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Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (Spoilers from Satan's Board-Spawn)


SpaceChampion

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We were discussing in the regular Penny Dreadful thread but probably a good idea to separate them. Maybe indicate spoilers (or not) in the title so we know to tag or not.

I am slightly concerned because last i checked there was no scheduled UK release date. Usually this would be on Sky Atlantic so will keep an eye out.

 

Forgot Rory Kinnear was in this in a new role.

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I'm really looking forward to this... I worry that its on Showtime, but they usually don;t start F***ing things up until a couple of seasons have gone by....

I think it's smart that they've cast Natalie Dormer as the lead... after Eva Green, there are few who could carry the torch...

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Looking forward to this Sunday!  Been putting off BCS, wanna binge it, but this gives me two whole shows to watch Sunday nights and still none for the rest of the week.  Craziness.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/arts/television/penny-dreadful-city-of-angels.html

Quote

 

[....]

Still, Logan loves its history, however hard he has to work to find it. He leapt into research on the freeways, unearthing old city maps and urban planning documents. He hadn’t imagined running another series, which he described as the most “killing occupation in the world.” And he hadn’t planned on a new iteration of “Penny Dreadful.” But the city in the ’30s, with its anti-immigrant sentiments, radio evangelism and infiltration by a foreign power (in this case, the Third Reich), resonated with the present. He wanted to tell that story, and he sensed that a film or a play wouldn’t hold it.

He set the show in 1938, when construction on the Arroyo Seco Parkway, regarded as Los Angeles’s first freeway began. (The road didn’t displace Mexican-American communities as entirely as did the construction of Dodger Stadium in the 1950s, but it did affect some neighborhoods.) That date situates the series a few years after the repatriation movement, in which Mexican residents were encouraged, sometimes aggressively, to return to Mexico, and a bit before the Zoot Suit Riots of 1943, in which white American servicemen attacked Chicano youth.

[....]

 

Hope my Showtime access is still in effect; had zero interest in the first iteration of this, but LA in the 1930's, Natalie Dormer -- yes!

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I'm just 20 minutes into the first episode and I already want to start making a thematic analysis of the 4 versions of the character Natalie Dormer is playing...   and I've only seen 2 of them so far:   Magda, Elsa, Alex, and Rio --- and make comparisons to Mr. Robot, Twin Peaks and Orphan Black.

Spoiler

Plus there is the kid that Elsa re-assorbs after the doctor's appointment.

 

Interview with Dormer.  I don't think any spoilers...

This is a spoiler thread, but I'll be cautious until people have actually started watching.
 

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22 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

I'm just 20 minutes into the first episode and I already want to start making a thematic analysis of the 4 versions of the character Natalie Dormer is playing...   and I've only seen 2 of them so far:   Magda, Elsa, Alex, and Rio --- and make comparisons to Mr. Robot, Twin Peaks and Orphan Black.

  Reveal hidden contents

Plus there is the kid that Elsa re-assorbs after the doctor's appointment.

 

Interview with Dormer.  I don't think any spoilers...

This is a spoiler thread, but I'll be cautious until people have actually started watching.
 

Interesting, thanks for sharing! 

Will be dipping out of the thread after this though until we get this in the UK *sigh*

Someone tag me when this comes to the UK :crying:

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Just watched it, definitely intrigued.  One thought, I'll put it in spoilers:

Spoiler

It is a lot different than the original though, and I don't get the lighting.  It's kind of weird going all-out 30s noir in some respects but so many scenes are shot in "sunny LA."  

BTW, I don't have Showtime so I wasn't sure how I was gonna go about watching this til I realized tonight it was available for free on Prime (well, at least in the states).  No idea if the rest of the season will be, but here's hoping!

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2 hours ago, DMC said:

Just watched it, definitely intrigued.  One thought, I'll put it in spoilers:

  Reveal hidden contents

It is a lot different than the original though, and I don't get the lighting.  It's kind of weird going all-out 30s noir in some respects but so many scenes are shot in "sunny LA."  

BTW, I don't have Showtime so I wasn't sure how I was gonna go about watching this til I realized tonight it was available for free on Prime (well, at least in the states).  No idea if the rest of the season will be, but here's hoping!

I think probably just the first episode, which was made available prior to the “official” premiere. Iirc they did the same for the original series - definitely for season two, possibly season three too. I guess as an incentive to get subscriptions to Showtime.

July here in the U.K. July godamnit!

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What they seem to be doing in this series when it comes to the mise en scene and locations, such as the chicano community, is re-create them in the period era of film studio sets -- and the look, as color filming is just beginning to be more widely employed for popular, wide release films. 

I.e. these aren't actually 'real', but are -- oooo how meta posty-post post post post modern can we get? -- deliberately not 'real.'

Plus this is supposedly an alternate LA 1938 -- though so far, as with action and characters, particularly out of Germany -- not very alternate at all.

 

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

I'm really enjoying the show as sa neo noir period drama, and the characters - both of the detectives, Vega's family, Molly - are complelling. 

But I don't think Dormer's character was necessary at all, as some sort of a femme fatale (at least in most of her iterations) supernatural demonic influence. Alex, Elsa and Rio would obviously still have a place in the story - and I would probably find Rio far more believable if she wasn't played by Dormer - but it's not like this story needs demonic influence to happen, and having a female demon seem to cause it all only muddles it, IMO.

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I'm really enjoying the show as sa neo noir period drama, and the characters - both of the detectives, Vega's family, Molly - are complelling. 

But I don't think Dormer's character was necessary at all, as some sort of a femme fatale (at least in most of her iterations) supernatural demonic influence. Alex, Elsa and Rio would obviously still have a place in the story - and I would probably find Rio far more believable if she wasn't played by Dormer - but it's not like this story needs demonic influence to happen, and having a female demon seem to cause it all only muddles it, IMO.

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On 6/1/2020 at 11:52 PM, SpaceChampion said:

I'm having trouble seeing the forest for the trees here.

I know what you're saying... I have no idea where they're going with this... I expect to either really disappointed, or really thrilled....

Side note: Kerry Bishe has a lovely voice. 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Just started the series, hadn’t realised it was available here yet. 

The first episode was a strange one. I enjoyed it throughout, and for most of it found myself thinking this would be am enjoyable series without any supernatural elements. I wasn’t blown away but was happy enough with it.

Then I saw that Logan flare from the original series and every moment from the prayer to Santa Muerte had me hooked. The prayer/summoning scene in particular had me thinking of Evelyn Poole’s demonic chants in her doll house from hell. Very different intent and motivations of course but similar feels the the two.

I did appreciate the more subtle supernatural touches in this series versus the original, with a more outriht focus on the monster within mankind (which was certainly present in the original, though mixed with the more explicit supernatural and horror elements) and the demonic, otherworldly forces just being a whisper, a hand on the scales to push mankind to be their natural violent and destructive selves. The end scene of the first episode, for all we have only known the characters for an hour of screen time, was still quite a weighty gut punch (relatively speaking - it wasnt huge but it was a lot for the first episode, a testament to the writing, direction and overall production imo).

I am looking forward to Natalie Dormer in multiple roles. She is no Eva Green but she seems capable from what we saw this episode. Kind of hilarious to see John Clare/Caliban/The Creature (I know its a totally different character really) as a literal Nazi now. Guess Vanessa’s death really fucked with his mind...

Loving the music too. Very different to the original, as should be expected given the new setting, but loving it still. This is not Abel Korzeniowski I presume?

Anyway, looking forward to the rest of this. I don’t think it will be a binge watch for me but we’ll see.

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