Sky buy exclusive European rights to Showtime programming

Sky yesterday announced a long-term licensing agreement with CBS Corporation to become the exclusive home of Showtime programming in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy. This new deal will affect all new and future TV series produced for Showtime, including their new TV series Billions and next year's highly anticipated revival of Twin Peaks.

The Best Television of 2015: No.8 - Showtime's PENNY DREADFUL

A coven of witches set their sights on Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) and psychic Vanessa Ives (Eva Green), bringing great danger to the members of their occult clique. Meanwhile, Dr Frankenstein's sorrowful creation (Rory Kinnear) demands a mate, and American werewolf Ethan Chandler (Josh Harnett) arouses the suspicion of a Scotland Yard detective...

What made it so good? The first season was good fun, but more on a conceptual level. It was also inconsistent and petered out towards the end. This second run was much better on practically every level, although the story could still be tightened and there are a few characters who haven't developed as much as I'd like (Frankenstein's Monster, Dorian Grey). But I can forgive Penny Dreadful a lot, because it has a beautiful Gothic tone and can be very tense and thrilling when it wants to be. Plus, there's the delicious Eva Green doing astonishing (now Golden Globe-nominated) work as a tortured psychic, whose soul is the must-have thing for dark forces everywhere. It's fair to say Penny Dreadful focuses a little too much on her fascinating character, to the detriment of others like Sir Malcolm, but also easy to see why creator John Logan views Green as a muse.

PENNY DREADFUL adds Dr Jekyll to its gang of Victorian misfits

The currently-filming third season of Showtime and Sky Atlantic's Penny Dreadful will involve another character from Victorian literature: Dr Henry Jekyll, the mad scientist with a split personality called Mr Hyde, created by author Robert Louis Stevenson. Shazad Latif (The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Spooks) will play the iconic role, presenting a change to the character's ethnicity.

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.10 – 'And They Were Enemies'

★★★☆

Penny Dreadful's season 2 finale offered some hasty-but-fun conclusions, but preferred to instead focus on grace notes and setup for next year—rather like how True Blood structured its own closers. I was entertained, mostly because it allowed for some excellent performances to arise from a wallowing sense of self-important misery. It does get rather tiring how all of the show's characters deny themselves chances of happiness, even with each other, because they're convinced their own suffering is in some way infectious and a curse never to be shared.

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.9 – 'And Hell Itself My Only Foe'

★★☆☆

There were things to enjoy about this penultimate episode, and it tee'd up next week's finale very well by the end, but I was very disappointed John Logan's rushed various aspects of the story. The disfigured American looking to bring wolfman Ethan (Josh Hartnett) to justice back in the U.S? He somehow found Ethan and Vanessa (Eva Green) at the Cut-Wife's cottage, and was swiftly knifed to death pre-credits. In London, Dorian (Reeve Carney) somehow realised Lily (Billie Piper) is the Irish prostitute Brona he once had sex with, so I can only assume a temporary amnesia was affecting him.

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.8 – 'Memento Mori'

★★★★

I worship the ground Eva Green walks on, but her presence in Penny Dreadful is often detrimental—in the sense she's so magnetic to watch, and write for, that everyone else tends to fade into the background. "Memento Mori" got around this problem by revealing what's happening to the other characters, now Vanessa (Green) and Ethan (Josh Hartnett) have gone to ground in the Cut-Wife's cottage. And while it would be wrong to remove Green from this show for too long, her absence definitely allowed for the rest of the ensemble to shine.

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.7 – 'Little Scorpion'

★★★☆

Vannessa (Eva Green) took Ethan (Josh Hartnett) to the Cut-Wife's cottage, but following in her mentor's footsteps only extended to teaching her American friend how to dance. Penny Dreadful is an ensemble show with many moving pieces, but it's notable how the best hours tend to focus on the few. Ethan's been a troublesome ingredient of the show, but now that his lycanthropy's a secret shared—with Sembene (Danny Sapani), Sir Malcolm's (Timothy Dalton) servant—the story appears to be moving forward with him better. He's a man of principle, who knows the burden taking lives has on your soul, and by the end of "Little Scorpion" it's Vanessa's who's the one being schooled.

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.6 – 'Glorious Horrors'

★★☆☆

We've moved into the last half of season 2, and a few plots are beginning to move forward, although progress remains leisurely. Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton) is now under the enchantment of girlfriend Evelyn Poole (Helen McCrory), but all it's resulted in is making everyone suspicious over his non-reaction to his wife's suicide, and a decision to shave his beard. No great shakes, although scenes of Evelyn massaging the organic heart of a miniature Malcolm voodoo fetish suggests greater torments to come.

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.5 – 'Above the Vaulted Sky'

★★★☆

It's hard to predict if Penny Dreadful will succeed in making its various storylines, and individual lives of its main characters, converge in a satisfying way. That's obviously a goal, of sorts, but there are times when I wonder if it's going to happen in a clever, natural manner. For instance, the beginning of "Above the Vaulted Sky" again saw Vanessa (Eva Green) petrified with terror over her nocturnal visitations from "the nightcomers"—are they real or imaginary?—but soon after she was all smiles during a dinner date with Dr Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) and his "cousin" Lily (Billie Piper). While it's unrealistic to expect Vanessa to be shaking with fear constantly, there are gear changes Penny Dreadful demands that feel very awkward and abrupt...

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.4 – 'Evil Spirits in Heavenly Places'

★★☆☆

After last week's bravura instalment, quality lurched back to a more standard level, all things considered. There were a few things I really liked about "Evil Spirits in Heavenly Places", but also more evidence that many of Penny Dreadful's characters are stuck in dull storylines of questionable importance to the grander scheme.

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.3 – 'The Nightcomers'

★★★★

The highlight of the first season was a Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) flashback, episode 5's "Closer than Sisters", which provided much needed backstory to the ongoing story around it. The same could be true of this year, as "The Nightcomers" was likewise focused on Vanessa's past, and was quite a wonderful hour of spooky chills and heartbreak. It further enriched Vanessa's enigmatic character, deepened our understanding of her prickly nature and steadfast resolve, but also hinted at Penny Dreadful's long-term plan for her story, and created a fantastic, personal connection to season 2's villain.

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.2 – 'Verbis Diablo'

★★★☆

There are a few things that are beginning to irritate me about Penny Dreadful now: firstly, it's unclear what the show's longterm goal is, because the first season's Egyptian doomsday prophecy hasn't factored into the show as strongly as one assumed it would; and secondly, its separate storylines need to intersect fairly soon, because the way Dr Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) floats into Sir Malcolm's (Timothy Dalton) storyline feels odd half the time, because he's ordinarily stuck in a completely different show with his monstrous creation (Rory Kinnear) nobody else even knows about.

TV Pilots I Want to See: 2015-16

It's time for the return of my annual feature that lists the 2015/16 U.S pilots I have an interest in. This year, to make it a bit more fun, I've split these potential new shows into loose groups with similar themes. Also, each one has a coloured star that denotes its development status:

★ = not picked up

★ = in development, or under consideration

★ = officially becoming a new series

As always, if you spot any errors, notice that something needs updating, or would like to recommend a glaring omission to my list, please let me know in the comments below. This post will update over the next few weeks, as the networks announces each pilot's fate and start releasing trailers/photos. And now, onward!

PENNY DREADFUL, 2.1 – 'Fresh Hell'

★★☆☆

Warning: Showtime released this premiere online, a week before its television broadcast on 3 May, so please only continue reading if you've seen this episode...

I enjoyed the first season of screenwriter John Logan's Gothic horror, which clearly owed a debt to Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (in how it assembled a mix of supernatural icons and literary heroes). But its problems became more noticeable as the season progressed—mainly an issue with sustaining a healthy pace, repetitive arcs, the unfortunate fact some of its surprises were instantly predictable—and the first season ended more with a perfunctory whimper than an exciting confluence of storylines. Those things coloured my perception of season 2's mediocre premiere, "Fresh Hell," or perhaps tempered my expectations is a better way of putting it.

Trailer: Showtime's HAPPYISH

A.K.A 'the TV drama Phillip Seymour Hoffman was going to do before he died'. The UK's own Steve Coogan has replaced Hoffman in this Showtime comedy-drama, HAPPYISH, about a middle-aged man whose life is thrown into disarray when his much younger boss arrives spouting lingo like "digital", "social" and "viral". The embedded trailer didn't make me laugh very much, as I personally don't think there are many 44-year-olds who truly grapple with modern life's idioms, although there's comedy value in a bitter man rallying against the infantilisation of modern man, I suppose. Not sure about this one, to be honest, but as a fan of Coogan I'll be watching when it premieres 26 April.

Finale reviews: THE AFFAIR (Season 1) • DEREK: THE SPECIAL • THE WRONG MANS

It's the time of year when U.S shows have their mid-season or seasonal finales, and UK shows have Christmas specials that occasionally act as series-enders. So I just thought I would briefly cover three shows I've been watching, that ended very recently...

First-look: PENNY DREADFUL - Season Two

Sky have released a first-look photo from PENNY DREADFUL season 2, which is currently filming in Dublin. It's not much to get excited about, unless the fact Eva Green wearing her hair down is a cryptic clue about something (beyond changing Victorian fashions). More interesting is knowing that Helen McCrory will have a bigger role as spiritualist Evelyn Poole/Madame Kali, and will be joined by new stars like Patti Lupone (as a character linked to Vanessa's past), Douglas Hodge (as a Scotland Yard investigator), Sarah Greene (as Evelyn's daughter Hecate), and Johnny Beachamp.

Penny Dreadful will return to Showtime/Sky Atlantic in 2015.

HOMELAND; that's all folks!

While I'm likely to review a noteworthy episode, and will probably write about the fourth season in general once the finale airs, my weekly reviews of HOMELAND are done. This isn't a strict reflection of Homeland's quality just now (I'm quite enjoying it), just the fact older shows lose that indefinable quality that makes one eager to write about them. And I don't want to sit down and force myself to write hundreds of words about TV episodes I don't feel passionate about.

HOMELAND, 4.3 – 'Shalwar Kameez' • are you in or out?

★★☆☆

From the start, HOMELAND has been a show that likes to have a 'male mirror' for its heroine, Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes). That role was filled by Brody for three seasons, and now Quinn (Rupert Friend) appears to have assumed that mantle. This third episode split its time between Carrie embracing her new CIA role, while Quinn tried to leave the CIA. It won't come as a surprise to find that Quinn was ultimately drawn back into the spy game, because of his feelings for Carrie.

Preview: Showtime's THE AFFAIR • an unreliable love story

★★★☆

I like dramas that surprise me with hidden depths and intriguing methods of storytelling. Showtime's THE AFFAIR sounded like a prosaic idea on the surface, so I was pleased everything was elevated by a sharp narrative and good performances. Noah Solloway (Dominic West) is a first-time novelist and family man from New York, who takes his wife and four children to the coastal resort of Montauk, Long Island. There he meets a pretty waitress called Alison (Ruth Wilson), whose relationship with her husband Cole (Joshua Jackson) is on the rocks after the tragic death of their young child. The title gives away what happens next…