Recaps/Reviews

This week’s chapter of serial thriller Penny Dreadful, Demimonde, offers two divergent paths in its storytelling: the clichéd masked as art and the art masked as entertainment.

The more clichéd sequences tend to revolve around the increasingly tiresome character of Dorian Grey (Reeve Carney). Shirtless and sporting leather pants, he is first seen here in an orgy straight from Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut – the “demimonde” of the episode’s title. The camera swirls through the scene from a God-like perspective with operatic music swelling on the soundtrack. Bodies writhing in passion litter his grand salon while he passively watches, observing them with the same ennui he gives the dozens of paintings hanging on his wall.

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This week’s episode of Turn started with one of the most gravely miscalculated scenes I’ve seen on a major network series in a long, long time. We begin, innocently enough, with Abe Woodhull leaving behind yellow flowers for Anna Strong to follow into a dimly lit basement. Almost immediately, he attacks her, and they passionately make love in the lantern light.

Sounds great, right? Wrong.

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Penny Dreadful’s third chapter, Resurrection, unexpectedly deals in origin stories, a unique turn for the third episode of an 8-episode limited series. Spending half its running time in flashbacks, this outing, while not the best to date by far, still has a few gems to offer.

We begin with a gruesomely beautiful sequence illustrating young Victor Frankenstein’s first encounters with death. Wandering through a pastoral field of buttercups, Victor stumbles upon the maggot-infested corpse of his beloved dog. The sudden juxtaposition between the beautiful and the gory is a trick the show uses frequently, repeating it minutes later in a conversation between Victor and his mother. Intending to comfort him in a time of need, Mother Frankenstein inadvertently vomits blood all over him, dying in the next scene. That death sets the forward momentum for the Victor Frankenstein myth, bringing us forward to the moment where Frankenstein’s first creation rips his second creation in half in a fit of rage and jealousy.

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Turn spent the majority of this week’s episode continuing to flesh out the relationship between Abe Woodhull and Anna Strong, which was fine by me as it gave the increasingly compelling Heather Lind more opportunities to shine amongst this talented ensemble.

Abe and Anna journeyed to New York together on separate missions – Abe to sell produce and hunt for secrets and Anna to recover her recently paroled husband. While alone, Anna seizes the opportunity to demand that Abe finally explain why he broke off their secret engagement years earlier. It’s a question many have asked as Abe so clearly belongs with Anna and not the colorless Mary once promised to his dead brother. As usual, Abe defers the truth, falling back on claims of family responsibility. No one is satisfied by the answer.

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It is a difficult task to write about something so well intended and earnest as HBO’s The Normal Heart. It’s clear that the filmmakers and cast are wholly invested in this story and its broader social implications, and those intentions should (and will) be showered with rewards. But if I’m being honest, it is an undeniable flaw of the film that director Ryan Murphy, whose power in Hollywood brought this long-gestating property to fruition after many aborted attempts, just isn’t strong enough of a director to give this material the steady guiding hand it requires.

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Penny Dreadful episode two, Séance, begins with a scene well known to those familiar with Victorian-era horror. Fog rolls in, covering the street and reducing visibility to zero. There’s an overdressed prostitute waiting for a gentleman caller – or the Ripper – to appear. Here comes an old man lighting the gaslights only to quickly disappear, snatched by something hidden in the fog. Shortly, the same fate befalls the prostitute, her severed arm tossed to the ground still clenching the green apple she had been eating.

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In Turn’s Epiphany episode, Abe Woodhull laid out a consenting Anna Strong on his kitchen table. They passionately groped and kissed, giving in to what appeared to be years of repressed lust. Their dalliance was a fleeting moment as the Redcoat soldier stationed in the Woodhull home interrupted their lovemaking.

However brief, their moment was not one without consequences as explored in the latest offering, the awkwardly titled Mercy Moment Murder Measure. The episode had a vastly different structure than the previous offerings, using single tense moments to build to a decently tense conclusion. Continue reading…

Can you believe the season finale of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” coincided with the Canadians/Rangers Stanley Cup Playoff Game? What a tough choice for Logo fans.

For those that tuned in, they got to see Bianca Del Rio crowned queen, the tough-talking insult comic with the sweet chocolate center. It’s interesting to see the range of queens through the years. Bebe. Tyra. Raja. Sharon. Jinkx. No queen is like another, and Ru’s decision seemed to keep with that theme.

But in addition to the big reveal, the first 85 minutes of the episode included fabulous fashions, a “We Are the World”-esque chant, and tuxedo dance fights. Plus, a look back at this past season and your favorite queens like BenDeLaCreme, Vivacious, and Vivacious’ elusive second-head Ornacia.

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(Ed. Note: I’m in a different time zone with laptop issues this week so Clarence’s take on the most recent episode of Turn was a bit delayed. My fault, not his)

Turn’s pilot episode had flashes of violence, borrowing the sounds of stabbed corpses from its gorier AMC cousin The Walking Dead. The subsequent offerings, however, have mostly relied on bloodless gunplay and spy intrigue for action. That practice ended as this week’s episode, Mr. Culpeper, provided Turn’s bloodiest hour to date.

We begin with a scene that confused some across the Internet. A man, later to be revealed as civilian strategist Nathanial Sackett (memorably played by character actor Stephen Root), devises “Scenario 37” during which we see our hero, Abe Woodhull, exposed as a spy in a botched intel exchange. He is shot and left to bleed to death. The scene then cuts to Sackett crumpling a piece of paper (the failed “Scenario 37”), revealing the Abe’s death to be the imagined outcome of a failed plan. A clever ruse on the part of the creators, but just an illusion nonetheless.

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Every year near Halloween, I make a pilgrimage to Universal Studios Orlando for their annual Halloween Horror Nights. Much more than your standard haunted house experience, the intoxicating and gory event frightens by using all of the senses to transport you to specific times and places. Well-trained actors jump at you from dark corners and from behind objects in unexpected ways. This past year, I was able to walk through The Walking Dead’s Woodbury, the English moors of An American Werewolf in London, and the titular cabin from Cabin in the Woods. Each experience feels brilliantly authentic… and scary as hell.

That’s what it feels like to watch Showtime’s new series Penny Dreadful.

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