A novel idea Showtime’s ‘Penny Dreadful’ does horror right
Horror is a finicky genre. Many movies and TV shows go for cheap scares, and they fall into the trap of becoming too campy, leaving you rolling your eyes instead of screaming in fear. When horror’s done right, though, you can’t help but stand up and take notice.
This is the case with “Penny Dreadful,” Showtime’s beautifully artistic and well-crafted horror drama from the mind of Oscarnominated writer John Logan. It has the right mix of intriguing characters, interesting storylines and enough thrills and chills to keep you hooked. Season 3 of “Penny Dreadful” wraps up with a two-hour finale airing Sunday, June 19, on Showtime.
Starring French actress Eva Green (“Casino Royale,” 2006), the series has been lauded since Day 1, garnering recognition for its brilliance both on-screen and in the design departments, with Green earning heaps of praise for her portrayal of tormented medium Vanessa Ives.
While the eyeballs of the powers-that-be behind the big TV awards — think the Emmys and Golden Globes — are shifting their focus towards “Penny Dreadful,” they’re still taking their sweet time. In the interim, everyone else is seeing the light.
After being nominated for and winning the Most Exciting New Series award at the 4th Critics’ Choice Television Awards in 2014, the accolades have kept pouring in. In the two years that the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards — a ceremony that honors excellence in the horror and thriller genres — has been handing out television awards, “Penny Dreadful” has raked in 11 nominations, including Best TV Series twice. On the creative side, the series has notched six BAFTA Television Craft Awards nods, winning three in 2015, and three Creative Arts Emmy nominations.
Green isn’t going unnoticed, either. She was recognized at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards in 2015 and 2016, picking up Best TV Actress nominations both years — she finished second in voting in 2015, and took home the award this year. She has also been a recent staple at the aforementioned Critics’ Choice Television Awards, where she was nominated in 2015 and 2016 for Best Actress in a Drama, losing to “Empire’s” Taraji P. Henson and “The Leftovers’” Carrie Coon, respectively.
This year has also marked a huge step forward for Green and the series, with regards to finally getting acknowledged by both the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Green rubbed elbows with the crème de la crème of film and television at the Golden Globes in January, where she was nominated for Best Actress — Television Series Drama. (She again lost to Henson.)
Still, it can be frustrating to watch such a well-received and overall excellent show — which features the likes of Josh Hartnett (“Black Hawk Down,” 2001), Timothy Dalton (“Licence to Kill,” 1989), Billie Piper (“Doctor Who”), Rory Kinnear (“Skyfall,” 2012) and Reeve Carney (“The Tempest,” 2010) — go without the big awards. It seems like only a matter of time for “Penny Dreadful,” though, especially since its leading lady, who flawlessly encapsulates the mysterious medium, relishes all of the challenges she faces when stepping into her Victorianera character.
“I love playing a character from those repressed times who is so nonconformist, it’s very jubilating,” Green said in an interview with the New York Times. “Being possessed, sometimes, it’s very freeing.”
Referring to acting out those “freeing” scenes of demonic possession, she continued: “I love all that! I prefer doing it to light stuff. But it’s true that it’s really intense, like a drug or a sport. Sometimes, after shooting, I go home and lie on the sofa with a glass of red wine and can’t move.”
It also helps that the creator of the series is very invested in the material, and takes a very involved approach.
“I just love monsters. I’ve always loved monsters,” Logan told Adweek in 2014. “Growing up as a gay man, before it was as socially acceptable as it might be now, I knew what it was to feel different from other people, to have a secret and to be frightened of it — even as I knew that the very thing that made me different made me who I was. I think all the characters grapple with a version of that, with a version of exceptionality. Can they come to peace with that thing that marks them as alien to their families and their loved ones? It was very personal to me, which is why I was so committed to writing all of it.”
And so, as season 3 of “Penny Dreadful” winds down, it’s time to start wondering if the series, the show’s stars and the multi-talented crew behind the scenes will continue to be overlooked by the bigwig awards shows in Hollywood. Fans and critics alike are recognizing the show for what it’s worth, and now maybe it’s time for the Emmys and Golden Globes to catch up with the (Victorian) times. Don’t miss the special two-hour season finale of the acclaimed horror drama “Penny Dreadful” when it airs Sunday, June 19, on Showtime.