The eight-episode first season of Penny Dreadful aired during the spring and summer of 2014. It was a horror series that aired on Showtime and starred Eva Green, Timothy Dalton, Josh Hartnett, Harry Treadaway, and Reeve Carney. It is set in England in the late 1800s is based on the old vampire, Frankenstein, and Dorian Gray stories. There are actually several different story arcs that are mostly independent of one another (especially in the first season) and then intertwine at points. The main storyline involves Dutton, Green, and Hartnett's characters. Dalton plays Malcolm Murray, a British explorer whose daughter, Mina, has been abducted. He enlists the help of Ethan Chandler (Hartnett), who is an American with great marksmanship and, along with Mina's best friend Vanessa Ives (Green), tries to find Mina to bring her home. They also enlist the help of a young Dr. Frankenstein (played by Treadaway), who, quite separately from the plot to find Mina, has created a literal monster (played by Rory Kinnear). Dorian Gray (Carney) basically seduces a bunch of people and sets his sights on Vanessa.
The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. The series looks and sounds great on Blu-Ray. The show uses a lot of practical effects, but there is some CGI, and everything blends seamlessly. The show uses a lot of shadow and darkness, which can border on being a bit too dark, but other than that, the A/V quality is fine. For extras, there are several short behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes that total about twenty minutes, give or take, in length altogether. They are all separate, however, range from about a minute and a half in length to just over three minutes and cannot be played all at once. Then there are two episodes from the Showtime series Ray Donovan.
Overall, the show is very good. It uses a lot of characters from old horror stories like Van Helsing, Dracula, Frankenstein, and more and weaves them into the story. The series is very well written and acted, with Green, who has a pretty incredible acting range, doing much of the heavy lifting. She can go from classic, gorgeous Victorian upper-class to raving psychotic with ease, and throughout the series, she does both. There is a lot of violence as well as sex and nudity in the show. So, it is definitely not family-friendly. But, if you are looking for something that is a good blend of horror and drama with a lot of the classic horror story characters, this is a great one.
The Blu-Ray set is a four-disc set. The series looks and sounds great on Blu-Ray. The show uses a lot of practical effects, but there is some CGI, and everything blends seamlessly. The show uses a lot of shadow and darkness, which can border on being a bit too dark, but other than that, the A/V quality is fine. For extras, there are several short behind-the-scenes and making-of featurettes that total about twenty minutes, give or take, in length altogether. They are all separate, however, range from about a minute and a half in length to just over three minutes and cannot be played all at once. Then there are two episodes from the Showtime series Ray Donovan.
Overall, the show is very good. It uses a lot of characters from old horror stories like Van Helsing, Dracula, Frankenstein, and more and weaves them into the story. The series is very well written and acted, with Green, who has a pretty incredible acting range, doing much of the heavy lifting. She can go from classic, gorgeous Victorian upper-class to raving psychotic with ease, and throughout the series, she does both. There is a lot of violence as well as sex and nudity in the show. So, it is definitely not family-friendly. But, if you are looking for something that is a good blend of horror and drama with a lot of the classic horror story characters, this is a great one.
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