Penny Dreadful S02E06 – comments, spoilers (!) and production videos

Two things have to be mentioned in this episode of our favorite show.

First: if you wanted to get a very exciting episode with a lot of drama that would change something in the relations between our characters, then this is not your episode. Following things happened:

• Mr. Clare doesn’t seem to be fully alive to Ms. Putney who’s actually blind but she could feel how cold Mr. Clare’s hand was. She was frightened enough to tell it to her parents who seemed to find it very interesting, but that was all we’ve got from that part of the story. I have to add that if my blind daughter told me that she thinks her college must be dead because he has a cold hand, I would probably tell her to grow up instead. Not to mention the old fact that we all know from our teenage years that people with cold hands are hot under the sheets… Wonder why this wasn’t her first association.
• Mr. Murray didn’t actually break down from the fact that her wife’s cut her throat in her bedroom in a silent night. Of course we know it’s the poison of Ms. Poole that does a really great job in making him a careless – and now facial-hair-less – man who acts like one with serious postmidlife crisis issues. Thumbs up to Timothy Dalton here, I must say, his act was amazing.
• Oh well and we have to speak a little bit about Mr. Chandler too. We all knew that this wolfy-thing might end up somehow in the next full moon and from this episode we learned that he figured a very polite way to hide it from the family. Let’s ask Sembene to chain him and watch the show, because he’s always the best in the sit-and-watch position. Wonder what he will add to this in the next episode, I’m sort of waiting for his little bit twisted sense of humor about this topic.
• Another thing about Mr. Chandler needs to be mentioned too: his not so friendly american acquaintance who seriously has a hard time with escorting him back to his dad. Poor thing lost half of his face down the road, he also needed to find another place to live since Mr. Chandler actually ripped down the first Inn with all the human beings in it too, and still doesn’t have the slightest clue how to force our Ethan to a freakin ship to the states. Of course he tries to make him frightened with Vanessa’s hair, but I guess he will find a better way to make him freak out a little bit more.
• 1 death wasn’t enough for Lily to lose her likeness for spirits. And that will be big issue here, because our doctor is a strictly abstinent guy. I have to say I have thought about a lot of things that might rise conflicts between them (f.e. the fact that she had an affair with Mr. Gray & Mr. Chandler too), but this alcohol-issue wasn’t among them. So I wouldn’t be surprized if we saw her hidden behind a corner sipping champaigne or whiskey (more stylish for her, isn’t it?) in the next episode, following with Mr. Frankenstein trying to get rid of the empty and not so empty flasks in the house.
• For last: of course Lily generated jealousy in Angelique at the ball. I guess they won’t be best friends and I’m on Angelique’s side in this situation. Lily’s acting like a 5 year old child and this just doesn’t work.

And the second thing: we’ve got one of the most spectacular work from the whole cast. The ball-scene and the bloodbath was a freakin’ gread job from the makers, I can’t imagine how great effort they have put in it. So from the “making part” of the show it seriously gets a 10/10 from me, and I was very curious wether they added some “behind the scenes” videos for it.

Two videos can be found on the site of Showtime, the first is about the dancing. You can see here all our favorite characters in their normal clothes (it was highly cathartic for me seeing Eva Green in an oversized sweater), laughing, trying to dance properly and I also have to mention that their teacher is a sweet sugar, seriously.

The second video is about the blood monsun which of course they had to really film although it was just Ms. Ives’s imagination after all. It was very surprizing for me that they didn’t actually do that in Dorian’s gallery, but you can find out more interesting stuffs in the next production blog video too. So check it out too! 🙂

Penny Dreadful S02E02 – Critics, comments & SPOILER alert!

First of all I need to tell you, that I’ve had very high expectations about this part. The opening of the second season was a very nice start, it didn’t have a single moment where I looked out the window to check out the weather, it just made me attached to the screen. This second one was a bit slower, although it added a lot to the whole story. Somehow I have to say that we naturally need parts like this, with less blood, more conversations and more intriques like usually, just to make the next one more exciting. (I hope I won’t be disappointed about that.)

So I have to say we don’t seriously need a lot of blood and actions in every part of the series, but somehow it can make a gap, if we don’t get it every time. At least Mr. Chandler (Josh Hartnett) could have used his riffles to make me happy, but only Mr. Murray (Timothy Dalton) had a little shooting practice with a semi-automatic Mauser and the “dean” of the witches Madame Kali (Helen McCrory). But let’s see the whole stuff together, shall we?

Ms. Kali & Mr. Murray having nice moments with a Mauser

The first scene that made me smile was Mr. Murray and Madame Kali who actually always meet at stores. Now it was all about parfumes, Ms. Kali wanted to have a new scent for herself and Murray wanted to buy a gift for Ms. Ives (Eva Green). As they were talking about scents, Ms. Kali invited Mr. Murray to help her choose the perfect one. (These scenes always make me wonder about the methods english women used to catch men for themselves in the 19th century and how unable I would be for that… hahh.) So she was showing the first scent to him, and the following dialogue took place inbetween:

Mr. Murray’s comment for a scent: “Very Nice.”

Ms. Kali: “Very nice? Such a man…” – applause for actress Helen McCrory for the most perfect tone that she could possibly produce for that. Seriously.

Things to learn from that dialogue: you don’t always have to say “fuck you, you simple-headed moron” for a man to fully make him understand what you exactly mean.

We can be also sure, that Mr. Murray’s going to have hard times with this lady in the future, because she didn’t loose the chance to whisper into his ear in the very famous “verbis diablo”, which we just simply call “the devil’s language”.

Shopping is always an important thing.

Mr. Lyle (Simon Russel Beale) also appears in one of the first scenes already, he makes a visit at the Murray Headquarters. I have to tell you, that he’s one of my fav characters in the series, his laugh is remarkable and all the things we ever imagined about elite english men is perfectly added to his nature. He doesn’t give a hack about his wife and usually just matches her with her gin-addiction, makes sarcastic jokes about his “friends” to his “other friends”, whispering naughty gossips about them, having feasts, some hidden perversion and possibly a wig too (but he will deny the fact until the coffin).

Mr. Lyle, Mr. Chandler, Mr. Murray & Ms. Ives @ the Murray Headquarters

So Mr. Lyle is there to add some more infos to the “verbis diablo” storyline about a brother Arthur Gregory who was also possessed by the devil long long time ago. Actually his mate brothers locked him away as a possible lunatic and later on they decided to burn him on a stake. (Well, yeah, brothers and their methods, let’s burn the sicko!) But before they did this highly christian thing, brother Gregory managed to write a book about “his lunatic wavings”, which can be found in The British Museum. So Mr. Lyle & Mr. Chandler take their hats to get a hold of this book.

Mr. Lyle @ The British Museum

We also get a plus info about english scientists and their connection to the museum by Mr. Lyle: “It holds the largest collection of pornography in the world. People are always sneeking in to have a look.” Naughty boys with high prestige, wandering around in The British Museum… Lovely, ain’t they?

After all they bring a whole hutch of the old Gregory’s stuff to the Murray Headquarters, basically after he died, the brothers did a great job putting seriously everything to a big box. We will probably see in the next episodes, what our heroes find out from all this mess on the table.

Remains of the lunatic brother – just take a look. He seriously had a hard life.

We also have to add one more info about Mr. Lyle. I already thought, that he has a connection to Ms. Kali, because she was the fortune-teller at his feast in the first season, but now we find him at the witch-headquarters, where Ms. Kali tells him not to fool her and do what she tells, unless he wants to loose everything he ever had. She’s threating him with “all those photographs… so indescrete. I just can’t imagine what the museum governorns would make of them.” So disloyalty would have its consequences. Poor Mr. Lyle, having his ego and his good will on the table, who knows, which he will choose?

About our witches: Madame Kali and the girls also managed to do something weird in this part. One of the girls stole a freshly born baby for the Madame and very rude things happened to the poor one. Not to mention it had to die very quickly, Ms. Kali went into a chamber full of puppets to cut its chest open, rip out its heart and insert it to a puppet. Guess what all the other puppets must also have behind their little clothes… Huge warning also added here: Ms. Ives also has a puppet that looks exactly like her, waiting for her heart.

Ms. Kali in her puppet-chamber @ work. Look at those instruments… Highest quality morgue equipments of her age, right?

Poor Dorian Grey did only get a few minutes in this part. He met Angelique and was offered a quicky, but because of his broken heart, he denied it first. Angelique (Jonny Beauchamp) seemed kinda weird for me the first time, but I have to admit that I haven’t thought about him being a boy in lady costume… After I saw him naked a few minutes later, as Mr. Grey visited him at his “office”, which was of course a cathouse, I was said “wow” out loud. (Sorry, girls, I won’t add a screenshot about him naked, you have to watch this part yourself, because I’m afraid the content would be erased very soon because of nudity).

Angelique while offering the quicky for Mr. Grey

We also need to take a look at what’s happening in the Frankenstein-flat, because Brona Croft (Billie Piper) woke up in the first part. She has a new name, Lily, so I will also call her that way, just to make everything easier. Lily also doesn’t have a memory, although she manages to speak now, and I guess poor Victor Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) is slowly falling in love with her. I bet he does… Also there is the other very excited creature here, Mr. John Clare (Rory Kinnear), who’s dream is to have a bride and this should be Lily. My heart always breaks a bit when I see Mr. Clare, actually he’s one of my favs too, not to mention the stunning and truly amazing act of Rory Kinnear. It’s just simply heartbreaking as I see Clare’s dreams, struggles, craving to be loved, attempts to show his feelings although he is more than afraid to be hurt again and the list goes just on and on… Anyway, whenever Mr. Clare comes to the screen, I always know that somehow it will kill me.

Mr. Frankenstein being possibly the first hairdresser of the century who uses hair-bleaching as disguise technic. No wonder why he’s often called “the master”…

But as of speaking about Mr. Clare, this part’s favorite scene for me was him meeting Ms. Ives in the dungeons of London, where people with cholera are being kept and locked away from the rest of the population. Ms. Ives went there with Mr. Murray to do charity work with the sick. Mr. Clare was reading poetry in one of the hidden corners and it caught the attention of Ms. Ives. To be honest, I haven’t thought about them meeting each other even once in the series, but it was more than amazing and I’m very happy that they did.

You have to know, that I’m addicted to literature and the fact that Mr. Clare always citates something good is a thing that I love in the whole series. He finally met a woman who also knows english authors well and has the same things and questions running in her mind – about life, death, “the allmighty” and hell. Their dialogue was far the best in the second part, not to mention the second Mr. Clare started William Blake’s “To see a world…”, and my eyes burst into tears.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand 
And Eternity in an hour

Ms. Ives & Mr. Clare changing oppinions about life and death

So that was the second part, it wasn’t that bad, huh? I’m curious about the third, which will have more actions I guess, because it will be a flashback, from which we will get the story why Vanessa’s drawing sometimes scorpions from her own blood.