Penny Dreadful - Season Two (Spoilers!)

"Abandon hope all ye who enter here"

Over the last few weeks I've been binge-watching quite a few tv shows, catching up on things like Person of Interest, Peaky Blinders, Agents of Shield and Justified, along with introducing myself to other new shows with less success.

Two shows that I won't let slip and that I even watch every week rather than waiting until the season's end,  are Game of Thrones and Penny Dreadful and for me they really are, along with Peaky Blinders,  the best damn programmes on tv at the moment. The quality of the casting and the writing certainly show where the money has been spent and because of this the latest season of Game of Thrones has been, for me at any rate, on a par with all previous seasons that came before it. But the real revelation has been Penny Dreadful and unfortunately I can't write about this show without spoilers so, if you haven't seen season 2 yet, I'll give you chance to leave and I'll continue after the jump...

Holy Crap they killed off Sembene!! Just as the season was progessing and it looked like the African former slave-trader was going to be Ethan's confidante to all of his lycanthrope leanings, he goes and gets killed, And by Ethan, no less. Talk about ironic.

The thing that saddens me most about killing Sembene off now is that we were just starting to get to know him. Where other characters have had their motivations and backstory shown, his was just starting to be revealed. Maybe I saw him as something more than a bit part player as he has been an ever present support throughout season one and in season two had begun to show previously hidden beliefs and talents. It annoys me even more than the ridiculously quick killing of David Warner's Van Helsing, which I was only just starting to forget.

Strangely enough, even with all of this pent up emotion, I still trust those responsible for the show. Where many a continuing programme will leave you on a cliff hanger or with unanswered questions, Penny Dreadful has decided to completely rip apart the group and send many of them to different parts of the globe. Sir Malcolm, who I imagine any minute to have his name changed to Allan Quartermaine, is heading back to the dark continent to bury his friend Sembene. Ethan, who has finally been revealed to be Lawrence Talbot, is heading back to his Dad in the US of A, all because he did the decent thing and handed himself in to the police for the Mariner's Inn massacre. The creature is looking to be marooned in the frozen Arctic wastes, much like he was in Shelley's novel and his creator is travelling ever more inward through his descending spiral of drug consumption. Which leaves Vanessa. The lamps are extinguished in the Murrays' London house, she's turned down an invitation from the creature to follow her away from humanity, and even though she couldn't convince Ethan to stay she still appears strong.

Lon Chaney Jr

Benicio del Toro

Josh Hartnett

The changing faces of Lawrence Talbot.....

There are other characters that we can't forget, of course. As season 1 set up Madame Kali as the nemesis for season 2, so would it appear likely that Brona/Lilly and Dorian Grey, with their plans for world domination, will come into the crosshairs of the League of Ex... sorry, the Dreadfuls? A good friend of mine bemoans Billie Piper's Irish accent but she has certainly stepped up to the plate with the way her character plays the line between feigned innocence and demonic-whore-with-an-axe-to-grind. Casual remarks have alluded to a master vampire still being at large, at one point I assumed this to be Dorian's hidden identity, and I'm looking forward to seeing if he will make an appearance.

In particular though with Season 2 I liked how they kept the Devil behind the doll's mask of Vanessa. All too often the image that is in our mind is let down by the attempts to amaze and scare us with it on screen. It's going to be a long wait for season 3 but I'm intrigued as to what will happen next and at the very least whether the ship carrying Ethan to America makes it there with the captain and crew in one piece.