Penny Dreadful - S01E02 Séance (2014)

Review

We meet the rather ethereal Dorian Gray, who has this whole David Bowie androgyny thing happening for him. Seems Mr Gray likes to have photos taken while engaging prostitutes, even ones with consumption. Later at a dinner party given by the eccentric Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle, Dorian looks like he might be about to rock Vanessa's world but is stopped in his tracks by the guest of honour Madame Kali, who makes a grand entrance. Seems Ms Kali is a medium who requires eight hearty souls to join her in communing with the spirit realm, naturally Sir Malcolm and Vanessa are across that. Any ideas that the medium is fake are laid to rest quickly, though Vanessa manages to upstage her on the demonic possession stakes. In the wash up Ferdinand Lyle doesn't want Vanessa back at his place as Lyle believes the devil is hunting Ms Ives. So how was your weekend?

Meanwhile gun slinger Ethan Chandler has found new digs at a local hotel, where he forms a liaison with Brona Croft, an Irish prostitute that we first meet in Dorian Gray's photo salon. Seems our Ethan has a past involving the attention of the law and is on the run. Oh and Doc Victor takes his creation, named Proteus, out on the streets of London where they run into Ethan and Brona. Later, back at the lab, Victor learns that the past always has a habit of catching up with you when you least expect it, normally in pretty bloody fashion.

Well I'm bemused and befuddle and any other word that describes confusion over what I just watched. Séance works like the second half of a pilot as to be honest not a lot really happens, we are no further into understanding what Sir Malcolm and his Scooby gang are facing, or where the heck the season is headed. I must admit I got the notion however that the major conflict would be the team attempting to stop an ancient Egyptian demon Goddess from taking the reins of Vanessa's meat suit and thus somehow ushering in the end times. Either that or facing off against Doctor Victor's first creature, which might be responsible for a number of dismemberments going down in London, which include the removal of certain organs but no blood drainage. Maybe some Egyptian cult needs the organs to resurrect their Gods or something. Hey we'll find out when we find out, quit fracking nagging me on this one okay.

It's like pilot extension, a couple of new characters are introduced but no real plot movement

The episode kicks off with what I assume is a prostitute sitting on a bench one evening with a thick fog cutting down her viewing pleasure. I was going to go with a "real pea souper" there, but our North American friends may get real confused with Regan MacNeil spewing on Catholic Priests. Anyways our lady of the night, I assume any chick showing ample cleavage is a prostitute in this show, is contentedly eating an apple when she hears something approaching with a clang of unseen metal on pavement. Before you can mutter "false scare" it turns out to be some random old dude checking the gas lights. Naturally the old dude disappears into the fog and no doubt comes to a sorry end off camera; we get a sound bite of his metal pole hitting the pavers. We next flash to our apple feasting chick, who screams as something unseen comes out of the fog. Cue the dismembered arm and apple combo, thus far unavailable a MacDonalds. I got the feeling we had this sort of intro last episode, bit of a recurrent theme then as Lyz over at And You Call Yourself a Scientist is apt to put it.

Director J.A. Bayona wastes no time in introducing us to Dorian Gray, do a google if you don't know the background, and we find he's another interesting character with all sorts of quirks. Clearly Sir Malcom wants to recruit Dorian to the cause and even goes so far as to ask Vanessa to undo the top button of her blouse, much to the cheering of the male and lesbo audience members. Not quite sure what skills Dorian will bring to the party, besides being something of a lady killer, but no doubt he has abilities that Malcom needs.

Interesting developments on the Vanessa front, with the chick not being the best person to take to a Séance, clearly there are undiscovered depths there. Eva Green absolutely nails it as she portrays two controlling spirits. One is Malcolm's daughter, the spirit possessing the medium claims to be able to command both the dead and undead, which raises some sort of question as to the current state of being of the missing daughter. There's a full on psychological assault on Malcolm, and we learn he had a son who died while they were searching for some mountain. The second spirit is one of your nasty types, an Egyptian Goddess who wants the end of the world and various other apocalyptic things. Following a bit of table top dancing possessed Vanessa storms out, no one seems overly bothered about the demonically controlled chick exiting, hits the streets and immediately roots some random dude. There's going to be a lot of regret in the morning, and I'm betting no phone calls. Actually possessed wanton Vanessa reminded me of Dana Barrett going all sultry in Ghost Busters.

Almost forgot to mention the other character introduced this episode, Brona Croft, an Irish prostitute played by Billie Piper. Clearly Dorian Gray is all over Brona's assets, but surprisingly Ethan Chandler also has a thing for her. I was kind of figuring there would be a love triangle happening between Ethan, Dorian, and Vanessa, so it was surprising when Brona adopted the designated role. There's some debate online revolving around whether or not Billie Piper gets the girls out in this episode or a double was used for the boob shot, anyways yeah the T&A starts to roll this episode as well.

A great slice of the episode is spent developing Doctor Victor's second creature, named Proteus, presenting him as a naïve, timid soul who finds joy in most everything. Naturally it's all setup for one pretty brutal entry of Victor's first creature, and we are immediately put on notice that Penny Dreadful isn't going to shy away from the blood and viscera. Can't wait till next episode to see how the family reunion is going to pan out, clearly creature mark 1 is far more violent than Victor expected.

Cool second episode but as stated it felt like a continuation of the pilot with no real advancement in the plot, beyond the introduction of Dorian and Brona and the whole Egyptian goddess thing, fingers crossed the plot pacing kicks in from episode three. Once again the production values were high, the backdrops stunningly authentic, and a range of interesting characters got their eccentricities on. Recommended, am really up for the next episode, what else awaits us! Penny Dreadful simply knocks it out of the ballpark.