Penny Dreadful - Season 3 [DVD] [2016]

I actually liked this season more than I thought I would. *Spoilers*The best part was following Ethan the werewolf through America for a meeting with his father. You learn about their history a bit and it's really well written and acted! Honestly, if the entire season was just about this, I would have been satisfied.However, it is not. The rest of the plot is weaker and at times I just wanted it to be over. For instance, when Brona turns a bunch of prostitutes into killers by having a chat with them. Dorian seemed pathetic, letting the women walk over him and just watching them from the bsckground. In the end this is brilliantly twisted round when he throws them out and you realise he was deliberately hanging back to see if anything interesting was going to happen but it doesn't change the fact that 10 minutes of being awesome does not erase the memory of hours of lameness.Brona is now the leader of killer prostitutes because she hates men because of her life as a prostitute where several men mistreated her. Bit of an extreme response but okay. That's pretty much her arc along with Victors arc they tie together as Victor tries to get her back to what she was like when he first resurrected her. The ending made little sense. Victor finally has her and is going to perform the procedure when she tells him if the daughter she lost when alive. He lets her go she goes back to Dorian, finds the women have left and promptly leaves herself. So, what now? Does she try to find more women to rebel? Does she go underground and plan a more diabolical revenge against man? It's never really explained but it appears that revealing her sad story has changed her mind and she's no longer desperate to overthrow mankind. Phew.Dr Jekyll being an Indian who was the illegitimate child of a white man who abandoned him didn't annoy me as much as I thought, although it did a bit. I would have preferred they stick to tradition but it seemed like they at least put a little thought into it, although he didn't have to be Indian for the Father abandonment/shame storyline to play. It did give Jekyll an inner resentment and anger that you could, at times, completely believe would fuel Mr Hyde in the future. The last little bit sucked when you discover Jekyll's father has died and passed his title to Henry so Victor calls him Lord Hyde. That felt tacky and added on as a reminder as to who Jekyll would become which I don't think was needed.The creature has remembered his life before resurrection and goes to find his family. That's pretty much it. He finds them but his son has been ill for years and finally dies. His wife, who accepts the resurrected husband back a bit more easily than I think I would, insists the creature bring the son to Frankenstein or leave forever. It was a mildly interesting arc but it just added to the patheticness of the creature, which for me are the weakest points of his plot. I like it when the creature is angry and resentful because he doesn't know where he fits in in the world and, on this occasion, he had none of that. For some reason they decided that mopey was the way to go.Vanessa is another good story. This time she is being pursued by Dracula to be his bride. Strangely, the Devil seems to have completely cut his losses and, as far as I recall, doesn't make a peep in this series. I enjoyed this arc. It was fun and, slightly silly in places where Draculas human helpers seem to develop a stammer of sorts or something, but it was generally well handled and a lot of fun. While Ethan's plot was the best for story, Vanessa's plot was the best for sheer enjoyment.There are some episodes that are weaker than others. The one based in the past with Vanessa and the Creature who it turns out, was her orderly when she was in the mental asylum, was interesting for about 10 minutes but then it got repetitive. It shouldn't have been a stand alone episode but shown as much shorter clips in another episode. It didn't have the momentum to carry your attention throughout. Overall though this is a great season and a good one to end it all on. I was pretty satisfied when it all ended and overall pretty pleased with what I had watched. A good addition to the series and, possibly, my favourite of the three.

Alarming prophecies tell of fast approaching eternal global darkness. What, if anything, can the characters met so far do to avert? Many are otherwise engaged. Werewolf Ethan is in America to confront his ruthless father. Frankenstein and Jekyll have combined forces, hoping to produce blemish-free beings. Dorian Gray seems to have created in Lily a monster he cannot control, she encouraging prostitutes to destroy their clients. Meanwhile the apocalypse edges ever more near. Is much troubled Vanessa its cause or can she be the solution?Quality horror here, the 1880's evocatively recreated - especially its more squalid aspects. With so many awesome performances, it seems unfair to single out any for praise. Few, though, can surely deny Eva Green and Rory Kinnear deserve special mention. The role of Vanessa must be the most demanding Eva Green has ever to play, her suffering intense. Rory Kinnear is most moving as Frankenstein's Creature, especially when remembering how he used to be. Episode 4 is remarkable, they virtually the only two people in it.Nine episodes of around fifty minutes. Interesting bonuses well worth exploring. One on Disc 2 giving details of characters contained a major surprise. Being rather slow on such matters, I had been unaware two characters who looked somewhat similar were one and the same - Dracula no less. More perceptive viewers probably knew this all along.(By the way, those vampires are genuinely scary, especially when scuttling like beetles along the ground.)Have another look at the box set cover. At first glance it obviously depicts a skull, closer examination revealing it nothing of the kind. So it is with the show, characters so often not quite as they appear - exploration of their past helping to explain what they have become.For fans of the genre here is horror delivered with style, this remarkable series ending on a high.Recommended, but those easily disturbed need to stay well away.