Hit Or Miss: Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels
The year is 1938, the city is Los Angeles. John Logan revived his beloved Showtime series Penny Dreadful in a way unfamiliar to its loyal audience. The original series assembled a complex narrative from the fictional Victorian “penny dreadful” tales, told with groundbreaking sexual twists and psychological turns; the new series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels enters a less Victorian time and culture, focusing on the racial tension between the Mexican community and the white, and lures the audience with an actual religious character: Santa Muerte (Lorenza Izzo). However, the portray of religion in this series is mixed with fictional characters like the mysterious sister to Santa Muerte, Magda (Natalie Dormer), leaves the plot in a questionable place.
The trailer begins with Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto), the first Chicano detective at the LAPD, declaring he is godless with stern denial in prayers and belief miracles. We then see him with his partner Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane), investigating at the Los Angeles river basin. Four bodies can be seen mutilated in a ritual that resemble the celebration of Santa Muerte, the Mexican folk saint, along with the bloody marks "Te Llevas Nuestro Corazon Tomamos El Tuyo" ("You Take Our Heart, We Take Yours”). This is interpreted by the public as a response to the Arroyo Seco Parkway, an urban planning that will demolish L.A.’s Mexican neighborhood. A “race war” begins.
The trailer features a brief moment of the “race war” between civilians and the police, before Tiago Vega was asked to choose between being “a cop pretending to be a Mexican, or a Mexican pretending to be a cop.” Then the fire really begins. Natalie Dormer’s character is introduced as Satan, arriving in an all black leather almost-Victorian gown—the first sentimental callback to the original series. Dormer then is seen toying with multiple characters with a masterful flare in her eyes. In the original series, Eva Green’s phenomenal performance defined the series, we couldn’t help but compare the show-running actors: Dormer is certainly one to watch.
Magda (Natalie Dormer) then lays down perhaps the pathos of the series—“All mankind needs to be the monster he truly is, is being told he can.” As it unfolds, the trailer takes a turn, sharing moments of other characters. When Peter Craft (Rory Kinnear, who played Frankenstein in the original series) opens his closet to reveal a swastika flag, we suddenly remember the story is based in 1930’s, and there were nazis! Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane) is seen in torment, setting himself up as one of the two world-savers and a loyal partner to Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto), the hero in the series who is chosen by Santa Muerte. The trailer ends with Maria (Adriana Barraza), Tiago’s mother, standing at the end of a bloody trail and looking over her shoulder. In the background, Santa Muerte’s phantom stands under a flickering light.
The trailer leaves the audience with little to imagination, and disappoints the title that attracted many Penny Dreadful fans. The new series doesn’t seem to take on the same color or tone. When Logan decided to make a real folk religion the spine of the series, it is unavoidable to keep the voice rationalized. In a way, it was easier for Logan to create the original series without having to research every meaning behind an aesthetic, which was essentially what Penny Dreadful was, creepy Victorian fictions. If he decides to fantasize about a Mexican American religion and folklore, he has to abandon the recklessness he was utilizing in the original series: fetishizing symbols and characters for the series sake. It is irresponsible to continue the same tone, if he chooses to set the story in 1938 Los Angeles, and depicts a “race war.”
Off screen, in the summer of 1943, The Zoot Suit Riots were triggered after white soldiers and sailors beat up Mexican Americans in zoot suits. The race war that actually happened in the same era is fictionalized in the series, and dealt in a strange manner. The series seems to put the blame on a fallen god. Is the show saying religion pushes mankind to be “the monster he truly is?” What does Natalie Dormer’s character symbolize? And how will the series draw the line between a devil of chaos and white supremacy? Or should the audience treat the series like a “penny dreadful” story, even if it feels dangerously close to home? We have to proceed watching with caution.
The series premiered on Showtime, April 26, 2020.