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deliberately dissatisfactory? (spoilers ahead!)


while binge watching the whole show during the past few weeks (first time watch)..at first it pissed me off that the show seemed to keep missing the chances of climatic scenes/ encounters between characters repeatedly and I thought no wonder it only last 3 seasons but after the ending where you seriously expected at least to see dracula in his true form exchanging a few claws with the werewolf only to get a vague scene involving dracula disappearing, a scene clearly lacking so any sort of climax to an extent I wondered if the creators of this show deliberately did this throughout the entire show? was this supposed to be a metaphor of the life itself? that it most of the time disappoints?

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[deleted]

Prak, what a pleasure to read such an informed, thoughtful and literate post on a site that is like this one, which is now, sadly, deleted, leaving me to sound like an idiot. Thank you. I imagine that Penny Dreadful’s creators knew that they were delimiting their audience right from the start by the very title that they chose. You and I know what a Penny Dreadful was. Few others do. Unless the show’s creators were complete dolts—always possible in the entertainment industry, but my guess, given the literacy of the series, is that they were not—they knew they would attract a narrow, but very focused audience; which, after all, is the lifeblood of premium cable. I think they succeed wonderfully with this series, which I found, warts and all, very satisfying. I could have done without their take on Dorien Gray, and the belabored love of the Frankenstein’s monster for poesey (which was nonetheless part of Mary W. Shelley’s novel, but not so hamfisted). It wasn’t perfect. Neither are people; but people can still be WONDERFUL. Eva Greene deserved an Emmy for her performance in this. Fantasy productions (film, literature, video) rarely receive the ne plus ultra awards from their respective award committees, leaving aside the fact that fantasy (including comic books, myth and legend) is THE most popular genre in history. It doesn’t matter. Penny Dreadful was never meant for Yedderman. It was meant for those who know what a Penny Dreadful, the precussor to an illustrated novel, is; and to be enjoyed by that small audience, who understand that we have recognized, and rewarded.

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