PENNY DREADFUL: CITY OF ANGELS
To Live And Die In LA
US Showtime, Sundays
UK Sky Atlantic, Wednesday from 1 July
Creator John Logan
Cast Natalie Dormer, Daniel Zovatto,
Kerry Bishé, Adriana Barraza
Barring the presence of Rory Kinnear, this new spinoff seems to have no real connection to the gothic drama.
Set in 1938 LA, it centres on Santiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto), the LAPD’s first Chicano cop, as he deals with racist colleagues and accusations of selling out. In the opener he looks into the heartremoval murders of a rich white family, and must pick sides when a dispute about bulldozing his neighbourhood comes to a head.
in the first five minutes of episode one, reappears a year later as a technologically enhanced police officer – “90% human, 10% AI”. But Major isn’t quite the Sherlock Holmes-meets-Commander Data cop the force was hoping for: thanks to some loose wiring, he’s more Trigger than Luther.
Despite its ambitious serialised narrative, Code 404 isn’t one of those series that’s hard to pin down as either drama or comedy
Tiago is likeable, the period detail delights, and the show instructively shines a light on how prevalent fascist sympathies were in the US pre-WW2: Kinnear plays a German émigré who speechifies about “America first”… It’s not subtly done, and neither is Tiago’s fractious relationship with his brother. There’s also something faintly ludicrous about the Big Bad – shapeshifting Lady Macbeth type Magda (Natalie Dormer). As she sashays about in a black PVC outfit more suited to an X-villain, your response will likely be either a derisive snort or a howl of “Yas Queen”. Ian Berriman
Los Angeles is a shortening of the original name: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río Porciúncula.
Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) meets RoboCop