I loved both seasons of Penny Dreadful, and I loved the first episode of Penny Dreadful: City of Angels. I've already watched it twice and still have it recorded, and I hadn't even known it was coming until a couple weeks ago. So I was shocked when I visited the show's IMDB page to give it a high score and saw the ratings it was getting. I hadn't planned to write any comments, but feel compelled.
PD:CA is set in a different milieu from PD, and (fire CGI aside) it's a gorgeous one. I grew up in Southern California, but I didn't learn about Santa Muerte until much later, so my reaction is not just nostalgia for childhood imagery. (Though the reviewer who criticized the show as ahistorical, grousing that initial google searching shows veneration of Santa Muerte was only "documented" in Mexico after WWII, apparently didn't even read Wikipedia, which correctly shows the centuries-old roots of the beliefs, noting only that the practice remained "clandestine" until the mid-20th century.
The acting in PD:CA was good to great - Lorenza Izzo as Santa Muerte is gripping, and Nathan Lane was much better in this fantastical period drama than his many comic roles would have led me to expect. Given the historical treatment of Mexican-Americans in SoCal, a 1930s L.A. story that ignored the group conflict whose inclusion seems to irk so many reviewers must either ignore Mexican-Americans entirely or whitewash history. That is not to say that this show is "realistic"; it is a fantasy (as was PD). And, contrary to some reviewers, Natalie Dormer's fantastic, demonic Magda does not absolve humans for our evil. Anyone who interprets the show that way is slighting Magda's opening scene dialogue wherein she explains that she is simply telling humans they can be the monsters they really are. I am excited to have this show telling its story and can't wait for the coming episodes.
If you like more than just the narrow genres in which PD might be pigeonholed, give PD:CA a chance.
PD:CA is set in a different milieu from PD, and (fire CGI aside) it's a gorgeous one. I grew up in Southern California, but I didn't learn about Santa Muerte until much later, so my reaction is not just nostalgia for childhood imagery. (Though the reviewer who criticized the show as ahistorical, grousing that initial google searching shows veneration of Santa Muerte was only "documented" in Mexico after WWII, apparently didn't even read Wikipedia, which correctly shows the centuries-old roots of the beliefs, noting only that the practice remained "clandestine" until the mid-20th century.
The acting in PD:CA was good to great - Lorenza Izzo as Santa Muerte is gripping, and Nathan Lane was much better in this fantastical period drama than his many comic roles would have led me to expect. Given the historical treatment of Mexican-Americans in SoCal, a 1930s L.A. story that ignored the group conflict whose inclusion seems to irk so many reviewers must either ignore Mexican-Americans entirely or whitewash history. That is not to say that this show is "realistic"; it is a fantasy (as was PD). And, contrary to some reviewers, Natalie Dormer's fantastic, demonic Magda does not absolve humans for our evil. Anyone who interprets the show that way is slighting Magda's opening scene dialogue wherein she explains that she is simply telling humans they can be the monsters they really are. I am excited to have this show telling its story and can't wait for the coming episodes.
If you like more than just the narrow genres in which PD might be pigeonholed, give PD:CA a chance.
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