SHOWTIME has picked up a second season of its critically acclaimed drama series PENNY DREADFUL, it was announced today by David Nevins, President, Showtime Networks Inc. The network has given an expanded order of ten episodes to the series. Created, written and executive produced by three-time Oscar® nominee John Logan, PENNY DREADFUL has been embraced by the network’s subscribers, drawing 4.8 million weekly viewers across platforms since its launch. The series, which debuted to rave reviews, has claimed the spot as the network’s No. 1 watched new show ever on SHOWTIME ON DEMAND® and SHOWTIME ANYTIME® with over 3.6 million viewers on those platforms through the third week of the season. Starring Josh Hartnett, Timothy Dalton and Eva Green, PENNY DREADFUL will go into production, and will once again shoot on location in Dublin, Ireland for a 2015 launch.
“Picking up PENNY DREADFUL was one of the easiest decisions I’ve made,” said Nevins. “The series has had worldwide impact, drawing big, passionate audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, and more than any other show on our network has hit the bullseye with viewers who want to watch television in all the new ways that are available. John Logan has deftly created an epic series that has drawn raves from a wide-range of audiences from quality drama lovers to critics, to hardcore genre fans. We look forward to working once again with our partners at Sky Atlantic and are extremely excited for what’s in store for season two.”
PENNY DREADFUL’s series premiere was sampled early across online, On Demand and authenticated platforms, and the debut episode now ranks as the biggest sneak preview ever and the largest online streaming sampling ever for SHOWTIME, surpassing RAY DONOVAN and MASTERS OF SEX’s premieres by half a million viewers through the premiere week.
PENNY DREADFUL is not only a hit in the United States, but has also attracted an early global audience, debuting as the second-highest-rated launch for an original commission ever for Sky Atlantic, and also ranked as the second biggest program of the week in pay TV homes for the premiere episode in the U.K. Additionally, the John Logan created world of PENNY DREADFUL has inspired unprecedented interest with a wide range of licensees. Special edition classic horror books boxed sets, cast action figures, and tarot cards, are among the early items hitting the marketplace.
“Picking up PENNY DREADFUL was one of the easiest decisions I’ve made,” said Nevins. “The series has had worldwide impact, drawing big, passionate audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, and more than any other show on our network has hit the bullseye with viewers who want to watch television in all the new ways that are available. John Logan has deftly created an epic series that has drawn raves from a wide-range of audiences from quality drama lovers to critics, to hardcore genre fans. We look forward to working once again with our partners at Sky Atlantic and are extremely excited for what’s in store for season two.”
PENNY DREADFUL’s series premiere was sampled early across online, On Demand and authenticated platforms, and the debut episode now ranks as the biggest sneak preview ever and the largest online streaming sampling ever for SHOWTIME, surpassing RAY DONOVAN and MASTERS OF SEX’s premieres by half a million viewers through the premiere week.
PENNY DREADFUL is not only a hit in the United States, but has also attracted an early global audience, debuting as the second-highest-rated launch for an original commission ever for Sky Atlantic, and also ranked as the second biggest program of the week in pay TV homes for the premiere episode in the U.K. Additionally, the John Logan created world of PENNY DREADFUL has inspired unprecedented interest with a wide range of licensees. Special edition classic horror books boxed sets, cast action figures, and tarot cards, are among the early items hitting the marketplace.
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Great news!! One of the better new shows this year!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome, I hope next season they give it a proper lead-in, this show has great potential.
ReplyDeleteGreat! It is nice to see that sometimes quality does prevail.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant news! More episodes this time, too.
ReplyDeleteIt's heartening to see such faith in the show and how well it's doing, especially since it's kind of a leisurely paced drama with a big focus on character and mood, rather than a rollercoaster ride.
Great series ! But I didn't like the 4th episode's end... I hope they make the two a couple or don't, but I don't like "Everybody f***ing Everybody" :/
ReplyDeleteGood. They'll need the extra episodes to make something happen since this show is such a slow burn. I like the characters on this show (maybe not so much Dorian Gray or Frankenstein's monster) but the pace of this show seems glacial, which is especially odd for an eight episode season.
ReplyDeleteSo happy!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was an anthology, like AHS or True Detective.
ReplyDeleteGreat news, easily one of the best new shows this season, now only waiting for Orphan Black to be renewed.
ReplyDeleteIf they didn't and they have renewed Lost Girl then there would have been something wrong in this world.
ReplyDeleteAwesome news!! I love this show already! Eva Green is amazing as is Timothy Dalton.
ReplyDelete"something happen"...so what are you expecting to happen? A lot has happened. Its not an action tv series, but we had quite a lot of action in it. The underground vampire fight, the zoo, the seance etc. Every episode in this show is about 60 minutes long, not 40 like many other shows that is why somebody can think nothing happens in them. It hard to make 60 minutes of action in any tv series...For me what makes this show great is really well written dialogues delivered by really grat actors. Every episode passes too fast for me.
ReplyDeletewe had dorian F-ing brona and then Ethan, and we had Ethan F-ing Brona, its hard to say everybody is F-ing everybody...Most of the show's characters hasnt f-ed enybody...yet.
ReplyDeleteMaybe have but it's not shown XD
ReplyDeleteYES YES YES! I hope Harry Treadaway and Reeve Carney will be back too next season
ReplyDeleteI think a Orphan Black renewal is just a formality. It might not be a ratings hit but it generates so much buzz BBC America will be crazy to let it go.
ReplyDeleteGreat news! Enjoying the show now that I finally caught up!
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't about changing Ethan Chandler's sexula orientation, it was about the idea that Ethan may be a werewolf and that this was about Dorian's (A FAUSTIAN story) ABILITY to seduce others with his vast knowledge of science and art!
ReplyDeleteThe show is amazing and it's been so underrated so far, but i believe it's building up! let's go season 2
ReplyDeleteSomething happens in every episode of every show but rarely are the happenings in Penny Dreadful all that significant, nor do they propel the narrative much further forward. This is a gothic horror program that's trying its best to be a character study. Those two things rarely occupy the same space with ease. In the framework of an eight episode season the results are decidedly more uneven as has been shown so far.
ReplyDeleteThe events you describe, while visually interesting, aren't really plot-progressive. The zoo scene was just one in a number of scenes used to suggest a character is a werewolf. While cool to look at it didn't serve to take the narrative forward. The same goes for the seance. It was great scenery-chewing material for Eva Green but, outside of some character enrichment, didn't serve much purpose.
The characters of Penny Dreadful are great but the story itself is already spinning its wheels.
Well its two different networks (one Canadian) with very different business models so that wouldn't be a comparable situation. ;)
ReplyDeleteHELL YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH *fist pump in the air*
ReplyDeleteYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes More Smiles From Vanessa!
ReplyDeleteI myself am trying to figure out where exactly "this" Dorian Gray stands...in Faustian literature usually those that become corrupted are still considered protagonists, but Oscar Wilde kind of gives a sense of moral justice to that corruptibility with the demise of Gray, which makes him appear more of a villain than a victim or anti-hero by the story's end...
ReplyDeletePart me hopes he's a bit of a freelancer that can turn into a hero later, but it also wouldn't surprise me if he has an deeper association with the Devil/Dracula and the Vampire/Ancient Egypt story...
I kind of like Frankenstein's monster because of his theatrical sensibilities and in all honestly, if they're keeping in line with Mary Shelly, than the moral of that story is that Victor didn't take responsibility for his creation by abandoning him and then this furthered by the fact that the monster was made from one very "brainy" person and whole bunch of "criminals"...So in this story, especially because Victor tries to do it again after the last time, I can see how the first son/monster would despise him and feel the need to make demands...
"The events you describe, while visually interesting, aren't really plot-progressive. The zoo scene was just one in a number of scenes used to suggest a character is a werewolf. While cool to look at it didn't serve to take the narrative forward. The same goes for the seance. It was great scenery-chewing material for Eva Green but, outside of some character enrichment, didn't serve much purpose."
ReplyDeleteI disagree a bit...this zoo scene is furthered with the whole narrative of Dorian Gray mapping out and creating the "perfect" situation by proving to himself he could seduce Ethan.. (He intrigued and told Vanessa where he was going so that she would come, he made point to make it known that he knew Croft and to have Croft confront that Ethan also knows Vanessa, so that they would separate, and then he could feed into Ethan's more primal corruptible aspects, and then pushed.further with his talk of art and music along with the absinthe--a mind opening drug)
..that Zoo scene feeds into the rat-killing gambeling scene, which moves the narrative forward not only suggesting the wareworlf possibility, but Dorian Gray's vast amount of knowledge, including that he knows what Ethan is.
All the things you're speaking of are character enrichment as opposed to plot progression which was and still is my one issue with the show. Penny Dreadful is great at building character but not nearly as great at building story.
ReplyDeleteYessssssss, so happy, it's my favorite new show. Now I just need to know that Eva and Timothy will be back (and I like Harry's Frankenstein as well) and I'm all set. And ten episodes for next season makes me happy, we've finished half the season already and it feels way too short.
ReplyDeleteExcept that in this case the character's identities are the drive for the plot, because they are the mythology. This show IMO just has so much to work with, that they have to go slower than other shows, because they aren't just human character being sucked into something else, they are non humans/advanced humans in entangled with that something else...
ReplyDeleteI'm not as concerned with what side of the line Dorian ends up on as much as I'm concerned with Penny Dreadful giving the character a clear purpose. So far, he just seems to float between the other characters on the show gently picking at their lives.
ReplyDeleteWhile The Creature's beef with Victor is understandable, his odd and annoying sense of superiority coupled with his completely naive idea that Victor can somehow create someone that loves him are both aspects of the character I find particularly grating.
With all of the personal backstories serving as plot, Penny Dreadful seems more like a prequel to a series I haven't seen yet.
ReplyDeleteRight, but in The Modern Prometheus the brain used was a from a medical professor that thought he was superior to Victor and was against victor's inclinations, so I think they were keeping that idea true to form, but it would be nice to learn who this victor pilfered from...
ReplyDeleteI worry about what they have planned for Dorian too, but I suspect like Victor, his back story of whom he sold his soul to will be revealed and that this someone is the interconnecting lynch pin of the story. Sometimes I wonder if he will double over as Dracula? (I haven't read many spoilers for this show, so I don't know if Dracula will be a separate character that has already been cast or not)
I think that's accurate....hopefully what will happen is that we will see those plots go beyond what we think we know, which I think is what you were getting at?
ReplyDeleteHopefully, as soon as all of these characters finish expounding on their lives and oh-so-slowly revealing their personal trademarks, we can move on to seeing these characters actually accomplishing things. Whether that will be individually or as a group, I don't know. Before that happens, a better balance between internal and external conflicts is badly needed.
ReplyDeleteIt would be good to know where the brain came from because, so far, The Creature's personality is very contradictory. Some clarification/detail would be helpful to clear things up.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the fact that Dorian lacks purpose is purposeful? I mean, that's kind of what he's about anyway right? He's always searching for something new and different going from one flight of fancy to another. So maybe that's how the character will operate on the show as well.
This makes me very happy, I was worried for a second since there hadn't been any news. And 10 episoes yesss
ReplyDeleteWell deserved. "Penny Dreadful" is one of the best new shows this year.
ReplyDeleteYa, they could just make him freelance character with flight for fancy, but I would think that because of the actual story from which he's based, either his knowledge and/or his "curse-maker" would also play a role for the character to not be completely pointless only used as a devise to continuously used to screw everything up--without substance behind it.
ReplyDeleteIn the book he literally sold his soul (in the form of a painting that reflects a lie) for knowledge and to have the upper hand on the aestheticism art movement (where one values lust, vein beauty, power) and he gets involved in circumstances...with murderous plots that becomes his own undoing...
The interesting thing about the vampire story in PD is how they meshed it with a potential "curse" from ancient Egypt....Bram Stoker also wrote this interesting story, The Jewel of the Seven Stars about an archaeologists revival of a Egyptian mummy of Queen Tera...and then I also find it interesting the way Penny Dreadful has this vampires looking so different from popular culture, when there's also Bram Stoker's Lair of the White Worm...
I was just thinking about the Showtime logo. lol
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of potential in the vampire aspect of Penny Dreadful but they're just dabbling so far. I eagerly await them fully diving into it. I suppose I could say the same for Dorian Gray's darker aspects as well.
ReplyDeleteGood job renewing this great series, but next time (ShowTime and David Nevins)..........................RENEW FASTER! Nobody, 4 NOW!!!
ReplyDeleteWonderful news, this show is really good. :)
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm so happy right now.
ReplyDeleteAWESOME!
ReplyDeleteYAY! I'm so happy! This show is really good. I was hoping for more episodes though. But ten is already good news.
ReplyDeleteYa! Definitely looking forward to seeing the vampire story unravel!
ReplyDeleteI love it as it is, 60 minutes not commercial interruption is not enough I love the fact this show is slow paced as the show is supposed to be, every actor and their characters perfectly cast, mt taste in tv never disappoints me now crossing fingers for Turn since I can tell Outlander will be a hit. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat news! My Sunday nights are awesome with both Penny Dreadful and Salem!
ReplyDelete