091: Penny Dreadful Seasons 1 & 2 - Sexy Werewolves

A Matter of Taste

SPOILERS FOR PENNY DREADFUL SEASONS 1 & 2 (and minor spoilers for Season 3).
In this episode:

• In anticipation of the new season, we discuss the first two seasons of Showtime's Gothic horror series Penny Dreadful, including the overall style of the show, the characters, the cast, and yes, werewolves, potentially of the sexy variety.
• We (read: Ian) can't escape talking about this show without comparing it to a variety of other media, including NBC's Dracula, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Walking Dead, and yes, Hannibal, among others.
• How unrelenting bleakness can become wearying
• I think we should also clarify that this isn’t a blanket critique of all bleak narratives. I think we’re just inundated with them at the moment. There’s also a very troubling association in pop culture at the moment of bleakness with maturity, as though any story without a bleak philosophy is somehow childish, which I think is more what we’re criticizing here.
• The snails return. The Snailening
• Novel class returns. The Novelening. The Robertsoning.
• We start digging into the way narratives that are attempting to tell different types of stories can show us two wildly different facets of a character with each interpretation being an equally valid expression of the character.
• WEREWOLVES WEREWOLVES WEREWOLVES.

THERE'S ALWAYS AN ADDENDUM:

• Just as an aside: We're approaching our 100th episode! We have ideas planned out for the next few episodes, but is there anything in particular you'd want to see/hear us do for the 100th episode? Let us know in the comments below or through one of our various forms of contact on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook
• Holy crap, we didn't even talk about how much I (Ian) love the music on this show. In particular: Dido's Lament ("When I am laid in earth") from Dido and Aeneas is my favorite aria I learned about in college, and THEY USED IT.
• Highlights from Fio's notes:
• I’m honestly curious how many times we reference Hannibal in episodes that are, like, explicitly not about Hannibal.
• In the Era of Dystopian Future Literature and Apocalyptic Stuff should be a book of essays.
• “I wouldn’t advise them,” so fucking magnanimous, Fio, of course the Penny Dreadful writing staff listens to this podcast.
• At this point in the podcast I go silent because I’m looking up 40 Days and 40 Nights because I can’t remember if Shannyn Sossamon is in it or not. She is, by the way.
• “I’m positive, actually” *proceeds to be wrong* “Fuck. Fuck me.”

Music:

• "This is My Design" - Ian Doherty | SoundCloud | Bandcamp |

http://archive.org/download/AMOT091/AMOT091.mp3