are leading terribad awful lives and the church is led by super evil people. We have lines like “why has god abandoned us” to really sell it.

We’re also given a quick lesson on how bodies in sealed coffins can explode and nearly have an adorable urchin killed by exploding coffin. Marlott leaps to the rescue and gets several shards of coffin in him. Which isn’t lethal because zombie but he still needs patching up - back to Esther the dressmaker who helps sew him up. She also refuses payment because taking payment for healing is wrong in her eyes. She also offers him super cheap room and board - when he protests the charity she points out there’s a serial killer (well he’s killed 2 priests I think you’re off the menu Esther) roaming about and she’d quite like a man about the house, ‘kay thanks.

While wandering about his business Merlott runs into Nightengale and it’s super dramatic. Nightengale sees Marlott’s scars and finds it hard to believe that he’s not the real Marlott, especially since he clearly knows things. Merlott continues to plead innocence in Flora’s death and points out that becoming a zombie has cured him of syphilis so no more irrationality. He also warns Nightengale that Lord Hervey is out there and really killed Flora and the dead vicars and is going to kill Lady Hervey and is like totally the worst. But Nightengale tells him Lady Hervey is already dead - which is a downer for Merlott because he and she kind of had a thing - and he still wants to re-kill Merlott for Flora’s death. This doesn’t work because a) Merlott is a super strong zombie and b) he tells Nightengale that Flora’s hallucination is behind him

The Frankenstein Chronicles: Season 2, Episode 1: Prodigal Son

So you watch a show and then it’s like 2 years before the next season. Which is unnecessary, television, very unnecessary

And then you forget about it so wait like 6 months to watch it. And then you’ve got to remind yourself who these characters actually are, what’s happening and why is there syphilis.

So with a hearty “I have no idea what I’m doing,” I’m diving in! Hey why change a habit of a lifetime?

John Merlotte was a policeman in King George’s new police force in London. He died and then Lord Hervey the very very nefarious brought him back to life all Frankenstein-y just 10 minutes before I gave up on this show ever having any supernatural elements

Now back from the dead, we’re focusing a lot on ATMOSPHERE. So it’s all a bit vague and emotive - and it’s extremely good at that. There’s definitely an incredibly powerful sense of Merlot’s confusion, his being out of place, and his confused and painful memories along with his extremely painful memories and experiences. It’s jarring and full of despair and bleakness

Yes, Sean Bean is delivering bleakness and despair. You’re shocked, folks, I’m sure.

He has been detained in Bethlem and has been there for 3 years. He’s near catatonic, hallucinating about the beach and his past and trying to find some sense in his confused and broken mind. The one person who visits him in all this time is Reverend Ambrose, who knew John before he was hanged, but even he can only get a brief reaction.

Until he finally breaks through to sanity - or something resembling it - and manages to yanks his chains from the wall and slit the throat of one of his guards.

I don’t know if undead Merlot is super strong or whether the chains are just poorly maintained.

He escapes and makes his way to Lord Hervey’s old home which is abandoned. At least I think he does. It’s also possible he’s hallucinating this - again atmosphere and theme and ominousness as he pieces together his memories about how Lord Hervey tried to make him into his protege/project and it didn’t go that well (hence Bethlem).

There’s also Lady Hervey as well, Lord Herving’s highly religious wife who was already highly conflicted about her husband’s experiments. The quote is “if he succeeds then we have a world without god”. And he just succeeded - and he’s likely to do more of these experiments: Merlot won’t be the last. She feels guilty and damned: and is pretty much convinced god has forsaken her and Merlot. And she needs him to hunt Hervey down (with a hint that since he’s damned anyway he might as well do a lot of fun murdering).

The Frankenstein Chronicles, Season 1, Episode 6: Lost and Found

So, Renee and I were taking, as we do, about whether to watch a show, keep watching it or whether we can drop it. We base this on whether it’s in our genre (so, no matter what, we’re always stuck with Vampire Diaries and since it’s a dystopian Renee has 2 wonderful series of Last Ship to look forward to. LUCKY HER!) and whether we like it (so Killjoys stays, so there).

By the end of the last episode we’d agreed to drop this series because the closest thing we have to the supernatural was Marlott’s hallucinations and we weren’t especially enjoying it

And then this episode happened. This is because I taunted Renee about Last Ship, isn’t it?

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

So John Marlotte has become more and more worrying in this episode, which everyone puts down to syphilis dementia since pretty much everyone knows. As John makes more accusations – against Sir William, against Sir Peel, Nightengale becomes more concerned, insisting on taking his gun back and making sure Flora doesn’t stay with him because she will be unsafe with a man with Syphilis.

Marlotte lays down the law and invokes his authority, Flora cannot leave! I’m not sure where this authority comes from beyond his white maleness.

Flora also tries to talk Marlotte around but he rants and raves and decides to lock her up. Marlotte is looking more and more out of control and worrisome. When Flora mentions, to try and make the ranting Marlotte back off, that Lord Hervey actually kicked her out and she never actually wanted to return to Marlotte.

Marlotte, who I would say is not making good decisions right now, but let’s be honest never really made good decisions, now decides that Lord Hervey is actually the big bad. He rants at Lady Harvey who, shockingly, doesn’t find slightly unhinged ranting and raving a very persuasive reason to betray her brother – though she seems to know something is terribad wrong with her brother. Also Marlotte totally wants her to marry him. His ranting is really not making a really good case for matrimony.

He does decide to go check out Lord Hervey and runs into his servant (who has been dubbed the Beast because someone randomly ranted about the Beast earlier in the season and everyone kind of forgot that reference to now) who I really do not understand why he deserves that but hey let’s stretch that. Anyway, beasty servant is currently holding Alice prisoner.

The Frankenstein Chronicles, Season 1, Episode 5: The Frankenstein Murders

Everything went very out of control last episode with the exposure of several murderers, lots of body buying and Sir Pool being most displeased by the scandal of the murders and the Frankenstein child (dubbed Alice) being exposed to the press

Lord and Lady Harvey are pretty happy as it looks like the Anatomy act will be stopped, which both pleases their faith and means Lord Harvey can continue with his hospital-which-is-totally-against-surgery (which is apparently a good thing). Also Lady Harvey may now not have to marry Sir Bently for money now her brother doesn’t have to shut down his charitable hospital.

These people do not seem to understand how money works. Or charities

She also kisses Marlotte because she’s really into the brooding type. I guess it’s the puritanism.

Marlotte is still on the case though because he would quite like to figure out who was murdering children. He gets an insight from Mary Shelley – she’s just heard about “Alice” and provides us with a flashback of insight: back in the day, she, her husband Percy, James Hogg and Sir William used to almost-kill each other and then use electricity to resuscitate themselves afterwards. For science!

Until it didn’t quite work and James Hogg didn’t get resuscitated and his death had to be passed off as a suicide. Oopsie.

See this is what happens in the days before television, the idle rich become bored and indulge in murder play

Anyway, Mary Shelley realises that the existence of Alice means that Sir William may be playing his naughty games again and goes to confront him. He doesn’t do much to allay suspicion by actually near throttling her – so she takes her suspicion to Marlotte.

At the same time the unconscious Flora is being “cared for” by the super creepy Sir Garnet, Sir William’s cousin. We quickly learn he’s the one with the thing for the Little Girl Lost poem (remember that? We spent like 3 episodes wallowing in that irrelevance), and he’s also the one who raped Flora. Thankfully she wakes up from her coma (convenient coma timing!) just as Marlotte is visiting to add her accusations to his – Marlotte takes the now-totally-in-good-health girl back home.

Who needs surgery when you have convenient healing powers!

The Frankenstein Chronicles, Season 1, Episode 4: The Fortune of War

So, after entering the tunnels last week, there is absolutely no way that they can’t avoid the plot for once.

In the tunnels they find a criminal gang with lots of bodies and Marlotte and Pritty (the grave robber) pose as a necrophiliac looking to acquire a fresh victim. They solicit the gang to murder someone for them and, in doing so, hope to follow them to their lair and find the people who have been killing people (and kids) to make the Frankenstein monster, as Sir Peel first asked Marlotte back in episode 1 between his bouts of hallucinations and angsty memories.

The trap is set –they just need a lot of money and a girl to play bait. Pritty, always reluctant, has the money. And Flora is back

Flora has had a not-convincing-anyone miscarriage which everyone delicately calls a miscarried, including Lord and Lady Harvey (along with realistic, yet condescending talk of just how terrible her life would be with an illegitimate child). She now wants to return to Marlotte where she feels safe. For some reason.

Especially since Billie the Fagin stereotype drops in to be a bit more menacing.

The only person who doubts Flora’s convenient miscarriage is Nightengale – which is unfortunate because he’s also the only one who actually cares about her as a person and not as a tool or bait and now that one person who cares about her is equally invested in condemning her actions. She does strike back firmly at the idea that the baby could have been just like her – because she’s not sure if being aborted wouldn’t have been better for her than the life she lived, which goes some way to deflating his outrage.

The Frankenstein Chronicles, Season 1, Episode 3: All the Lost Children

I’m, sadly, beginning to get a sense of the pacing of this series. Which is basically glacially slow. I know it’s full of emotion and pain and… it’s just that that seems to be the go to marker for any drama trying to present itself as “serious”. So I’ve seen a lot of it (and, really, In the Flesh not only set the bar for dramatic tragedy but shattered the bar and used the remains of the bar to beat our emotions to a bloody pulp)

So lots and lots of scenes of Marlotte woeing about his syphilis and dead family are very well done, definitely worthy of respect and praise form their impact. But at the same time they’re all just kind of predictable and I kind of want to just skim past back to the plot rather than circling (circling because it doesn’t really go anywhere) round in the same mopey, well acted, sad, but tired orbit.

Anyway, this book Marlotte decides to get Mary Shelley involved for… reasons. Some reasons. I honestly have no idea why Marlotte has seen a child murder and decided that popular literature is really the way to solve this.

Conveniently Mary Shelley is the woman who handed over William Blake’s last work to Marlotte and is even now all kinds of torn and consumed about her work and the pain it caused (not least of which appears to be rejection by what remains of her own family). She paints herself, in some ways, as a rebel – a rebel because she would do anything, including break the laws of god, if it will bring her family back.

Yes, more Marlotte angst, of course more Marlotte angst.

And we still have Nightengale – continually dismissed and ignored by Marlotte in a way that I dearly hope will be called out at some point. And Marlotte keeps sending him to secretly follow people which is beginning to look like a bad joke because the casting director still badly needs to throw in some Black extras so Nightengale doesn’t look like The Only Black Man in London

The Frankenstein Chronicles, Season 1, Episode 2: Seeing Things

Our protagonist Marlott decides to go visit the ailing William Blake. I have to call minor shenanigans at this – I mean you find that one of the missing girls has read a poem by William Blake and she has a dress the same colour so you go interview the author?

It’s a bit surreal especially with Blake maundering on about several kids disappearing and how it’s all the fault of a Beast with a Man’s Face and he needs to know the truth of the beast to find her.

William Blake then kicks the bucket and decides to leave his last work to this complete stranger on his death bed. And absolutely no-one considers that maybe someone should check that whole “sound mind and body” thing.

The last work is called “Prometheus”.

Let’s continue that theme with Marlott also visiting the office of the Home Office Pathologist (I’m not even sure why), Sir William. Instead he finds Sir William’s cousin Mr. Garnett there who we’re supposed to be all suspicious about because he gives Marlott shit for being a complete stranger in an important man’s office.

Beyond telling us we should see Mr Garnett who doesn’t want random strangers scuffing the furnishings, we learn that Sir William keeps creepy preserved body parts in formadehyde (because Regency Pathologist. This is not really unusual) and that he has a copy of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus

I’m actually surprised to see that Frankenstein exists as a fictional creation within the world. That is unusual and really does turn the whole story on it’s head. Clearly we’re not going to run across a Victor Frankenstein in a basement somewhere making monsters.

But seeing this book, Marlott decides he absolutely needs to check this out – and he doesn’t even know what’s in it beyond it has the word “Prometheus”.

This is all just a little abstract a little too soon. I mean, it’s the second episode and Marlott has started paying attention to his mercury hallucinations – and he KNOWS he’s hallucinating. We know he’s hallucinating so why are we treating the hallucination as relevant? And now he’s looking at a poet’s very tangentially related last work and deciding to check out a book just because the city’s pathologist happens to be reading it. Is he so out of leads (well, yes) that he’s flailing this desperately?

I think we needed more pushing to the woo-woo before we start going this abstract and Marlott pursuing this many weird possibilities.

Meanwhile poor Nightingale is not filling with faith this character will be well used – he literally spends the whole book following people (and it would help if the show didn’t present him as the Only Black Man in London. Honestly how the hell was he supposed to unobtrusively follow ANYONE?).

The Frankenstein Chronicles, Season 1, Episode 1: A World Without God

London 1827, ah Regency – kind of Victorian but with more debauchery.

There are three kinds of Victoriana/Regency out there I’ve found:

Decorous which is all big houses and pretty clothes and intrigue, usually involving Rules of Decency and terrible terrible liberties

Swashbuckling, which has lots of brass and waist coats and brave man facing terrible peril and monsters (like brown people) in foreign lands.

Gritty with big bleak cities, lots of fog and poor people and everyone has cholera.

This is definitely Gritty.

Let’s look at the characters introduced.

Firstly we have Generic Angsty White Guy, inspector Marlott. He works for the River Patrol, hunting down opium smugglers and generally not being super popular with his fellows because Gritty. He finds a body of a child during one of his investigations – and this body seems to be seven separate children’s bodies sewn together. He has been recruited by the Home Secretary Sir Richard Pool to find out who is behind this.

Marlott also has syphilis, taking mercury, a requisite dead, tragic family (which may or may not be his fault because ANGST) and a loss of faith and a need for redemption.

Honestly, I’m not inspired. I’ve just seen so many of these characters. Grim, gritty, angst-laden, standing on a fridge of dead women and practicing his rugged grim suffering look which I’ve seen so many times over and over. Yawn not another one!

He has sidekicks – an urchin and Nightingale. I like to think Nightingale will be a well developed, interesting character but part of my cynically thinks that his inclusion involved the following discussion:

Producer #1: Shit… I’ve just realised the only Black person we have is a nasty child abusing villain

Producer #2: it’s a historical…

Producer #1: Stop, we’ve used that excuse way too often, they’re not buying it

Producer #2: Fine, throw in a Black sidekick

Producer #1: that’s good we can introduce his family and show how they live in 1827 London, the challenges they face and…

Producer #2: Make him an orphan.

Producer #1: Oh…

Producer #2: But a nice guy! That should do it.

Penny Dreadful, Season 3, Episode 9: The Blessed Dark

This is the end…

The end of Penny Dreadful

Entirely?

We’re ending here?!

No no no NO!

This cannot end here. This cannot be the ending. I refuse to let this incredibly beautiful show end. I refuse to let it end so… disappointingly.

I shall begin with the good – because if this is my last chance to say it then I must: this show is beautiful. The settings are gorgeous, the atmosphere unparalleled, the acting unsurpassed, the music perfectly chosen – every scene is a work of art; a work of pure beautiful art. Every line is a poem, every last moment of this show was crafted to perfection. It was a joy to watch.

This show certainly laid the groundwork for that with devastating tragedy – opening with a grief stricken song and the inevitable awful death of Joh Clare’s son. It’s fitting this episode begins with this death and, at the close of the episode, we see him lower his son’s body into the Thames: despite his wife begging him to take the boy to Frankenstein to be reborn like him. John’s self hatred cannot let him be happy, cannot let him follow a clear path to happiness – he sees no hope or happy ending only more tragedy

And isn’t that Penny Dreadful through and through? Beautiful and tragic. No happy endings here.

So no-one getting a happy ending? Yes, I could see that. That’s the essence of this show. Everything being so sad and grim with its ending isn’t what is disappointing – it’s the anti-climax, it’s the fizzle and it’s the wasted potential.

Waste potential the first: Dorian and Lily. While Dorian FINALLY pulls off the jaded immortal with a rather epic speech that truly encompasses the cost of immortality and with a nice reference to his portrait. It’s a good speech but it’s far too damn late after a season of whiny petulance. Lily reacts to Justine’s death and all her minions fled by… walking away. Her whole revolution is just a footnote in Dorian’s story of jaded immortality! It’s not even Lily’s story any more.

Penny Dreadful, Season 3, Episode 8: Perpetual Night

Everything is very bleak and dark – of course, such imagery is the bread and butter of Penny Dreadful. With Vanessa’s ominous voiceover we have the stage set of darkened and fog clouded streets, evil darkness, cloying poisons in the air and the night creatures rising up

Penny Dreadful is the undisputed master of gothic imagery.

Enter into this the one gloomy bright spot, with John Smith and his family, him making all these happy plans for the future while his eager son is ravaged by a cough, all those happy plans hollow before his inevitable demise

How very… Victorian; gloomy, tragic, desperately sad and sweet.

With Kaetenay, Malcolm and Ethan arriving from America they convene at Sir Malcolm’s house and, after a bit of fun with some vampires, they’re joined by Catriana and hunting skills: saving Ethan and teaching Malcolm the finer points of curing a vampire bite. And the foolishness of stubborn male pride

While Ethan decides to run off into the fog looking for Vanessa, the others are joined by Dr. Seward. She’s just had an unpleasant experience with Renfield who, in addition to being horrifying, also told her a lot about Dracula and tried to murder her, sure she wouldn’t fight back because she’s not a killer

That shows what he knows

Duly beaten and imprisoned in a straight jacket, he is now confined for Seward and Catriona (who have collectively become toweringly awesome in this show) to question.

Ethan is lured through the streets by a child vampire into an ambush. He tells Dracula repeatedly that he will rescue Vanessa while Dracula responds, equally repeatedly that Vanessa isn’t actually his prisoner, she’s there willingly. Ethan won’t hear this so Dracula casually flips him aside and leaves him to his minions

Penny Dreadful, Season 3, Episode 3: Good and Evil Braided Be

Ethan and Hecate continue their wandering through the old west which is all full of deserts and death as we’re reminded frequently. No really, everyone has to tell us how deadly the landscape is probably because we’re not seeing a lot of said deadliness.

Except Hecate. She totally wants to follow Ethan to his dad’s and kill lots of people so they can all be super dark and evil rulers of… everything? It’s an ambitious albeit vague plan. Ethan is against this and her murdering people to get their horses (though he still takes the horses and supplies. That’s a convenient evil companion to have around – don’t want to do anything morally questionable? Let your evil companion do it, judge them and then enjoy the result).

Hecate isn’t exactly on side with his judgement, or moral grey areas. She doesn’t particularly see a whole lot of moral room between her choosing to kill people and Ethan losing control and killing people – the bodies are still on the ground. Obviously there are flaws in her reasoning but it also begs the question of how much Ethan must restrain himself before the murders he causes are intentional. Especially when they are convenient – like escaping his captives.

They’re being followed by Inspector Rusk who continues to have a lot of class and coolness. He tries to introduce Marshall Franklin Ostow to the concept of the occult.

They’re also being followed by Kaetenay, the endlessly cryptic and Malcolm. Kaetenay predicts all kinds of spooky bad things happening if they can’t keep Ethan on the side of goodness. His prediction sounds almost apocalyptic… albeit vague. It isn’t helped when he discusses Hecate’s presence with Michael and they find the bodies she left behind

Malcolm also champions Kaetenay against some nasty racists… there really feels like a kind of forced redemption narrative with Malcolm this season. Taking the imperialist explorer with the characterless Black servant and now making points about how imperialism is wrong and racist segregation is terrible? I mean, obviously they are wrong and terrible, but it feels more like an attempt to make it clear Malcolm isn’t like Those Imperialists more than anything else.

The Librarians, Season Two, Episode Two: And the Broken Staff

The librarians are all back safe and sound and Flynn immediately wants to send the team out.  It's Eve who bothers to acknowledge the good work that team did but Flynn can only point out that they didn't actually beat Prospero. Flynn is sulking because he feels that he and Eve had a good thing along but Eve points out that if they work together, they can get the drop on the bad guys.

Unbeknownst to The Librarians, Prospero has sneaked into the Library.

Flynn decides to give the team a pep talk about joining their forces to defeat Prospero.  He explains that in rare cases when a story is really well read and the character written beautifully, the ambient energy allows them to step out of their story.  While Flynn updates the team, Jenkins is busy giving him the side eye.  I guess Flynn forgot that Jenkins is the one who first explained this to him.  Jenkins finally intervenes to say that what Prospero is doing is weird because characters normally lack the will to change their own stories. When Flynn gives him the eye, Jenkins gives Flynn back the floor. Flynn tells the group that Prospero's next move will be to find and repair his staff. Jenkins interrupts again, and explains that he normally does the briefings and Flynn does the rapid fire conclusions. Yeah, one day Flynn will realise that he is not the only smart person in the room. Flynn finally gives the floor to Jenkins, who says that they don't know what happened to the pieces of the staff.  The team break up to look for clues as to where the pieces of the staff are located.

When Flynn get a moment alone with Eve, she suggests that they need a Plan B in case Prospero gets to the staff first.  Flynn has a eureka moment and thinks that he knows where the staff is and suggests that the team work on a Plan B.  Eve is immediately suspicious and wonders if this is a plan to be alone together.

Prospero calls on Moriarty and uses electricity to discipline Moriarty and remind him of his place. Prospero then calls on the sprite to help him find the heart.  The sprite however does not move and Prosepero believes the magic in the library is confusing the sprite. It's then that Jenkins walks in.

Eve and Flynn arrive at the estate of John Dee, who was a contemporary of Shakespeare. Flynn discovers Shakespeare's stage and rambles on about how he thought he would have made a good actor.  Eve suggests words that never would have been spoken on the stage would lead to the staff. Flynn whispers Macbeth. Yes, they are invoking the superstition where an actor cannot say Macbeth because it is believed by some that the play is cursed. Flynn utters Macbeth and magical writing appears on the stage. Flynn figures out that the staff is below them.

Jones and Jake are looking for references to the sword and Jake is astonished that Jake doesn't know how to use a card catalog.  Jones points out that it's the 21st century and he doesn't know how to shoe a horse either, causing Jake to leave in disgust.  When Jake tries to open the door, he finds that he is locked in. Jones says that the library is in lock down security as an intruder alert.  They realise that Prospero must be in the library with Jenkins.

Prospero tells Jenkins that they are going to walk the path of power.  Jenkins refuses to help and asks Prospero and Moriarty if they know who he is. Moriarty deduces that Jenkins was a knight of the round of the table, so Jenkins says that he has been tortured and grilled long before Moriarty and Prospero were even conceived of.  It seems however that Prospero is interested in the tree of knowledge and so has set his sights on the library's heart.

Jones is all chill while Jake and Cassandra are freaking out about the fact that Prospero has Jenkins. Jones says that the alert which is going off is low level security and that there's a hidden pass code if a librarian needs to get back in.  Jones pull out his phone and says that they need to go the local library. Jones is astounded that no one has bothered to read the security manual.

Flynn pulls out a box from under the stage and finds it locked.  There's another code on the box and Eve suggests that it is an anagram.  After several attempts, it's Eve who figures it out, relying on her knowledge of Macbeth.  Once Flynn opens the box, they find a parchment which indicates that a Librarian from 400 years ago collected the staff.

The crew is at the regular Library and Jones approaches the Librarian and asks to check out a book. It seems that he doesn't have a library card and resorts to insisting that he is a Librarian.  Jones asks for the complete works of William Shakespeare unabridged and learns that it was checked out. The crew chase down the little girl who checked it out and beg her to give them the book but she is savvy and starts demanding money.  When they resist, she increases the price. Jones is clearly impressed with her.

Dracula: The Modern Prometheus by Rafael Chandler (Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker)

Mina Harker, newly qualified solicitor, was just going to Transylvania to aid in the transfer of property – the Countess is certainly a little unusual but she is also educated and worldly and she certainly appreciates that

Until it becomes clear she’s stumbled onto something very unworldly, one she barely escapes – but when that threat follows her to London she gathers her fellows and is determined to fight

Even while the Countess’s grizzly experiments rise from the grave with her own desperate purpose.

This book has that very elaborate writing that is quite common with a lot of books set in the Victorian era. This does a lot to convey a greater sense of time and place – which did work very well to create that sense of place that these books needed. But it does make for a book that is quite long winded – it does slow the plot down.

This slow speed is a particular problem because, certainly in the beginning, we kind of know what the story is going to be like. Yes, bits have been changed and the book combines both Dracula and Frankenstein. We all know when Mina Harker arrives at Countess Dracula’s castle roughly how this plot is going to play out. Elaborate and beautiful language may be good for the setting – but we know this setting – and it may set the tone but it makes the book very slow to start and get past the basic plot lines we don’t already recognise.

Once we do get past that beginning it develops excellently, weaving the two stories together into a coherent whole. The Countess and her drive to bring back her beloved sister resorts to any means she can – both mystical and “scientific” – regardless of the cost and with her obsessive focus and brilliant intellect, leading to both vampirism and the monster being created.

Penny Dreadful, Season 2, Episode 10: And They Were Enemies

We open with wolfy Ethan – and dead Sembene and my eternal disgust.

Vanessa is being taunted by a ventriloquist dummy, possessed by the Fallen Angel, about being a murderer (and calling her Amaunet). But Vanessa must give her soul willingly. With Evelyn they both accuse her about the darkness she embraced and the black magic she’s used. They try to tempt her and challenge her to a staring contest (well knowing herself, but I’m amused that anyone thinks they could win a staring contest with Vanessa). They tempt her with her ultimate wish – to be normal which leads to a vision of life, married to Ethan and with two kids. Vanessa calls the vision cruel while they described what a wonderful peaceful life she would have (and, in classic Victorian gothic, that includes a beautiful death) with her friends free

Vanessa pulls back. She knows what she is – and a normal life isn’t in her dreams any more. And she growls and it is perhaps the most terrifying thing this show has ever had. She has a Verbis Diablo duel with her possessed puppet, the whole building shaking from it and Evelyn cowering from the noise. The puppet is destroyed and a wave of scorpions (Vanessa’s symbol) crawl from within.

“Beloved know your master”, the puppet shatters. Along with the epic scale. Evelyn, her master defeated, ages rapidly – and Hecate releases Ethan who runs free and slices out her throat with his claws

He then confronts Vanessa and calms. He runs from her. Sensible man. Vanessa absorbs a scorpion into her hand – where it leaves its image as a scar in the palm before fading because she clearly hasn’t maximised the creepy yet

Victor is confronted by his ghostly “kids”, all his creations – they all accuse him of the terrible ways he’s treated them (including Lily outright calling his touching her abuse). Malcolm is confronted by his ghostly dead kids. With all the guilt they push them to “atone” – suicide.

As Evelyn dies, the visions tormenting Victor and Malcolm fade. Leaving them both a little shaken in the aftermath.

And Lyle manages to shoot the witch holding him. His parting lines are: “never underestimate the power of a queen with lovely hair, my dear.” Oh… Lyle.

They reunite and Malcolm shoots and kills another naked witch. They unite with Vanessa and find Sembene’s dead body.

Hecate is left along among the destruction, singing merrily and leaving it to burn behind her.

Penny Dreadful, Season 2, Episode 8 Momento Mori

Lily reflects on how she likes her men boyish and full of games and… dead. Just like the corpse she created last week (and kisses his staring dead eye – uckies uckies uckies).

Back at Frankenstein’s, John comes home to find Lily missing and rages at (a probably hung over) Victor for letting her go out with a man – threatening him with a live wire. All his comments about letting Lily chose go out the window as John growls that Lily is made for him, is his – not Victor’s and not Dorian’s. He now intends to leave with her and, one day, come back to get Victor and do terrible things to him.

Lily returns to Victor the next day, surprised by all the destruction. Victor yells at her for being out all night but she is amazingly calm and collected, tells him to settle down while casually telling him about her evening. She’s also received flowers from Dorian who she considers immensely charming but just a little too sophisticated. Victor tries to convince her to run away from London with him – but she doesn’t want to go, London is her home.

Victor goes to see Sir Malcolm and I’m not sure whether to talk about opiate addiction or being in love or both (I think love) – either way he needs his surrogate father for some advice to which Malcom has little except mutual supporting confusion to offer. Malcolm reflects on his own failings – his past of cruelty which he has only recently come to recognise; he recognises how he has changed, how he is now happy but also how that, fundamentally, isn’t him.

The woo-woo seems to be fading as well, since he seems to have grasped that he was at a ball during his wife’s funeral which just Is Not Done and certainly is not him.

Lyle is visiting with Evelyn and he muses about vanity, appearance and youth – which also leads to a note on Evelyn’s youth (eternally preserved by her demonic master) and her dangling that carrot before him. He pretends not to care about Vanessa & co and cuts of her attempts to tempt him as unnecessary since he’s already her creature (after all, if she’s already blackmailing his obedience more is just gilding, or the fiction that he’s a willing accomplice). And he has absolutely no knowledge to offer her – which is why she threatens him; but he has been very careful to ensure he knows nothing to tell. She forces him to kiss her before he leaves, much to his obvious disgust – and hers. As he leaves Hecate as her own questions – and is still plotting against mother dearest

Inspector Rusk is still doing his detecting guided by his bizarre psychic instinct - which leads him to Malcolm. He wants to know why Malcolm told his predecessor to hunt a beast rather than a human killer and Malcolm tries the really terrible excuse “it was just a silly whimsy of mine.” The inspector does not buy this. The Inspector remarks about his excessive security and lack of staff (and I call shenanigans, there is no way Sembene can maintain that house by himself). He tries to confront Malcolm about the clandestine nature of his daughter’s burial which Malcolm absolutely refuses to be questioned about – and he denies knowing Ethan Chandler.

Penny Dreadful, Season 2, Episode 7: Little Scorpion

In the basement of the mansion, Ethan is back to humanity and Sembene says some weird things about consuming animals and becoming a strange melange which is not how digestion works. He’s talking about wereanimals his people know about. He has a lot of questions but few answers – but decides it is a blessing because he knows Ethan. (What because he’s good? That would make it a curse, sureuy?)

Ethan wants to know what Sembene saw, because he never remembers his wolfy moments.

The other drama is addressing that Vanessa fainted at the party and Malcolm has the audacity to suggest female hysteria (Vanessa doesn’t even give him the “I shall flay the skin from your bones with my eyes” look, he’s not worth it) and Vanessa snaps back at the insult of such nonsense. It’s very clear that Malcolm isn’t thinking clearly as he thinks Vanessa was “overstimulated” and doesn’t think Vanessa can sense things – something even Victor has come to believe in.

Vanessa decides it’s time to leave London to be safe – taking Ethan with her. Lyle quickly agrees, adding that she shouldn’t even tell them where they’re going. Malcolm disapproves but Victor can see the wisdom when their enemy is something that can’t see or sense or stop.

She does trust Victor with where she’s going (and no, she’s not running, she’s finding a better weapon) and adds that he needs to watch and look after sir Malcolm. Also she wants to reassure Victor that Lily will totally come back to him.

Vanessa and Ethan go to the Cut Wife’s home – with lots of poignant emotion from Vanessa. She speaks of the Cut Wife, remembering her fondly before seeing the terrible book she left to Vanessa.

When foraging, Vanessa also speaks of his relationship with Sir Malcolm, how they bonded over their mutual rage and pain – and how Malcolm has now lost that and their relationship is damaged because of it. She both misses that closeness and recognises the selfishness of it

That night they both share childhood stories and it’s such fun to see them like that (and fear of Victorian dolls is quite healthy because they are beyond creepy) as they turn serious and reflect on how they’ve been made into what they are now - and the monster/demon inside them. Before Ethan goes out under the moon, telling Vanessa to bolt the door behind her.