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A less showy episode than we've been getting with Penny Dreadful, but all the better for it. This is a show that doesn't have to rely on blood, guts, and monsters to entertain its audience, as the human characters are proving to be the real trump cards.
This episode was more of a showcase for Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and his first-born Creature, named Caliban (Rory Kinnear) in the extensive flashback that dominated this third instalment of Penny Dreadful. Caliban being a deformed island slave in Shakespeare's The Tempest, which was apt given the creature found a job as a Grand Guignol theatre rigger—which also had a few overtones of The Phantom of the Opera, in how Caliban remained ostracised from the rest of the company and lurked unseen in the shadows.
After the impressive pilot, "Séance" somehow surpassed it, but in a very different way. It was notable for introducing even more characters into the mix, which meant alcoholic Yankie marksman Ethan (Josh Hartnett) was mostly pushed into the background. First there was smiley Irish prostitute Brona Croft (Billie Piper); handsome and kinky playboy Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney); and, eventually, the blood-spattered entrance of Dr Frankenstein's original Creature (Rory Kinnear).
There have been so many vampires stories it's hard to give audiences a new and exciting one; so writers often have to wait until an approach falls out of fashion, before attempting to breathe new life into it. Or else add lots of associated things into the mix, hoping the chimerical result is enticing to viewers. Screenwriter John Logan (Gladiator, Skyfall) does a little of both for his first foray into television, with Bond collaborator Sam Mendes serving as executive producer for his Gothic supernatural horror...
