Penny Dreadful is easily one of the most underrated hidden gen cult favorites among Television Shows and after stumbling upon one of my favorite scenes, I decided to do a mini-tribute on the series. Why is it a mini-tribute? It's because Penny Dreadful has so many great things to it that it is simply very hard to do a proper tribute without making this post into at least a 30 minute read. Just because almost nobody is talking about the series, don't think of it as something along the lines of a cult favorite that had some really interesting stuff going for it. Penny Dreadful is way more than that. It's filled with almost too much A-list talent that most TV Series simply doesn't have.

The Best Bond Girl - Second Best Bond & Writer of Gladiator, The Aviator, The Last Samurai, Skyfall and Spectre

That's not even the end of it. The story incorporates many of the famous Victorian characters like Dorian Grey, Frankenstein , Van Helsing, Ethan Chandler and many more while he city of London and many other places are beautifully created/re-created. It's not as good as a movie at times. But it is competent. Same can be said about the directing. In fact, directing, visual effects and pacing are the worst bits of Penny Dreadful. Take a look at this scene and figure out how bad those things are. (Don't worry. It's just the 2nd episode; not a huge spoiler)

Most of the things mentioned in the scene are only explored much later in the series. You could even call this scene bit of a preview of what is to come and the series delivers. There are only 27 episodes and that's a huge plus because the longer the series gets the quality suffers. My favorite TV series "Sherlock" only has 13 episodes and it's better than MCU and James Bond franchises combined. Quality >>>>> Quantity

For those Who Didn't Know Timothy Dalton

And here is a list of accolades of the writer/showrunner:

Nominated, 2011 – Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, for Hugo
Winner, 2010 – Tony Award Best Play, for Red.
Winner 2008 – Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Winner, 1999 – Writers Guild of America Best TV Adapted Writing, for RKO 281
Nominated, 2004 – Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for The Aviator.
Nominated, 2004 – BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, for The Aviator
Nominated, 2004 – Writers Guild of America Best Original Screenplay, for The Aviator
Nominated, 2000 – Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Gladiator.
Nominated, 2000 – BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, for Gladiator
Nominated, 1999 – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Mini-Series or Movie, for RKO 281

It's a Grand Showdown of Acting & Writing

that is how I'd define the series because other things kind of take a back seat and movies do a much better job at those things. i didn't enjoy the pacing that much except for few episodes where things were just perfect. Penny Dreadful is the kind of series where you throw out all your concerns when hings start to get really good with either acting or writing. Think of a summer blockbuster and replace the Explosions with Acting & Writing. Sometimes you don't want to bother thinking about he plot. Sometimes the writing itself is as good as seeing a bunch of Transformers trying o kill each other in Bayham.

Who the hell even needs a context let alone a story arc when you can have scenes like this. Who needs to bother with mediocre directing when you can have scenes like this. This is Penny Dreadful and this is barely a tiny fraction of what the 27 episodes are about. It's not all bleak either. There are some genuine humor that never feels out of place.

I also came across a perfect actress to play Ayn Rand if the need arises and her name is Patti LuPone

In case you don't mind spoilers, you can enjoy the following scene which is a much better exorcism than the ones from The Conjuring and The Exorcist

If you are not already convinced I don't think anything I have anything to add to convince you. You have a short series with A-list acting and A-list writing which is basically just acting and writing porn with many fan favorite Victorian characters and honestly, I did feel nostalgic about the times I spent reading those related books as a child and as a teenager and I can assure you that there has been a serious effort to capture the feeling and atmosphere of those fiction
even though it is not 100% consistent. So here is a trailer for the series that you can share around because this was the trailer that I firs saw and it is the one that got me into watching the first 2 episodes.

I'll end the post with one final tribute for Penny Dreadful and Eva Green which can be even used next to the word "Underrated" in a dictionary. Many great things fly under the radar and I believe in ringing that greatness into the light. I prefer cyberpunk over horror and I do think of Steven Moffat as the greatest writer in television. But I do have to say that the best acting I've seen on TV came from Penny Dreadful despite all its flaws. Oscar Winning movie would look 2nd or 3rd rate after you get the Penny Dreadful treatment and that is not an exaggeration.